Been awhile

[wacmartin]

Hello fellas, it's been some time since I signed in, hope you didn't miss me too much. I honestly haven't been running my RC's much at all, even before winter hit. We have had a mild winter up here in southern Ontario, Canada too. I've also decided to sell them due to lack of use, except my Savage Flux, too much money invested in that one and I actually have some parts on the way for it as well.

I got back into video games, and have been playing them all winter. Funny story, a 70 year old client of mine got me interested in them again. I would go to his house and he would be playing Skyrim, so I went out and bought it for the 360. That was cutting it for a little while, then the one X came out right before Black Friday and I knew the one S would go on sale for Black Friday, and it did so I picked one up. So I'm addicted, but it's a healthy addiction, still get all my daily activities done and sit down and play at the end of the night. Right now I'm really into Borderlands: The Pre Sequel, but I do play The Hunter: Call of the Wild, Elder Scrolls online with Morrowind, Playerunknowns Battlegrounds, and Battlefront only the online portion couldn't get behind the story mode. I preordered Sea of Thieves, and I'm pretty excited for that one, it will be here March 20th.

Me and the wife got into a new hobby in the fall, it's something she's liked since she was a kid and something I'm surprised I enjoy a lot. Astronomy! I have really immersed in this, I've read a few books, bought star charts, a sky atlas, planisphere. One thing I've learned from RC is to enjoy the hobby you need the right tools for the job, and those have come in handy. I thought RC was expensive, astronomy is up there too. I don't do astrophotography, but here's some pictures of my telescope.

The was the day I brought it home and assembled it, sorry about the last picture the sun wasn't cooperating.

 

[olds97_lss]

And here, all I thought you had to do to look at the stars was just look up!

What's a telescope like that cost?

 

[wacmartin]

Actually the stars are so far away, and don't give off a lot of light that they don't look that much different through a telescope.
That exact model of telescope is on sale in the States right now for $355, you can definitely pick it up for under $400. Being in Canada where the Canadian dollar is terrible, I paid$ $530 after taxes. Like RC though there are additional items that should be bought, but are not necessary, like a collimating eyepiece (really helps when you need align the mirrors), and a moon filter (darkens the moon so it's more comfortable to view). That was an additional $50, they say not to buy additional eyepieces until you know you like it, and know what you want to view. It can get very expensive with eyepieces.

https://agenaastro.com/sky-watcher-8-traditional-dobsonian-telescope-s11610.html

 

[WoodiE]

Hey @wacmartin glad to see you buddy! I got myself a large telescope from an auction that needs some TLC. That's my project coming up as the kids like going out looking at the moon and stars as well and I know they'd love to see it through the telescope. But now I'm kinda tempted to buy something like you've got, looks real nice.

 

[HPIguy]

Nice setup!! I looked into getting into astrophotography at one point, but the initial cost and time needed for post processing the images ruled it out for me. And in reality, a modified camera body (if memory serves, they remove the IR filter) is needed if you're really getting into it hard core.

 

[wacmartin]

For kids to look through the eyepiece you're probably going to need a step stool. The eyepiece is about 3.5' off the ground in that photo, with supervision it can be good for kids.

For astrophotography you need a really good equitorial mount that tracks, has go-to capabilities, and can hold a good amount of weight as well. In the low end price range for just the mount you're looking at over a $1000, plus a lot more for additional accessories that are needed for quality pictures. That was just to much of an initial investment for me.

My telescope is a classic dobsonian mount, no go-to, or tracking capabilities, I wanted to learn the night sky before (also good for kids to learn as well) I went with a computerized telescope. The aperture (mirror size) is 8" so it collects a lot of light for deep sky viewings, dobsonian mounts are no frills mounts so it's the best value per aperture size you can go with. With that said there is computerized go-to dobsonian mounts available, they're still not good for astrophotography because of the focal length (essentially the size of the optical tube assembly).

I'm going to link an astronomy forum for you @WoodiE, I hope that's okay. It's very beginner friendly, they even have a beginner sub forum (where I still post my questions).

http://www.astronomyforum.net/activity.php

The website I linked to earlier with the actual telescope is an excellent store as well, I order my accessories from there and the shipping from California to Canada was faster then Amazon coming 3 hours down the highway. I would try a local telescope store if you have one nearby first, I had to drive 3 hours one way for mine, also they can't always get stuff I want so I have to order stateside sometimes. Amazon does have some good deals on eyepieces, if you know what you're looking for.