I'm a science teacher mainly teaching year 8-10 classes. I was always interested in astronomy and interested in this KISS principle. Our school had a sister school that is my school was a campus of the other. The other campus had an astronomer who was now a teacher. He had the school purchase a $10000 10 inch auto tracking cassergrain shmit scope. I borrowed it with the hope of doing some astronomy nights. Anyway I was learning to use it. It was massively heavy. Took me an hour or so to set up and get aligned accurately. When I did 3/4 or more of the catalogue wasn't visible to the eye. This was fine for the otenther teacher because he used it with a small set of senior students who did astrophotography but I wanted my kids to actually use the equipment. The controller alone was $1500 so I knew what it would be me finding an object that was visible like Saturn or Jupiter or omega centuries (globular cluster) and the telescope finding it. Then the kids just lining up one at a time. So I knew this would bore kids while they waited their turn. I also realised that I wouldn't trust them with the gear. I discovered the dob plans and built a 10 inch for myself to see if it would be viable for our students to use. It was simple to build cost only $600 (mostly the mirrors) was sturdy and what's more was easy to transport and much lighter. Two pieces. I collimated with a film strip holder with a hole drilled in it. Took 5-10 mins to set whup. I used a laser to sight on mine so easy to find things. And when I looked through it it was identical in quality and what I could see as the $10 000 scope. Now it probably wasn't but I couldn't tell neither could the kids but I could easy make out the gaps in Saturn's rings, see the shadows of Jupiter's moons cast on Jupiter and could see as many things with naked eye as I could with the expensive scope. What's more from a teaching point of view it was potent. So I convinced the school to fund me having my year 8 class build one. So one lesson a week we built. The kids did simple experiments to determine focal length. They measured out materials glued and screwed. It took 6 months 1 lesson a week but we built a beautiful useful telescope. So with mine we had two 10 inch dibs for astronomy nights. I made the kids use star chart software Cartes Du Ciel to plan the astronomy night. They would learn to find the objects and when their parents came to pick them up they would find the objects for their parents/siblings. The dob is so much better. Things I taught became apparent because you can teach Earth rotation but when a kid sees it moving in they eyepiece and has to adjust it it's a tool for learning then when looking at say Mars at 6pm but at 9 it's much higher it clicks. They kids actually developed a sense where things were. My students were also able to do so.e photography of the moon using a modified Web camera which we stacked. Honestly cheap and simple gives you more viewing in real time with less complexity for each dollar spent. Yes there are things you can do with an auto tracker like astrophotogtaphy. But you need masses of time smaller groups and lots of education. For fun and education nothing beats a big dob.
Great story. I feel the same sense and love dobsonian telescope. Now I have a DOB 6", but in the future I would like to buy 10" DOB. The Dob 10 is the best choice for me, because of it's size and weight. Now I have a great offer to buy a Schmidt Casegrenian 8 inches telescope with automatic eq5 and 6 eyepieces for only 900€. But I hesitate, the good price is not a reason for me to buy SC 8". Maybe another astronomer will buy this treasure. In Ukraine we have a small town Ternopil, and near the town is a school with 20" reflector. I recently found out this fact and now I wish to visit the school. In my opinion, galaxies will be looking great
I think that a equatorial platform for dob and binoviever are the essential items for watching planets. Equatorial platform is a simple cheap item, which gives you one hour of carefree observation
I have a 12” Apetura Dobsonian, and I have quite a few different eyepieces besides the ones that came with it… but you are right about buying more eyepieces than you need, cause I learned that I’m only using a few them the majority of the time. I bought my dobsonian because of your channel tho…after watching so many of your videos, I was hooked!
"Over collimating". Years ago I built a 12.5" truss Dob. First light, looked at Saturn, tack sharp perfect. Obviously I was pleased. About a month later, same location, same collimation, Saturn was fuzzy. Due to poor seeing. Glad this wasn't my first light, or I would have thought the mirror was crap. Second story, a few years later. Had built a 16" truss Dob from an old Meade cardboard tube Dob. Collimated it as well as I could using Barlowed laser technique. Looked at Trapezium in Orion. Four fuzzy stars. 20 feet away was a 12" Teeter's Dob with a premium mirror, so same time, same place, same seeing. Six tack sharp stars. Went back to mine, rechecked collimation, still four fuzzy stars. Just an average 90's era mass-produced mirror.
@DobsonianPower I listened to your advice and was patient with my eye piece choices. I got a TV 27mm Panoptic, TV 17.3mm Delos, TV 10mm Delos, and a TV 2x Barlow for my 8” 1200mm Dob.
@ Mertus definitely save for that TV eyepiece! I am doing the same. I did purchase a 14 mm 82 degree from explore scientific while I wait! It’s a very good EP! They run sales a few times a year too! I have 8 in Apertura DOB 🔭
3 eyepieces and 1 Barlow Lens, 2 of the eyepieces were in equipment with my telescope, they are a 10mm and a 20mm, while the other one is a 6mm, All of then are 1,25", the Barlow is 2x
I like your kiss principle video's for less experienced users like me. After years of procrastination, I bought a 12 inch Starfield Dobsonian. I had two wait until clear skies so I could use it, and weather just didn't want to cooperate. Finally got a clear night, and it took awhile for me to learn how to properly use the focuser. For practice I looked at the biggest nearest object the moon. It is very bright, but saw things on surface of moon I'd never seen before. However, since then clouds have made viewing a nonstarter. Some interesting astral events in theory were going to visible, but nope overcast sky's. The few clear nights are when I'm otherwise occupied. The only plus is that I'm learning with lens that came with my scope, so the only money I'm spending is on extra handles for my tube case, a heavy duty lens and accessory case, and a dolly to make moving entire unit safe and easy on any terrain. Most years it is a mix of clear sky's and overcast sky's. This year in my part of rural Alberta, Canada not so much. I've decided the sky gods hate me, but your channel shows me possibilities and enable hope to spring eternal.
Congrats for your 12" and even more important for your return to connect with the sky. I understand the frustration of having loads of bad weather or not having available time. But please hang on. Clouds are not there forever and if you can enjoy a single night of many, it will add you good feelings as you already know. Your budget choices are smart and you're on the right path towards a good relation with your Dob. That will bring you joy, sooner or later. :)
"equatorial tripod": I used to be NOT satisfied with it, so...it took at least two weeks to project and to build my (D.I.Y.) dobsonian mount: I was recently able to find some really nice celestial objects - especially nebulae and star clusters. It has been a very difficult process so far, but...worth it!
I own 5 eyepieces, but for 80% of my visual observation I use one with my 250mm f5 folding dobsonian: a meade 14mm UWA (82 degree). The next most used is my 25mm meade 60 degree FOV. after that, on special good seeing times, I use a meade 5.5mm UWA, and very occasionally a meade 32mm super plossl
My first real scope (the actual first was in a cheap mede science kit) is actually a refractor i made myself, its a weird beast but it is roughly 131mm aperture so it isnt weak by any means, it can do AP or visual, then i just got a orion observer 114 reflector because it came with a ok eq mount i could put my scope on, the observer is definitely easier than the 130 for visual but they are both optucally similar.
My eyepieces are a good general set of orthoscopic, Explore Scientific 62°: 32, 26, 14, 5.5mm. Also an old Meade 2x telenegative (Barlow). Covers the basics pretty well. Oh I forgot to mention, my telescope is an old Meade DS 10 Dobson mounted. Works great.
The eyepiece comments probably need another video. I have had some people tell me that the delite range ARE cheap eyepiece’s. But for me, upgrading from the GSO plossls that came with my dob to celestron excel lx was a game changer
Funny story. I bought a 6” newt and stuck with a svbony zoom for the time I had with it. It was miserable to start hop with it. I bought cheap eyepieces for it and the views were subpar. Fast forward to when I bought a used 12” dob and it changed everything. I ended up buying good eyepieces that costs more than my old newt each. They were the best purchase I did for the hobby because the viewing was just so much more pleasant and I was enjoying the skies abs all its wonders.
I tried astrophotography with my DSLR it works but it is really slow process that cost a lot of money and on the end you don't see anything with your eyes until you develop the picture. With tracking it can take up to couple of hours for each exposure. Now I use a spotting scope that I can also use during the day I don't see as much but I can see a lot more other details like passing satellites planes starts it is just pure joy.
I just bought an 8 inch Deep Space Hunter, from the early 2000's. It came with 5 eyepieces and a few other accessories. Set it up the first night and saw some nice images of Jupiter and moons.
Just watched your video! Wow I am already in the hobby about a year, but this video is very honest and through.you are very knowledgeable and down to earth! Love your Content, thank you 😊 ❤️. Leave a like everyone !!!!
I have a complete set of morpheus, a hyperion zoom and Barlow, 2 Televue barlows, numerous Lumicon filters and right now the only thing I have been using is my 294MC with a FR and CC. EAA is amazing.
20mm, 4mm and a 3x barlow that came with my bresser newton 150/750 pollux, and then I bought a (I think that the brand was kepler) eyepice 7 to 21mm and a 2,5x barlow (apocromathic and antireflexive)
I found a set of the svbony 66 or 68 degree work really nice and you can get 4 eyepieces for around 130 dollar. I also have some 20+ year old plossl eyepieces that are still good
Just got first scope, so the 10mm was unusable. I got an SV Bony wide field 15mm. Yes it is budget and so is the scope. I also got a 3X Barlow as that is all the magnification the scope will handle. NOW when I get 2" eyepieces, I will get better ones. I'm still just learning about routines and loading up to go use my scope. Where things are at, and what other accessories I need. So blowing money to get to good of an eyepiece is low on the list. Thanks for your video's I have watched many before my purchase and did better because of you.
I'm in the process of implementing a stepper motor focusing mechanism that will compensate for temperature differences. My only problem is that I haven't pulled the trigger for an EQ mount. I want so much to take photos of the ISS or track an object for multiple hours / days
Great tips ! Just enjoy the telescope is a good start instead of jumping in for the next expensive stuff. I've just got the original kelner 25, 10 mm eyepieces and I love them
I have a 3,5mm, 7, 8, 10, 32 and 38 mm Eyepiece. What I realy use is the 32 SWAN from Omegon and the 8 mm from Televue with a 200mm skywatcher explorer. For real I only need the 8mm...
@-SpaceFrog- not premium but look good enough. I like GSO optics and they are GSO. I didn't test them though. This one is my preferred for years amzn.to/4aMdwQA?AMZN%F0%9F%8C%8DEXPLORE%20SCIENTIFIC%209mm%20100%C2%BA%202%22%20EYEPIECE&
5:25 "How many eyepieces do you have?" I have 4 eyepieces. A 2" 30mm, 1.25" 20mm, 1.25" 10mm and a 1.25" 9mm. The 10mm and the 20mm came with a previous telescope that my parents had bought me (a 4" f/4 reflector), and the 2" 30mm and the 1.25" 9mm came with my Apertura AD12 when I bought it a few weeks ago. Instead of buying more eyepieces (although I did initially look at some) I bought 3 Barlow lenses (a 2" 4x, 2" 2x and a 1.25" 2x) so that I could get a good spread of magnifications from the telescopes and the eyepieces that I already had.
One of the things I found was the mirror. No matter how much you try and keep dust out, over time dust will accumulate on the mirror. I took mine out and it was bad. After cleaning it, what a difference it made.
I don't have a dobsonian, but recently I bought a Celestron Nexstar Evolution 6 with upgraded diagonal (2' ) and 3 eyepieces from Baader Hyperion (10 , 17 and 24 mm) because I wear glasses. I don't see that 10 eyepieces are being usefull for optical observation. Maybe in the future I'll get a 5 mm. ;-)
I am from india sir plz tell me some basic point for bigner and suggest me some of your video link which help me to collimat my telescope and how to see object from my telescope how to use eye pieces
Nice video, very good for beginners! However, since You asked about eyepieces I am using Hyperion 13mm with both fine tuning rings plus Televue Barlow 2'' + Omegon 56mm 2'', than there's some other like GSO SPL 32mm 1,25'' + GSO Barlow 3x 1,25'' and GSO Barlow 2x 2''! Other than that, You do a great job since Your videos are informative and simple to follow!!! Just keep up the good work!!
Well presented. I'm a beginner. I want amazing images. I got amazing views through a cheap, used Orion4.5" first scope, and even good photos of the moon with a cellphone simply handheld on the eyepiece. It appears that stacked photo images are clearer and cleaner than actual live viewing. I'm deciding on an 8" tube dobsonian or 10" truss dob for similar money. I guess I'll figure it out. Your other video on imaging with 8 and 12 inch dobs makes me want to go with the lighter, smaller, less costly 8".
I don't know the prices now. Check the online stores like Astro Art, my partner www.astroart-store.com/category/29/dobsonians?per_page=40&sort=price_asc&per_page=40&
forget cheap eyepieces , buy 2 or 3 GREAT highdollar ones, trust me with optics you really get what you pay for. you really only need a good low power 27-38mm a good mid 17-25mm and a good high 5mm-13/15mm and add in a good barlow and you got 6 eyepieces for the cost of 3.
Not sure if RU-vid has some issue or where more detailed posts seems to be disappearing... But assuming there's only one Deluxe package of GSO it's far better equipped and better in most design details. Even Skywyatcher's strong point for transport, Flextube, can be downside by adding more weight to carry, if you're just going to use telescope from home. Of course Synscan upgradability would be big plus for Skywatcher, if you're not interested on learning the sky/star hopping... But that adds even more weight and you could get manual 10" Dobsons for less total weight.
Hi. Is there a binocular eye piece out there that you would recommend? I would like to view thru my telescope with both eyes. I have the Orion 10in dobsonian telescope. Thank you.
Hello, what can you tell me about this telescope Dobson Teleskop N 406/1829 Truss DOB About what I can see with it... can you make a video how I could use it at first? Thank you.
Let's see....How many eyepieces? I have a 254mm diameter dobsonian telescope,1200mm focal length f/4.7. Eyepieces in order from largest to smallest: 40mm, 32mm, 23mm, 19mm, 10.5mm, 5mm. Plus a 2X Barlow and a 3X Barlow.
Random blind dart throwing to wall doesn't produce good eyepiece kit: 1: Too low magnifications waste light. 2: There's little/no use for having tight magnification steps in low magnification end. 3. While high magnification end needs tight steps between focal length. 4. Relying on Barlows for going up/down of those magnification steps just makes changing magnification complex. And you get only couple good steps from those two Barlows. (Barlows really make sense only with few eyepieces and/or zoom) Unless you have extremely exceptional owl eyes that 40mm eyepiece basically makes your telescope act as 200mm one: 8.5mm exit pupil is simply too big for all light to fit into eye's pupil and some light is wasted. (Exit pupil = Eyepiece focal length / Telescope focal ratio) Also 32mm likely pushes it if you're over 35 years and especially if you have light pollution around preventing pupil dilation. Around 30mm wide AFOV eyepiece should have been the anchoring point for that end. Second step could be little below 20mm. Third step could be little above 10mm. Fourth eyepiece around 7-8mm. And final eyepiece around 5mm. Such five piece kit would go long way in all around observing and higher magnifications than that need really good seeing. And for manual telescope wider AFOV eyepieces are really useful for making it easier to find target and keep it in view. > Better/more quality, not quantity.
Does anyone know of a good kit to motorize an 8" dobsonian? I can't seem to find one. I have the skill to easily get each axis moving by stepper motors...just totally clueless on the software, code, drivers, etc needed to make those controlled by astro gear...so would really love to find a kit with all that included.
there was someone on our discord server that bought an inexpensive kit to create a go-to but i can't remember. If you want join us because he's there and you may ask there. You may help each other.
if you do not spend the timeunder the sky and are not prepared o learn, usually by making mistakes, all you are doing is spending money on things that are never used - you just cannot buy experience.......
Great video. Thank you very much from Ukraine. Now I have a DOB 6" and 5 eyepieces. Tomorrow, if i don't die from а russian missle, I will receive two eyepieces of good quality. There are Meade UWA 5000 Series 14 mm and Baader planetarium Hyperion aspheric 31mm. I know that Baader is not the best choice, but I found it for a low price. The war in Ukraine is a terrible act of hatred of our neighbors, but now Ukrainian astronomers have one scary advantage - sky without light pollution
Please, put pressure on your government (Zelensky) to negotiate with the Federation of Russia to end this madness. Ukraine can't beat Russia... this is impossible ! Even if it was possible with the direct help of NATO soldiers, this would mean a world nuclear war. If your country wants to still exist for the future, forget about Russian Donbass and Crimea. From the beginning (2014), Ukraine is a proxy war between USA (NATO) and Russia. USA will fight Russia to the last ukrainien to keep their hegemonic power. They do not care about the Ukrainien people, as they do not care about Palestinians. As usual, only power and big money to the US military industry (corruption). This is good that you take time to do some observations. Please, stay safe and good luck to you !
