The right equipment for visual deep sky observations 

Ah yes, my favorite night sky object, plants.

​@@maxil8988I too study plants at night with my 8" telescope

@Rick Knight Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Regarding the telescope upgrade I believe that there won't be a big difference between a 10" and 12" dob. An 8" sc would be more versatile albeit with a smaller aperture. I'm currently also thinking about switching from my 12" dob to a 7" Mak or 8" SC with goto and an equatorial mount. They would be much easier to transport. Seeing bortle 1 skies would be amazing. I would like that very much as well.

@@BogdanDamian I live very close to Bortle 2 (30 miles) and Bortle 1 isn't much further, but it is hard to tell the difference. I find my nearby Bortle 4-3 is easier to find things as 1 to 2 Bortle can be overwhelming if the DSOs you're looking for are in front of the Milky Way and its Halo. It is just, "Oh Wow! Where is Sagittarius' Teapot start and end?"😆 Try, I had my mirrors refigured to near perfection and aluminized to 97%. It is a C6-N Newtonian and having near perfect mirrors is a big big difference, "better than my 8" according to several guys in my Astro club. Warning! You must have decent mediocre mirrors to do this to start. My mirror only had a small anomaly and they only charged me $128 to start, but it can cost more than double that.

@Mountain Fisher This sounds really amazing! Regarding the mirrors, mine are in too good of a condition right now (only 1.5 years old) but when the time comes I am going to refigure them as well. Clear skies!

@Andrew Pattie I totally agree with what you have written 👍

@Raul Munoz Hi and thank you! For deep sky observations I use the 24mm Panoptic from Tele Vue and the 32mm SWAN from Omegon. I currently don't feel the need to have a 3rd one.

@namewitheld I believe the 21mm Ethos will be an excellent fit for your 12" dob. The 2x Big Barlow should also work well together with the Ethos. It's parfocal and it will also increase the eye relief a bit, which is a good thing. There is a slim chance that you won't be able to reach focus when using the Barlow together with the Ethos, but I don't believe that this will be the case with the standard focuser on your telescope. But if this ends up being a problem anyway, then a solution would be to go for a 2x Powermate instead of the 2x Big Barlow.

@@BogdanDamian Thanks very much. It's a major purchase and I'm glad to have your opinion. Love the company content as usual.

@yapgideon I suggest you download an app like stellarium to have a better overview of what your telescope roughly is pointing at. At first try locating a very bright sky with the finderscope, center it and then using a long focal length eyepiece (>25mm), try and see if you can find that star. If not you need to align the finderscope with the telescope. Once this is done the object you are looking for should appear in the eyepiece's field of view as well. If you have a more specific question, just let me know. Clear skies!

@Enrico Pascucci Hi! I'm glad that you find my videos helpful. Your Explore Scientific collection looks very good so far. These eyepieces are excellent and will definitely offer you amazing views for many years. I don't think they will limit you in any way as they can hold their own against premium eyepieces like Tele Vue and Pentax both for planetary and deep sky observations. The telescope is good as well. Maybe if you are to get into deep sky more seriously down the road you could think about upgrading it to something with a larger aperture, but don't think about that right now. Just enjoy the night sky with your nice setup 🙂

Thanks, Bogdan. I had created the setup watching videos and taking info in Internet but, being new to astronomy, I feared I had gone through some wrong choices. Now you confirm they were right decisions for me. Effectively the first views I've had (the details of the moon, M42..) were really rewarding.

Wise choice! You've spent the money you saved by choosing a smaller telescope on some really decent eyepieces which is absulutely necessary at f/5. Keep in mind: the tabletop design demands a really stable chair or table for best experience (check topics on DIY tripods made for this purpose on forums like cloudynights or stargazerslounge). And there are two very cheap and simple, but really important DIY mods: one for stabilizing the focuser and a light shroud because of the truss-tube design. There are several videos on RU-vid on this topic so check them. Experienced people on forums say, that aperture will give one at least a decade of observing.

I meant DIY collapsable tripod chairs, not tripod mounts, sorry.

@@user-hn1gw1gt7d thanks for the feedback and the advice.

jonathanpineda2774 The 10" quattro is definitely good for astrophotography, but if taking pictures is your main goal, then I would recommend a good doublet refractor instead. Something like the evostar 100ed from Skywatcher.

​@@BogdanDamianhe wants a visual dso scope

The Quattro 250p would be a good choice, with a coma corrector and good eyepieces, it is pretty killer. It is at the top end of the mount capacity, but at the 100x and lower powers typically used for dsos it is not as critical as it would be if you were trying to view planets at 300-400x. Note that visual at f4 is a bit of a shock if you put budget, or even just any classic design widefield eyepieces in the focuser, as the outer 50% of the view will be astigmatic, the coma itself will be less of an issue than the astigmatism, but they add up to make it even worse. The eyepieces are even more important than the coma corrector, so if you are going with 68-70 degree eyepieces, you need panoptics, or their meade series5000 SWA (no longer available new) clones or their rebranded explore scientific 68deg versions (same optics). The APM UFF series is also reported to be good. For 82deg, the nagler is the benchmark, but the older meade series 4000 and 5000 UWA, and celestron axiom LX are a good substitute in most focal lengths. These are also the original JOC eyepieces that later became the es82, but later on ES raised the prices after cutting supply from celestron and meade. The focal lengths in particular to avoid are the 14mm, and the 30mm. The 30mm is not as bad at the edges as the 14mm, but still no where near as good as 31mm nagler. The bigger issue is 30mm has an exit pupil larger than 7mm in an f4 scope, and a 28mm is right at 7mm. Something more moderate like a 24mm, or better yet a 20mm 100deg, is a more useable exit pupils. Note that the 23mm axiom lx is the same as the 24mm uwa/es82, they just call it a 23mm because the original axiom version had a 23mm. Also Note that the current luminos series, which looks the same, is of an inferior quality and that will be very apparent at f4. Another series which is excellent started life as the William optics UWAN, available in 4mm 7mm 16mm and 28mm. This is currently available as the meade PWA, and other lower cost versions are available from astrotech, apm and others. On the used market, there is also the orion megaview version, which I ended up with for my 28mm to replace my stolen 31mm nagler. The 28mm UWAN type is actually the best 82 degree in that focal length, the one that comes closest to the 26 and 31mm naglers in performance. And the 24/23mm JOC made 82s are up there as well, the best of the 2" 82s in that line. I had the 23mm axiom XL and it actually had better edges than the 22mm type 4 nagler, but that is the nagler with the weakest edge, requiring f5 as well as a paracorr to be sharp to the edge. As for the big 20/21 100 degree eyepieces, avoid the ES100 and go for the xwa/hdc offerings from APM/lunt/stellarvue/WO etc, as those perform.95% as well as the ethos for 1/3 the price. The es100 is great at 14mm but the 20 is lacking at the edges, despite its price being almost as much as the ethos, when it used to be a $300-400 eyepiece depending on the sales, back in the day, 2011-2013 era. Then the prices started to climb. For higher powers, the UWAN/pwa are probably pretty good (I only have looked through the 28 though), and the joc 8.8, 6.7 and 4.7 are pretty good. If you can find a used meade 5.5uwa, that one is the best out there other than type 6 nagler, which it pretty much performs as well as for 1/3 the price, but it has been discontinued and has to be found used. It was from another manufacturer that meade used for a short period after JOC cut everyone off. They had an 8.8 and 20mm as well, but I can't remember what other focal lengths if any there were, but it wasn't a lot. Any meade 8.8uwa, from the original series 4000, to both versions of the series 5000, is going to be a good eyepiece. When my gear was stolen, I replaced my 5.5 with the 4.7mm series5000, which is decent enough to keep me happy when I want high powers. The ES82 version is the sane, though mine surely has an older generation of coatings, being around 20 years old from when they first came out, judging from the condition mine is in, but it didn't cost me much due to that. But if you have the money, you can't go wrong with type 6 naglers for your higher powers, and the 20mm XWA/HDC and 28 UWAN for your low powers, and/or any JOC 23/24mm 82deg. Or 21 ethos and 31 nagler if you can afford it , or better yet, a used 26mm nagler if you can find one used, since it makes more sense than the 31 at f4, exit pupil wise. Or if you have $999 to spend, the 25mm ES100, which is the widest possible field in a 2" eyepiece, that nobody else makes in that focal length, so they can keep the price high. They also make a 3" 30mm that used to be $999 now $1099. They also have a 120 degree 9mm eyepiece, in the same price range, but most people can't even see the whole field.at once. I myself top out at around 100degress. Having totally gotten used to 82-84 degree eyepieces over the years.

@@k.h.1587 I ended up going with the TS Optics UNC 10” f/4. It has been great on my AZ-EQ6 so far! It’s $2000 plus the $1000 to get it shipped here, but it is just worth having the carbon fiber tube.

@@jonathanpineda2774 at that price it better have premium optics, and not just be a fancy dressed gso or synta or other Chinese mirror

@Jonathan Avesar The barrel size, isn't really directly responsible for the image quality of an eyepiece. It's more of a consequence of how wide the field stop of the eyepiece needs to be. For example if an eyepiece has a long focal length and a wide AFOV, then the diameter needs to be big and such an eyepiece will come with a 2" barrel size. A 24mm eyepiece with a 68° AFOV can still have a barrel size of 1.25" and still utilize the full beam of light coming out of the telescope. That same eyepiece with an 82° AFOV will need a 2" barrel size in order to utilize all of the light delivery by the telescope. Hope this helps.

@@BogdanDamian yes, I understand! This video was super helpful, thank you!!

@Carlos Nascimento Olá, as três marcas oferecem o mesmo nível de qualidade. As diferenças estão nos acessórios que são entregues com os telescópios. Portanto, escolha um que esteja disponível na sua região e talvez consiga obter um desconto. Tenha em mente que a Omegon e a GSO utilizam a mesma óptica que ambas são fabricadas na mesma fábrica. Cada uma das três empresas oferece versões especiais dos seus telescópios Dobsonian. Posso recomendar a série ProDob da Omegon ou a série Deluxe da GSO. Ambas têm muitos acessórios incluídos. Espero que a minha tradução seja suficientemente boa.

@@BogdanDamian muito obrigado . otima tradução

@@BogdanDamian mais uma vez obrigado. já fiz a encomenda do ProDob da Omegon pela astroshop.

@Carlos Nascimento Isso é óptimo! Digam-me como gostam.

Olá , já fiz a encomenda, chega na terça feira o Omegon Telescópio Dobson ProDob N 254/1250 DOB II.

@fredaw61 It depends a bit on what you like to observe. A larger aperture will improve the views of fainter point sources of light like stars no matter the light pollution. It will simply be able to show you more stars. Extended objects such as DSOs will not benefit as much from a larger aperture. The best way by far to improve DSO observations is to take the telescope to a darker sky area. An 8" dob will show more details under Bortle 3-4 than a 12" under Bortle 6.

@@BogdanDamian I like observing bright Nebula and Galaxies the most. Next would be planets. What then would be best suited for my home viewing. I don’t see me going to darker skies and hour and a half to two hours away. I also have been looking at a 6” SC with a 1500mm focal length for mostly planets and the moon.

@fredaw61 In this case I would probably stick to the 8" dob. I know that this probably isn't the answer you are looking for, but for Bortle 6 you really get diminishing returns from going with a larger 12" aperture. Sure it will improve the views a bit, but I believe it will only be like 20%-30% and not 100% better what the price might suggest. And on top comes the increased difficulty of storing and moving a 12" dob. I own one and every time is a bit of a struggle to get it set up outside. In my opinion a 6" SC won't necessarily offer better views compared to the 8" dob. It's still a reflector with a smaller aperture. An SC would make sense if you are considering astrophotography as well. The only option in terms of telescopes that might be worth it, is a good 5" or 6" refractor, like the 120/1000 or 150/1200 EvoStar from Skywatcher. It will definitely improve your views of the planets/moon while DSOs won't necessarily loose detail compared to the 8" dob. Alternatively you could invest in better eyepieces or accessories like filters. This can also help when observing under light polluted skies.

@@BogdanDamian I know it won’t help pull in the faint objects because of the light pollution. What I was hoping for was just some more detail and maybe a little color in what I can already see. I do plan on getting some light pollution filter like an O lll I believe and maybe a variable polarization filter. I kind of remember seeing more detail out of my 10” SkyQuest years ago. That was my other option.

@@BogdanDamian okay, I have come to a compromise, or conclusion. I think what I will do is step up to a Celestron StarSense 10” and forget about the other two. If I bought the 12” I would need a cart and have to store it in the garage. Something I am not comfortable with because of the car exhaust and extreme temperatures in the summer. Also I would need to have a StarSense mount made for it. Sorry, but I love the StarSense. I will skip the SC like you said. I am not doing astrophotography. The 10” will give me a little more detail and not pulling in as much light pollution like the 12”. And if I can get to a dark sky sight I won’t be disappointed that I only had the 8”. I may sell the 80mm refractor, but still hang onto the 8”, or even let that go. The plus also is I could manage moving the 10” with out much more difficulty. One wrong move with the 12” and I fear my back would go out. I do have a dislocated vertebrae at L4-L5.

You can see Andromeda Galaxy and Orion Nebula with naked eye... You just won't see much details or size with low light gathering power of eye and low magnification. And 76mm isn't that great either. Its light gathering ability is basically at level of 7x50 binoculars.

@Iornaz1975 In general în Europe the more mountainous the landscape the fewer the towns and cities are. The south part of Germany where the Alps begin also offers some nice places with low light pollution.

@kevingumfory Hi Kevin! Putting an EAA rig together isn't necessarily straight forward. There are a few key aspects to keep in mind, but since you like reflectors, I would recommend the 8" reflector on the 200/1000 PDS Explorer on the EQ5 Pro mount from Skywatcher. It would be a very good start, especially if you want to focus more on imaging. Alternatively, if you want a bigger telescope like a dob, then the go to enabled flextube series also from Skywatcher would be a good option as well. If you can't get your hands on Skywatcher dobs then check out the go-to skyquest xt series from Orion. As for the camera, look at the ZWO ASI 183 MC Pro Color for example. It works very well with Sharpcap which you can install on your laptop. I would also recommend to get a rechargeable external power supply to be able to power everything up. Hope this helps.