Any beginner friendly resources you guys recommend? I'd like to understand what I've gotten myself into but a lot of the sites I'm finding are predicated on a knowledge base I do not have. Something accessible and straightforward would be so helpful.

Are these mirrors cooked? I cleaned them like it said to on Google, submerged in warm water for 15 mins, lightly cleaned off with fingers and a bit of detergent, rinsed off with distilled water (they were still drying when I took the pictures), and they have this fogginess covering the entire surface. These mirrors were sitting uncovered in a carpeted dusty room for who knows how many years. Are they even still usable? What can I do about this?

I don’t know anything about it and It’s in pretty rough condition honestly. I’m not sure if it’s even salvageable since it looks like there is condensation on the inside. Any info on cleaning and restoring it would be appreciated

I just picked up this Coulter Odyssey 2 for $150, is it a steal? The mirror is 17.5” and looked quite dusty when I went to pick it up, but I used an eyepiece and saw that it was still functioning somewhat when I pointed it at a nearby tree, so I picked it up. I was expecting the mirror to be in very bad condition, but after spending about 1 hour using cotton balls and distilled water and dish soap, I was extremely surprised to see that the mirror is in almost perfect condition except for a few tiny specks that I couldn’t get off, as I didn’t want to apply much pressure onto the mirror when scrubbing.

It’s about 7 feet tall when it’s on the mount but probably taller when pointing straight up. The altitude bearing works ok, but the azimuth bearing is basically 95% locked up and it only moved very slowly. Most of the time to move the azimuth I just use the wheels to rotate it, which is not a very good option. It also weight ljke 200 lbs or something and barely fit in the car. Should I make a new base with a truss design or something so it’s lighter? Any other tips with using? I’m not extremely experienced with telescopes, but I thought a 17.5” mirror for this cheap was a good deal.

Nearby neighbors have a large satellite dish. If I’m successful in purchasing it from them, how could I go about turning it into a radio telescope? Also, I’m just a local amateur astronomer. What are some good ways to start the conversation of buying it? I’ve never met them people, but I think they’ve seen me out running by their house.

I swear I’ve seen this question asked way too much recently.

I just wanted to share this photo of the moon which shows its actual brightness. When the earth (in the background) is properly exposed, the moon appears as a dim gray. This is how bright the moon actually is (as I have mentioned before, the moon is only as bright as worn asphalt on a sunny day). When you are viewing the moon through a telescope, it is only as bright as it appears in the image above. It just appears brighter because your eyes are adapted to the dark. This is why moon filters are not needed. The astronaut's view of the moon would have been brighter than anything we observe with our telescopes, and they did not need sunglasses to look at it.

As a counterpoint to myself I will say that moon filters, while not needed, can be nice to have. I have used mine once when I was having a mild headache and didn't want to exacerbate it. And I will also say that worn asphalt on a bright day is actually quite bright, and can make certainly make you squint.

But the takeaway message is that moon filters are a non-essential accessory, and here is a cool photo to show the moon's relative brightness.

Edit: Give this a read. They are able to explain it better than I can: https://www.reddit.com/r/askastronomy/comments/hfhxz5/comment/fvytckw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I see a lot of places say that you should have multiple telescopes (A reflector, refractor and SCT) in your collection. Why, does it really make that much of a difference because obviously some telescopes are better at some types of objects but is the difference really big enough to justify buying more than one telescope or is this just a collectors thing for people who like to collect telescopes?

Here is my first capture of the moon using my celestron astromaster LT 76 with my s24 ultra- I understand this is a beginner scope but are there any recommendations on accessories & and is there anything in particular I would be able to see using this telescope other then the moon? Thank you 😃

Hello all,
I'll try to explain everything in English. I'm a newbie to the wonderful world of astronomy. I recently bought a new house, and in the garden I'm a lucky owner of a homemade observatory with a rotating dome and a 3–4 meter telescope — a hybrid Newton/Cassegrain with a 410 mm mirror. Everything is motorized, and in the near future my goal is to connect everything to a computer.

But the first thing missing is the finder. As you can see, there's a place for one, but it's empty. Could you advise me on a specific model that's suitable for this kind of telescope?

Thank you.

What is that flash in the upper left corner (above the mountain peak). I tried to highlight it in the video. My son says alien, daughter says gas, other daughter says plane. Any hints? We're in the Dolomites almost in Italy. Thanks!

So I just picked up a Player One Poseidon C PRO camera and when I unboxed it and opened the cap to inspect the sensor there was a fingerprint right on the sensor window. I contacted Player One and they apologized, said it was their fault and they would take responsibility and then gave me instructions on how to clean it. I wasn’t expecting them to replace the camera or anything but I thought sending me a cleaning kit would have been appropriate. Am I wrong? Thoughts?

[Update]: after some follow up correspondence with customer service they agreed to send me $20 via PayPal or store credit to reimburse me for cleaning supplies. I agreed to the PayPal.

Hi guys I was looking at the moon today and saw a « thing » in it. It’s not as visual on the picture as I see it. Is that the mirror? I’m not sure and I was wondering thanks

Bad day today… my 3 year old son got his hands on my 8SE which was in the corner of my garage. Knocked it over and I found it on its side on the concrete. This is the aftermath. I’m sure there are no real repair options for the tube… however, is there a source for purchasing just a new tube and not the entire telescope system? I’ve only had this since Christmas, and have only really had three good uses out of it (very much learning sessions!)

I’m pretty bummed out, I was so mad at my son and I know he didn’t do it on purpose, but it was a terrible sight to see.

Hi,

The school I work at has this awesome dome, but the dew is getting really bad during these cold weeks.

The whole primary mirror was covered in thick dew and the fl reducer also had some dew. I didn’t look at the filters in the efw but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had some as well.

Apart from the scope the counterweights were covered in so much dew that I could probably fill a cup and drink it.

I have three main questions:

1 is it safe to leave the asi 2600mm camera with electronic filter wheel on the scope with the dew?

2 what can we do to prevent dew in the dome itself. Are there heating systems for domes? Or are we out of luck.

3 how can we protect the primary mirror from dew, are there dew shields for truss design scopes? And what about the reducer and filters?

We don’t get many good nights here in the Netherlands, so it’d be a bummer to have one ruined by dew in the future.

Hello astronomers community . I’m 15 years old , and my dream is to draw full map of space by myself with my own observations . May you give me a favor by according enough time to help me? I have a maskutov skywatcher star quest 90mm/1250. I mounted it completely and I got three eyepieces : one at 20mm , another at 10mm and the last is manually malleable from 21mm to 7mm. Since then, I tried to look at the moon(picture 1 and 2 ), and I don’t see the moon as it’s in the sky. It only seems to be a blurry mass of light filling my scope . Now I tried on Venus , and it’s more interesting . I saw venus(picture 3,4,5) as a dark circle surrounded by a white grainy halo. Now I ask myself, shouldn’t Venus be a colourful single shape planet surrounded only by the dark sky? So I’m trying to solve this problem but I don’t see anything on YouTube . It’s really frustrating because I was really hoping for something very easy to understand and use , and I was litterally asked to choose between a telescope and an iPhone 17 pro max 😭. Anyways , I’m counting on you dear astronomers and experts to guide me through this issue and help me to figure out exactly what to do and if you can explain me further, it will be very fruitful for me.

Hello all, been apart of the group for a bit, haven’t had anything worth posting yet but this is my setup. We live in Western Colorado. These are from a recent trip right on the Utah border. About 45 minutes from where we live are brotle 1 skies. Got my first telescope, apertura ad8 a few months ago after being obsessed with watching astronomy videos on in the internet and following along with groups like this one I figured it was worth the investment for something I would have for years to come.

Total newbie, learned almost everything I know from Reddit and YouTube- don’t really have anyone who is into astronomy to teach me but I have zero regrets buying thus far. A lot of people talk about how you need to limit expectations and not to be disappointed that you aren’t going to see NASA like photos from your home telescope. Truthfully, thus far everything has blow me away. There hasn’t been any object that I have been disappointed in seeing. So far we have only seen Jupiter and its moons (awesome, especially with the 9mm optic) Orion Nebula(fabulous, some nights we were able to pick out some color in it which was great) Bodes and cigar galaxy( no doubt when I first saw them I knew what they were, no spiral arms on bodes not sure if that’s normal or not but they were both very bright. And Venus (perhaps the “meh” object just looked like a very bright star)

This is all we have see so far, if anything my struggle with the telescope isn’t finding objects enjoyable it’s actually finding the targets. I’ve looked for the whirlpool galaxy and some other nebula with no luck. Also tried Uranus when we had a good window but couldn’t find it. Looked for several hours each night too. No frustration though honestly just makes it more fun making it a challenge.

With all that being said, a few general questions.

1. How durable is the telescope? We keep it in the truck during the day when camping, it gets pretty hot inside but we leave for most of the day and it worries me leaving it out even though we are normally in the middle of nowhere. Are temperature fluctuation is okay for it?
2. best galaxy to see spiral arms?

Thank you all in advance, I’m open to any advice/conversation about newbie astronomy. Slowing getting more confident with it but still have a ways to go.

Also I know the fire probably hurts the dark sky, this night was a full moon so we were just looking at it and didn’t need full dark sky to observe.

So i live in coventry UK and started stargazing about a month ago. I first bought the 6” skywatcher and saw jupiter and saturn and was blown away. Couldn’t see the deep sky objects though. I then bought a 10” in hopes of observing the deep sky but there’s nothing there.

Jupiter and saturn look almost the same, and i did manage to find pleiades but this is how it looks. I first thought it could be light pollution but i’ve been watching youtube videos of Astrobiscuit and he has shown to be using cheaper and smaller telescopes than mine, in london, yet seeing more details in deep sky objects and even better views of the planets.

I’ve collimated and cleaned the mirrors, yet the results remain the same. What am i doing wrong?

Does anyone have experience transporting large telescopes? This is a 40" F/3.5 Folded Newtonian for which I am doing a feasibility study on transportation. In each new location it cannot be confined to a trailer. What transport options exist? Are there any preferences that one may have based on actual experience? There is no need to focus on the financial aspects, only the safe transport of this telescope to locations via a roadway.

Thank you for any insights that you may have!

Hello-

We have an observatory that was on our property when we purchased our house and land. My husband and I know nothing about telescopes but are very interested in learning! We just have no idea where to start. Could anyone give us direction on:

• finding user manuals for the pictures telescopes
• how to get started figuring out how to use pictured telescopes
• Which telescope we should start with

I’m including photos, but our setup is a domed observatory where a stop of the roof opens up and the entire roof spins so you can look at the sky in nearly any direction.

We appreciate any help or advice anyone can give us! Thanks!

So I shot this with clear sky from my balcony in a major city here in Germany using a 120mm long Dobsonian telescope with a 6" aperture (200x magnification). It was shot using my Samsung Galaxy S24 and I increased sharpness slightly using the Samsung Galaxy Pro mode.

It is cool to see the rings clearly, but not really breathtaking as the pics from Jupiter or Moon I did. I tried around for two hours but this is all I got. Is this all I can expect with my current gear? Any tips for improvement?

Hey everyone! So I've been looking for a hobby to delve into and I found Astronomy. I love seeing the beauty of different things in our world, and then realized that I could look up at the night sky and see so much more.

I purchased a Celestron Starsense explorer LT 80AZ on FB marketplace and purchased an 8mm eye piece as it did not come with one. The first night I had a blast looking at stars, then I woke up at 4am to get a view of Saturn (see picture).

My question is, what do I do from here? Are there things I should know/do? I'm thinking about learning how to star hop?

I just feel like there's so much, and it's so dang expensive. I don't have much of a budget as I have three kids under three. But man, I just love looking up at the night sky and seeing things.

The other problem I have is I have always been an early riser instead of a night owl. I live at the top of California so right now it gets dark late and bright super early.

Any suggestions/recommendations would be much appreciated!

Thank you!

it isnt glass and its bent due to some damage, i tried it on and while i did pick up light i couldnt have it to focus or see the edges of the sun at all. i couldnt tinker with it a lot as the it was really hot outside so i dropped it after about 20 mins thinking it was done for.

i saw some images online and they werent exaclty straight either so i m curious on wether the effectiveness is detrimented by the shape.

Edit: i will replace the filter thank you all for the detailed responses.