The Amateur Astronomy thread

Not the same brand, but this is more or less similar:

Orion StarBlast 4.5 Astro Dobsonian Telescope - R2,945.00 : Eridanus Optics CC, Affordable telescopes available in South Africa

Eridanus Optics CC Orion StarBlast 4.5 Astro Dobsonian Telescope -
eridanusoptics.com

As the website suggests, get in contact with the owner (Andrie IIRC) to confirm stock before ordering, due to pandemic shortages and bla bla.

Also give telescopeshop.co.za a look, Neil has always been very helpful in my experience.

I have the equatorially mounted version of this, it's very good. Can recommend for the beginner.
 
Anyone that does teleacope repairs in Gauteng ?

Preferably in Centurion or Pretoria but if there's nothing near me then I will have to drive out
 
Hmmm. Small plastic things like that probably won't be trivial to repair.

I think I've mentioned Eridanus Optics and Telescopeshop.co.za before in the thread, try reaching out to them. If anyone has spares for that sort of thing it'll be them.

Otherwise, there's an Amateur Telescope Making Class that works in central Jo'burg somewhere. The Pretoria branch of ASSA is full of guys that go there regularly. They're very handy and if there's no commercial solution, they'll be able to help you macguyver something.
 
I'm looking at getting into astrophotography this year and was wondering if one had to choose between :

Celestron Omni XLT 127 5" Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope

or

Celestron Omni XLT 150 6" Newtonian Telescope

Obviously, I'd need to get the drive motors and such or from Eridanus optics which others are good options, in the 10-25K region, taking into account my primary interests are more deep sky, not really planetary.
 
semaphore said:
I'm looking at getting into astrophotography this year and was wondering if one had to choose between :

Celestron Omni XLT 127 5" Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope

or

Celestron Omni XLT 150 6" Newtonian Telescope

Obviously, I'd need to get the drive motors and such or from Eridanus optics which others are good options, in the 10-25K region, taking into account my primary interests are more deep sky, not really planetary.
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The general rule with astrophotography is that your images are more limited by your mount than your optics. Nothing quite beats exposure time with astrophotography.

I would highly suggest pricing in a good equatorial mount before going for the optics.
 
Just to add my 2c: yes, focus mount first. You can even get pretty decent pictures just with a normal 200-mm zoom lens piggy-backing on a normal telescope if you can get long enough exposures.

Something like this is a more serious setup: https://www.astropix.com/html/astrophotography/tracking.html

When it comes to choosing optics: try to get something as "fast" as possible (in the same sense as a camera lens is fast). Neither newtonian nor schmidt cassegrain are ideal, they tend to have longer focal lengths w.r.t. their aperture size.

Short refractor telescopes are the most ideal but they're also the most expensive (especially the apochromatic ones). You do get some newtonian ones that are specifically designed for astrophotography which may help.

The main challenge that I had with my newtonian was that the focuser was positioned best for eyepieces and despite having the right mount, I couldn't get enough range of motion to actually bring my camera's image plane into focus. I had to use a focal extender and that kind of ruined things, it was an unsatisfying experience.

the celestron you mentioned is likely to suffer from the same problem and is going to make for a frustrating experience.

Something like this would probably be the best place to start:

Orion 6" f/4 Newtonian Astrograph Reflector Telescope

Fast 6
www.telescope.com www.telescope.com

I don't know if it's available for sale here in SA. But note, that's just the OTA (optical tube assembly), not the mount which is as mentioned really the more important thing.

Just some thoughts to get you investigating in the right direction.
unfortunately astronomy is not a cheap hobby, and astrophotography even more so. You need fairly decent kit even just to get started.
 
My daughter has shown a keen interest in astronomy for quite some time now and the spotting scope she's been using isn't exactly up to the task. Her birthday is around the corner so I'm considering getting her an entry level telescope for the occasion. I've had a look at some YouTube videos and browsed around Takealot and marketplace to see what's available locally. I can't find too many independent reviews of the options so thought I'd turn to the lovely folks at myBB for some wisdom.

Anyone around here able to shed some light on the subject?
 
I had a good convo with a long standing member of the Astronomical Society of South Africa yesterday. Here's a summary for anyone else who may have similar n00b questions to me.
  • Stay far away from any Cape Union Mart Malkin, Kway or Nat Geo brand. They are rubbish and are known as Hobby Killers.
  • Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ is good for moon gazing and thats about it.
  • The Orion StarBlast 4.5 is a good entry-level scope. They are portable and easy to set up.
  • A good scope to look for is a second hand Orion Skyquest XT8. Excellent value for money and a lifetime telescope.
 
Last night we had clear skies so I used my phone to check the green comet's location. Checked the skies and found the exact spot where the comet was supposed to be (left of the moon and Gemini) but I didn't see anything :crying:

Had to set up and dust off an old telescope I've had for and haven't used in many years but still nothing.

Or at least I think I had the correct location haha. Will try again tonight hopefully although they say the best chance of seeing the comet in SA is 7 or 8 Feb.
 
Speedster said:
I had a good convo with a long standing member of the Astronomical Society of South Africa yesterday. Here's a summary for anyone else who may have similar n00b questions to me.
  • Stay far away from any Cape Union Mart Malkin, Kway or Nat Geo brand. They are rubbish and are known as Hobby Killers.
  • Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ is good for moon gazing and thats about it.
  • The Orion StarBlast 4.5 is a good entry-level scope. They are portable and easy to set up.
  • A good scope to look for is a second hand Orion Skyquest XT8. Excellent value for money and a lifetime telescope.
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This is generally good advice.

I have a StarBlast 4.5. Are you in the Cape Town area? I'm thinking of selling as my old astronomy hobby conflicts with my new hobby of getting to bed on time.
 
eye_suc said:
Isn't it like magnitude 6.5? Gonna need a decent scope and look at the correct spot. Maybe check out the location using Stellarium to be sure and then try again tonight (you can set the time ahead if you need to plan).
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I don't know what magnitude 6.5 means haha.

I am using Stellarium. Spent about an hour last night comparing stars on the app and sky to find the location of the comet and I'm sure I got it right. Will check again tonight when we have loadshedding.
 
Nope, tried again tonight, found these exact stars not too far to the left of the moon, but saw absolutely nothing between Haedus and Almaaz. This stupid comet is just not visible :(

Screenshot_20230206_211707.jpg

Oh well, will try again tomorrow and Wednesday. Capella is cool though. Bright and flickery.
 
wbot said:
Nope, tried again tonight, found these exact stars not too far to the left of the moon, but saw absolutely nothing between Haedus and Almaaz. This stupid comet is just not visible :(

View attachment 1470863

Oh well, will try again tomorrow and Wednesday. Capella is cool though. Bright and flickery.
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What scope are you using?
 
Speedster said:
What scope are you using?
Click to expand...
A cheap one but didn't set it up tonight. Should get a decent one someday. They said this thing will be visible with binoculars or even without using anything though. False advertising.
 
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