My Introduction! Hi from Saskatchewan

OhNo

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I live in the middle Western Canadian Prairie Provinces. The place where you have to be tough or stupid to live. Winter 1/2 the year wind for the rest. At just shy of 52 degrees North June Astronomy makes for a late short night, in December you can start shooting at Supper time to well past breakfast. My only real plus is the sky, Bortle 2 verging on Bortle 1 depending on who has shut off their yard-lights. Rolling hills of farmland makes for watchin' your dog run away for three days a possibility, at the same time allowing the wind (air motion above 50km/hr) to give us a pretty good lick.

Being rural we had a telescope as kids. It was seldomly used as there was always something to do early the next morning. Round two in astronomy started just over seven years ago. A 6" used reflector on a SLT goto mount found me. I believe the second time I used it the cell phone camera found it's way to the EP. Been a wild ride down the rabbit hole ever since. I am embarrassed to admit how many scopes and mounts I have, but for AP I use 2 cameras and two different scopes in various combinations.

My wife was kind enough to buy me a used SkyShed Pod with 3 bays. She may have been suffering from being alone in the house all night! Now I run everything except the dome rotation and opening/closing the observatory from the comfort and companionship of the couch. I feel for the people who have to set-up and tear down their gear every night. I timed the opening of the obs, To get going for a session including the walk to the obs and back takes 2 1/2 minutes, shut-down is less.

I am set up to do solar on a filter budget, but my passion is deep space objects including comets and asteroids. My Achilles heal is the computer. Eventually I get things working the way I want. The best lessons in life seem to not come from immediate success but the struggle of failing and figuring it out on your own. Be a giver, not a taker and you'll sail through life without much trouble.
 
I've played with the idea of solar... I'm wondering if the NexStar 8se with one of those Baader AstroSolar film covers. Pure solar scope would be better, but I don't think I could justify the price for as rarely as I'd use it.

I know that they several make dual use scopes, but I've always been of the opinion that most "dual use" stuff was adequate at each, but rarely great at both or even one thing.
 
That is what I use my C8 with a White Light filter. Only get small chunks of the Sun. Could do a mosaic for the whole ball. At least it doesn't take long to capture the data.....
 
That is what I use my C8 with a White Light filter. Only get small chunks of the Sun. Could do a mosaic for the whole ball. At least it doesn't take long to capture the data.....
I just got a reducer/corrector for my 8se that is supposed to widen the FOV. I got it mainly for use on the moon and I also grabbed a 3x Barlow for those outer planets for visual use - it was basically free since I used points from buying all these other toys. Tend to pay the cards off every 2-3 months, so the points are "gimmes".
 
A 3x Barlow will be fun to tame in a C8! I have a 2x and hide it away because of frustration! 😮 🤣
 
A 3x Barlow will be fun to tame in a C8! I have a 2x and hide it away because of frustration! 😮 🤣
for my 8se I've got lenses from 2.3mm up to 55mm and FOV up to around 72°. Most of them aren't real expensive ($80-$150), but they do the job pretty well for a beginner.
My 2" lenses are not real expensive ones either... both being WO Swan's (33mm & 40mm). I was really impressed by the optical quality for the cost... I expected the Swans (a couple of the 1.25" are from them) to be barely adequate.
 

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