Astronomy Gear & Telescope Myths / Facts
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- Опубликовано: 7 авг 2024
- Have you always wondered what you have read/heard about astro gear is true or not? This is a fun video that covers many things you may have heard about Telescopes but always wondered if they are true!
Get AVT Astro Gear and Apparel: avt-astro.com/shop/
My Blog full of great Astro content/reviews: www.avt-astro.com 
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Hey Glad , granted you may never make the big bucks doing astronomy videos, but you are really appreciated! Sharing you knowledge is incalculably helpful to your audience. Your advice to go with the 5” refractor here in the PNW instead of the 10” SCT was spot on! Thank you again for taking the time to help me out. My Bortle is 6 so DSOs are not my priority. M13 was not very bright, but I couId easily find it with my iOptron HAZ 31 GT Mount. 😊The constellations here are never really clear enough here to navigate by. However, I really dug into the moon with clarity with my refractor as compared to my 8” Dob. Am so looking forwarding to planet season.
Very cool, glad your enjoying the scope! Any also glad if my advice has been helpful!
Hey Vlad, I had to laugh when you took both your hands off the steering wheel to show us you had both hands on the wheel 😅
Lol, pro driver. What else can I say;)
@@AVTAstro yes I was impressed by your skillful collision avoidance while debunking astronomy myths.
I noticed that in just about every myth, you explained how it was true in certain circumstances! That tells me your views are solid, and i appreciate your debunking the myth under circumstances that you explain clearly. Very objective views. Thanks for your integrity!
Thanks, I appreciate the honest feedback!
I actually bought the cheapest celestron refractor with the Starsense unit just so I could remove the Starsense unit and fit it on my 12" dobsonian. It works fantastic and places the target in a 17.5mm 76 degree eyepiece every time. I also have it on an EQ platform for tracking. I also love my 4" Apo.
Very cool, sounds like you have a nicely rounded equipment setup!
What'd you do with the refractor? After listening to a recent episode of The Actual Astronomy Podcast, I've been wanting to find a cheap reflector OTA to make a trash cam out of (127 PowerSeeker in mind).
I really need to try a Morpheus EP...
This was perfect. I was driving myself while I was listening to you.
Glad the video was helpful! Thanks for watching
@@AVTAstro well hello, thank me for subscribing too, lol. Thank you Sir.
What you said about eyepieces is very true. There is no free lunch. In order to get something, i.e., a wider field of view, you have to give up something, i.e., contrast. These trade-offs can be mitigated by careful design and quality control, but you never get something for nothing when it comes to optics.
Yup, that's why most of us have way too many eyepieces;)
@@AVTAstroafter watching too many videos with people having endless amounts of eyepieces I just did so much research before I bought any additional ones that didn’t already come with my telescope. I ended up going with a few Tele Vue pieces. 17.3mm Delos with 2x & 2.5x Powermates to make Delos a 8.65mm and 6.92mm and 22mm Nagler that is a 11mm at 82° view with 2X Powermate. I’m very happy do be content and buy once cry once. I have 8” StarSense DOB and it quickly balances with a magnetic weight. I may never upgrade unless I do Astrophotography but at this time I think I’m good. Fingers crossed, lol.
Excellent video as always Vlad!!
I saw this vid notification yesterday but didn't have time to see it, but made sure to tag it as something to come back to.
Hope you enjoyed it!
I LOVE this channel. So much good advice!
Glad you find the content helpful, I appreciate the support👍
I live on the transition from bortle 5 to bortle 6 and started out with a 6" dob. Can confirm, star hopping is permanently on hard mode.
Hello from France 😎👍.....
clear sky !
Hello, hope you guys are doing OK with the heat wave!
Cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, coffee drinking, frequent fast food visits= you could have had many telescopes
Yes for many people just cutting back on some simple things that are instant gratification items can net some nice items in the long run.
I just discovered your channel and I appreciate your informative content. I notice you are traveling to pick up a second hand scope. What has been your experience buying used telescopes and accessories? I've been looking at adds on Cloudy Nights but I wonder if the risk of buying a used scope is worth it. Thanks.
Hey Ken, glad you like the content. I have an entire video on buying used gear: ruclips.net/video/bUA2O3Sqgo8/видео.html
Great comparisons. Friends say they can't afford it. There's nothing wrong on starting off with used equipment. Yup the Mustang is the best. Along with all the other makers😊. Great info as always with your videos. Keep it up. Like to see your new addition AP in the next video.
Glad you liked it. Yeah I'll have the AP 155efd in future videos once I get to use it a bit.
Speaking of non-premium scopes....
Have you ever checked out one of the EDL scopes sold by Astro-Tech (Astronomics)?? I just got their 4" and had it DPAC tested by an admin on CN. The test came back great, as it has for samples of the 125EDL & 80EDL as well (80 is now discontinued). The star test on my scope was also fantastic.
They're FCD100 ED & lanthanum doublets (f/7 for 80 & 102, f/7.8 for 125) with 2.5" rotatable 2x speed R&P focusers, with a .95 minimum Strehl guarantee (but no test papers). Although it's usually best to take these guarantees with a grain of salt, the DPAC tests seem to back it up on all the samples I've seen tested. The DPAC showed my lens to be nicely smooth, aberrations controlled very well, with excellent color correction. Pretty much the only problem was a oh-so slightly turned edge.
But the real banger for these scopes is their price. I got my AT102EDL brand new, delivered to my front door for $999!! I don't think there's a better 4" currently made for that price. I think I could setup next to a Tak, TEC, TMB, TV, or any other "alpha" scope (even ones not start with T) and not feel like I'm missing out on too much.
I have not had any of the recent AstroTech scopes. I have had an older 4" ED doublet that had one of the poorest refractor optics I have ever owned;( Conversely I have owned a 5" triplet with 3" FeatherTouch focuser that had EXCELLENT optics!!! Like I have said before the entry level brands are more hit and miss. But glad that you got a great sample of one!
Another astrophysics refractor? Hopefully you'll review that in depth and we can enjoy it too :)
That's the plan! Thanks!
I got 3 and a half inches, but its my "finder" 🤪
You definitely need to show us that new AP.
I have a question and maybe you can make a vid of it if you please, which is about aperture and resolution. It seems there is confusion out there about this. I have heard it said that the atmosphere will limit the resolution of any scope to no more than 10 inches but it seems that many either don't know this or don't agree with it. That is to say no atmospheric conditions will ever be so good as to allow a scope to produce resolution better than a 10 inch scope. Also, if the average seeing for most don't get better than 1 arcsec then it seems that most of us will be limited to resolutions no better than a 5 1/2 inch scope. So we would need to stick with our 130mm apos for the planets.
Well there is some truth to this for most of us on the planets especially for visual use. Most people would not benefit from a scope larger than 6" on the planets besides maybe 1-2nights a year. For taking pictures of them this is not true at all though. Cameras are able to take 1000's of very quick exposures and you use "lucky image capturing" to select the best images when the atmosphere is the stillest. Plenty of examples of 12"+ SCT's producing some exceptional images of the planets. I have a local friend that uses SCT's to produce some amazing planetary results with larger SCT's(he has been published in Sky and Telescope). Seeing here in the NW is not all that great either...
I would have less of a problem with the 8" Dob recommendation if people were pushed toward the used market. That way they lose less when it's time to sell it to upgrade or they realize the hobby isn't for them.
The only problem with used Dobs is location & shipping. I don't live around many people in the hobby (nearest person I personally know is a 1 hr drive away), and people generally don't want to ship something like an 8" due to cost. My first scope was an AD8 I bought new because of the above reasons.
I absolutely love my (slightly modified) AD8, but I'd be reluctant to recommend it to a beginner unless I was fairly sure they'd be motivated enough to use it often & set it up properly (collimation & cool down). If I think they'd really get into the hobby, an 8" Dob makes a wonderful first scope.
If funds would allow, I feel like a used, small, fast cooling 4" ED doublet on a good AltAz mount makes a better first rig, since chances are it'll get used more often. A go-to AltAz if in heavy light pollution would help, but I personally think everyone should learn the sky by manual star hopping when starting out. An decent 70-80mm ED scope would work, but I think people need that bigger aperture and "wow" factor when starting out to really get them hooked (one reason an 8" Dob gets so many hooked).
But if they're comfortable with it, I'm all for buying used equipment. If it wasn't for the classifieds on CloudyNights & AstroMart I couldn't afford a quarter of the gear I've got. Of the equipment I use, half of my scopes, most of the binos, and all the eyepieces were bought secondhand.
@@Astro_Ape An 8" Dob is not likely to be a hobbyist's primary scope, so why recommend it? Given how hard they are to re-sell, I see it as a Telescope tax on beginners. Want to get into astrophotography, a Dob isn't for you. Want GoTo features, its possible with a dob, but most will upgrade to something else. Then there are those where the hobby isn't for them, and now they are stuck with a large Telescope taking up space in their garage or basement. A 6-8" SCT is smaller, has GoTo features, better for astrophotography, and while more expensive, easier to re-sell.
Cant agree more with this. Again not against the scope but they are kind of a one trick pony(cheap visual fix). And you guys are right that they are not very re-sellable unless you find a local buyer.