What other equipment accessories might a beginner need on their first night of astronomy viewing?

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What other equipment will we need on our astronomy observation nights?

If you have been following this blog you will know that Steve has just taken up astronomy and is awaiting the arrival of his new telescope. He has written previous blog posts about his new learning journey and these can be found here: https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2021/01/buying-your-first-telescope-what-do-you.html  https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-beginners-guide-to-telescope-mounts.html  and https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-beginners-guide-on-understanding-how.html

 

In this post he takes a look at what additional equipment he thinks he needs to take with him on his first astronomy viewing night.

My choice of telescope - a star discovery 150i WIFI

I am getting really excited and over the last few weeks I’ve been doing lots of reading, both on the internet and from books. I am trying to get to grips with several things all at once:

·        what other equipment I might need on the night?

·        how to set up the telescope when it arrives?

·        how to plan my first astronomy session?

 

Equipment wise, apart from the telescope, eyepieces, tripod, Alt-Az mount and Barlow lens, here is a list of the other things I think I need to take with me:

1.   ‘Turn-left-at-Orion’ – my astronomy observing guide book, some star charts relevant to the evening, a planisphere and my astronomy recording diary/notebook

2.   a red-light torch – so I can read things without ruining my night time vision. I have a head torch with a red light on it as well but it is a little hit and miss selecting it

3.   a normal white light head torch for clear up

4.   apps on my phone – Stellarium and Sky Safari; Nightshift (gives me the viewing conditions each night), Clear Outside (ditto), Moon Phase calculator, ISS tracker

5.   picnic blanket to put beneath tripod to catch anything I accidently drop

6.   binoculars – I’m getting a 10 x 50 pair but haven’t decided which ones yet. Great for viewing constellations, finding objects, panning the milky way, observing the moon and whatever else I can think of on the night

7.   a small toolkit for on-the-spot adjustments

8.   a bubble spirit level to make sure the tripod is set level

9.   camera lens/telescope cleaning kit

10.my camera bag (containing my DSLR, its tripod, my wide angle 24mm lens, my 18 – 55mm lens, an intervalometer, my GoPro Hero 9 and various batteries, memory cards etc)

11.a comfy chair and a small folding aluminium table

12.portable power pack for my smartphone

13.snacks and hot drinks

14.clothing – additional spare layers for head, hands, torso. I’ll be wearing thermals and other mid and outer layers!

 

I will also be taking the following which relates to my particular telescope, the Star Discovery 150i WIFI.

·        A lynx astro silicone power cable for the sky-watcher mount (cigarette plug 2m version)

·        A Sky-watcher/celestron powertank 7Ah to power the mount and charge up phones etc

·        Spare AA batteries for the mount

·        Astro essentials ND96-0.9 1.25” moon filter

·        Astro essentials Canon EOS T ring

·        A Celestron 81055 NexYZ Universal Smartphone Adapter because sometimes I will just want to capture images with my smartphone rather than the DSLR

·        Some form of protective carry case. I haven’t yet decided on what type but I might well try and make my own custom fit one using waterproof tent material, close cell foam sleeping matt and Velcro. It will hold the optical tube assembly (OTA) and eyepieces. The Mount and tripod will store in another bag. I have a large 100 litre waterproof roll down bag which I used to use for sailing trips. It is big enough to hold the mount and tripod plus most of the other accessories mentioned above. 

·        Optional – a dew shield that acts as an extension of the main optical tube assembly. I don’t know whether to get one so I am on ‘wait and see’ mode

·        Optional - a cover for the telescope. I will be setting it up during daylight when out with the motorhome and a weatherproof cover would prevent dust etc getting in to it before I started the night time observing session. (I suspect I will try and make one at home).

·        For any astrophotography sessions – a white T shirt to get my 20 – 50 ‘flat frames’. (It’s complicated and I am only just starting to read about astrophotography. Along with the actual images you take you also need to get dark frames, flat frames and bias frames. I’ll explain these in a later post when I have got my head around it all. But, for getting flat frames you need a white t shirt to put over your lens or telescope).  

I hope that this series of posts has helped if you are thinking of taking up astronomy. They sort of chart my understanding from knowing nothing to this point now. Over the next few weeks, I am immersing myself in reading and finding out about landscape astrophotography and also about how to get to grips with my new telescope and the SynScan programme that comes with it.

 

In the meantime, I hope you are all safe and well and planning good motorhome jaunts for when lock down is lifted. Take care, stay safe.

 

Steve

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