Q and A #3! Can I leave a scope in the garage? Do I need filters? Ever been scammed?

[@lol_who984]

This man deserves more subs

[@edting]

Thank you so much!

[@CoronaWolle]

Agreed, and now he just got another!

[@TerryTolkinnnn]

I truly feel like I'm getting an objective opinion from his uploads too.

[@Jar0fMay0]

True. I just discovered his channel

[@jonathanr2830]

I completely agree with the other supportive comments. I just discovered this channel, and it is instantly my go to for learning about various telescopes and real experiences geared for telescope owners and potential owners. Mr. Ting's channel and presentations are first-rate, entertaining, very, informative, and chock full of very detailed and uniquely relevant information and extremely useful tips that I have not found elsewhere. I am very grateful for this. Thank you very much!

[@dotto9982]

I saw that episode of The Expanse and noticed that as well. The first thing that went through my mind was your "telescopes in the movies" videos. I always look forward to your upcoming releases. Thank you.

[@caviestcaveman8691]

How are people that dumb like for real so many things pointing in a certain direction and you use telescopes to look up......idk man I've lost faith in humanity and im ready to go to my real home upstairs

[@kenschwarz8057]

Glad you saved the ripped bill. What a souvenir!

[@AzimuthAviation]

The only filter I use is a variable polarized lunar filter on the late waxing or early waning Moon.

[@h.n.4060]

I know this video is old, but for an interesting instance of a telescope on TV is the Japanese anime (animated television show), manga (comic), and movie 'Kimi wa Hōkago Insomunia' (Insomniacs after School). It's about a teenage boy with insomnia who picks up astrophotography as a hobby. Much of the show takes place in the high school's observatory, where they have a large (likely at least a 12in aperture) cassegrain made by a company called Showa, which from what I've read was founded by an ex-employee of Takahashi. There's also a 'live-action' movie, and not only does it have the huge cassegrain, it even has a Vixen ED115S mounted as a guide scope. Assuming it all functions (massive fork mount included), an incredible amount of money must have gone into that prop! Unfortunately the show is very light on astronomy stuff, it's more about teen romance which is unfortunate because those are a dime-a-dozen and it would be nice to actually see a show about the hobby. They never really use the telescope in the show, and they only slightly touch on astrophotography, but the telescope is accurately reproduced which is interesting to me because the show is animated and it was based a comic, the author and animators went through some effort to draw the telescope accurately.

[@slickzMdzn]

Please know that someone read your comment and has noted the anime on its list

[@StephenG420]

Thanks for everything Ed! Learning a lot! Purchased a star blast based on your recommendation, probably the coolest scientific instrument I own! Having a great time looking at the stars and starting to familiarize myself. Even got a space atlas! Just getting into the hobby, it’s legit!!

[@freeman10000]

I have a couple of OIII filters. These filters really transform the viewing of many nebulae (emission and planetary). Highly recommended.

[@chrislarson740]

Well done, as usual. I had the same question about garage storage, lol!

[@BrixiDieHexe]

My new favorite channel, thanks

[@paulabrierley7979]

A friend of mine in England. Brought an LX200 10" and one of those cameras. That was in the late '90s. He had good times and bad. Back then. We used Serial Coms before USB- but he got the camera to work on his Windows 98 computer. But not all the time. One image from the Meade 10" was off M87. And what do you know? He was able to see the Relativistic jet coming out of the central Black Hole, in the raw image. Imagine seeing that for the first time from a suburban backyard. I also brought a CCD in those days, and mine was a Starlight Xpress MX5 mono camera. It was a pig to use because of the small sensor. Finding DSOs was very time-consuming. And I eventually gave up. But it was fun. Good luck getting that camera to work. And keep up the good work.

[@tomkirby3281]

My first scope was a Sears 50mm with 2 eyepieces, H20 and H6. That was all my folks could afford to give me for Christmas. My 2nd scope was an Edmund Scientific 3" Newtonian with a cardboard tube (and a cardboard tube finder). The eyepiece was, I think, an SR. My first DECENT scope was a Celestron C90, with a decent set of .965" eyepieces. Next was a Meade 8", and while it is a nice scope, it is so large and unwieldy that it hardly gets any use. I'm now looking at a small portable refractor (102mm). The best scope is the one you will use.

[@billmartz4290]

Thank you for another informative video. Cheers!

[@leatherindian]

Love your videos. Keep it up. Thanks

[@jktz122]

telescopes in the movies are just props

[@carlcat]

Katz: Not necessarily, a friend of mine sells astronomy equipment and one day someone from a movie production company called him and asked him if he had an old telescope from the 50's or 60's to sell and he did. That telescope was in the movie "Contact", seen when the Jodie Foster character was a young girl.

[@martynh5410]

I can relate to your China incident!

[@anata5127]

4 scopes and 12 filters. DOB 15”, 100mm and 140-150mm refractors and 10” idk. Filters: LRGB, SHOHbeta, Sloan 700-850 NIR, antila for color camera, loglow (chroma) and it/Uv cut

[@werries238]

Love the Intro and Outro XD

[@actros_l8567]

I don't have a telescope, but I am really lucky, my dad collects antiques and he has lots of pairs of binoculars from WWII. There is a 7×50, 10×50, 12×50, 16×50 and sooo much more...

[@kage769]

*Has only started watching the channel since the new year, owns a pair of binoculars on a tripod, has been thinking a selection of 4 or 5 telescopes would be good to aim for personally.* "-The number's not as big as you might think." Oh so about 30 - 40 maybe? "I think I have had around 130, 140" *HRRRRK*

[@jurestormchaser5382]

30 years in astronomy and I'm at a total of 3 telescopes, currently have 2 of them :) I can't even imagine having owned 130-140 :D

[@slickzMdzn]

@@jurestormchaser5382Could you please name them?

[@jurestormchaser5382]

@@slickzMdzn currently a Celestron CR150HD (15-cm f/8 achromatic refractor) and an Orion Optics UK VX12L 30-cm f/5.3 Newtonian. Also had a Tasco 11.5-cm f/4.5 Newtonian as my first scope 31 years ago.

[@_stardust62]

Ed... there's an episode of Mannix from 1972 called The Sound of Murder that shows Mannix looking through a very new Celestron C5...the scene is at the beginning of the show if you find the episode online... I've got the DVDs.

[@ogshotglass9291]

I rarely use filters myself. About the only filter I use is a green-tinted moon filter. And I don't even use that 90 percent of the time. I had a blue, red, and green filter once, and I did try them, but I found no real use in them on my 70mm

[@fszocelotl]

I think you haven't covered the Meade Lightbridge truss tube dobsonians so far. It's not urgent, just a matter of curiosity.

[@Jtomba06]

i had a 10" lightbridge about 10 years ago. I sold it to fund an 8SE. I still regret selling that one. I would love to see the light bridge's covered on this channel.

[@dnjj1845]

I have a set of colored filters like what you presented. The clear one is good for moon viiewing when it gets too bright. The other ones lol, not too useful. However, you can screw them all together and look at the sun safely. I've seen partial solar eclipses with it. Edit: Not through a telescope, just looking through them with your naked eye

[@PafMedic]

You Have Another Sub❤️,I Agree With Filters,and Ill Tell You Where They Get The Ideas,Amateur Astro Groups On Facebook,People Ask About a Good Scope For Planets and Moons,and Get Told A $800 Scope With EQ Mounts,When The People Say Their Budget Is Around $400..I Started In Astro Around 3-4 Years Ago..I Called High Point,Told Them What I Had,What I Wanted To Do,and What I Needed To Accomplish That,Dave Barrett Is Fantastic Along With Everyone Else There,Great Video..Clear Skies and God Bless❤️🙏🏼🔭✨🌏

[@majorskepticism7836]

I looked at Mars through a Lumicon UHC in a C80f. Didn’t know what to expect, but, to me, the increase in contrast was significant. Smaller effect on Jupiter and Saturn, but worth trying out. Better? I don’t know, but definitely different. My girlfriend once asked me how many telescopes I needed. I said, “I dunno. One of each?”

[@scott_meyer]

I have the opposite problem. I live where it's humid. Trying to use a telescope that just came out of a 68 degree f air conditioned basement into 90f with 70% plus humidity does not work well.

[@stevehanson5556]

Great presentation!

[@keithnordin1116]

I wouldn't leave a reflector in the garage! The mirror coatings can suffer greatly!

[@mtnhorn2619]

Hello Ed, Thank you for an enlightened video on different filters. With so-o-o many out there, it can be a real challenge knowing what (and what not) to get. You are a source for advice BEFORE dropping $200-400 on a special filter. I agree about the color filters, and seldom find use for them in observation modes. Speaking of which, What are some thoughts on "neutral density" filter(s)? I bought my first one to reduce the brightness of the moon. It was a 25% transmission, but I was immediately seeing spots in my eyes after viewing a full moon. This led me to purchase a 12% transmission, which still seemed bright, but not as much as my first one. I use this when at star parties, while viewing the moon, Jupiter or Venus. They can be quite bright, and really play havoc with readjusting your night vision afterwards.

[@Mandragara]

I have a SvBony variable polarising filter for the Moon, it lets me pick whatever degree of transmission I want. Typically I just observe the Moon at the end of my observing session without a filter though, that way the brightness doesn't ruin my dark adaptation.

[@endautrestermes]

Hi Ed, how about polarizing filters or contrast boosters in order to reduce diffraction in achromatic scopes? I am buying a short tube 80 on your recommendation as a starting scope and was wondering. Thanks for all the advice !

[@jamesgu1467]

Navigating through scams on hard mode... Love your videos and stories Ed! 😀

[@jomon723]

I have been to Shanghai, rough place...so big with crazy drivers.

[@DJRonnieG]

I'd be curious about making that Meade imager from the 90s work in Virtual Machine. I'd probably use a USB a to serial adapter but if that didn't work, I have a powerful desktop with a both a serial and parallel port on it. I would probably favor using Virtual Box but worst case, I'd be curious to see how win95 vs win98 would behave if I were still unsuccessful.

[@jonathoncary]

I ve found a 38a pale blue does help on Jupiter.Faint but zero without

[@AstroDenny]

Hi Ed! You should try Linux with that old Meade camera- A lot of cameras work without their proprietary drivers. especially older tech.

[@jasonknotts5001]

Floppy disks roflmao. It's crazy to think you have a better chance of playing a record today than loading a floppy disk.

[@originalghoul3738]

Win 95 you need to get the driver for the serial port I think it was for the mouse but you have to find video I vaguely remember using the serial port for a laser once.

[@Mandragara]

When I was a beginner I bought several coloured filters, this is why. As a beginner I wasn't able to find much in the sky besides the planets and other bright things like the Orion Nebula, Albireo etc. So to me an observing session was mostly spent looking at the planets and Orion etc, then trying to find one new object (with mixed success). So I was looking at the planets a lot. So a natural question is 'how do I improve my view of the planets, as they are one of the few objects I can find reliably'?. Well people talk about coloured filters a lot on CloudyNights etc and most importantly: they are cheap. So my first purchase after my telescope was for a range of coloured filters and a 6mm 'Gold-line' eyepiece. If I were to do it all over again I would first get an O-III filter, then an OK short focal length eyepiece like a gold-line, then a fairly premium widefield eyepiece. In my first scope (6" Dob) that was the ES68 24mm eyepiece - very similar to the Tele Vue panoptics that you love!

[@noiseintheoffice]

Hey, what are you trying to pull? That video was ripped. I want another one!

[@GalaxyArtMedia]

Hello. Interesting video. What about the pens? they were fake or original? if were so expensive in the US, could have been a good deal even with the scam problem.

[@edting]

Ha! No, they were fake. In fact there were two pens in the package; one of them fell apart before I even got back to the hotel. That is why you only see one pen in the video.

[@kris.andrews]

The China story made me laugh, I have been to several markets in Hong Kong and Shenzhen… I found that if you touch it, you bought it! They won’t let you go until they sell you something 😀 (and yes I did buy a fake watch)

[@BlueTrane2028]

Color filters. My favorite ones are the lightest shades of any color. 82a is way nicer than 80a. The 4 color Orion set is a waste more or less, they are all too dark.

[@actros_l8567]

I would like to ask a question I am about to buy my first telescope - an 8 inch dobsonian of course 😃 - with it I am thinking to buy a moon filter and a light pollution filter, does the light pollution filter actually show me more objects or does it only make the sky dimmer? And by the way the filter that is available for me to buy is the Svbony CLS filter. Light pollution is REALLY bad in here, you can see about only 10 stars only on very clear and dim nights, and that is VERY rare!

[@edting]

I hardly ever use filters. I have lots of them and they just sit and gather dust. If you are light polluted you can still enjoy the moon, Jupiter, and Saturn. To see deep sky objects you are going to have to get away from the light pollution.

[@chrisshelton3504]

I tend to agree for a large part, that most color filters are too intense and dealing with the planets with an overlaid color does not seem to enhance details. I had the same experience with the 80A blue filter. Looking at a blue Jupiter did not enhance any details. Then I found an 82A light blue filter that I tried. I use it on my Takahashi FS-60Q and for the most part, Jupiter does not look blue, but it does really darken the banding and the poles significantly, allowing much more detail to my eye. YMMV.

[@Mandragara]

I have had great luck with the Baader 'Contrast Booster' on Jupiter. It does impart a slight yellowish hue but it doesn't look out of place on Jupiter.

[@JenhamsAstro]

Hello Ed, I’m loving your videos. Seeing you carry the huge Dob OTA reminds me not to buy one! For filters, I image at a Bortle 4 site and have pondered the L-enhance kind of path. Do you think a UHC is a better plan under these skies? There are a few LED streetlights appearing but mainly I’d like to counter sky glow from a town 5 miles away. Thanks in advance for any advice. Clear skies, Graham

[@alanslc3891]

You are lucky. Normally they will just give you another fake Renmibi then have to you give them another real one. Sometimes they will switch it again and told you that's a fake one, and agin...

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

How Shanghai has changed. I first visited in 1981, it was still more or less a Chairman Mao style communist state, everything was very basic but the people were very friendly and honest. When I returned ten years later it was unrecognisable, not only in the large amount of modern buildings being built but the change in attitude of some of the people, I was living in Hong Kong at the time and talking to my Chinese and Western friends and colleagues it was apparent that as China modernised an unfortunate consequence seemed to be an increase in criminal activity. Regarding scope heating when in storage, you can get low power electric heaters designed for use in electrical switchgear cabinets and the like which don't attract bugs in the same way as lights. Here in the UK these are available from various electrical suppliers who specialise in industrial equipment ( would think you will have similar in the States ). Obviously you need the double insulated type which do not have exposed terminals.

[@Mandragara]

Hey Ed, What's your opinion on the Tele Vue Delos vs Panoptics? I know you really like the Panoptics, but to my eyes the Delos seem like a straight upgrade. What do you think?

[@808d0l3]

I've viewed several of these videos, and always catch the part where you explain your club "tricks out" a telescope you donate to libraries. I work for the city of Santa Fe in NM, and would love for our libraries to be considered for that donation. We have beautiful skies devoid of light pollution, and I know we would spark so much interest with a donation like that. Please let me know what I can do!!! Please feel free to contact me for my personal contact information!

[@bumohamedubualooy7111]

use vmware player with windows 95 as the os if you want to use the orion camera

[@fruitypebbles803]

Serial port communications are very sensitive to their communication settings. They have to be exactly the same on both ends. So if you have a mismatch like one is set to 3600 and the other one is 1800, or one is set to Y and the other one is set to N, then nothing will work. So I would double-check that the serial port speed and settings are exactly the same on both ends. This probably means looking up what the serial port settings are for the camera and then changing your computer to those settings. And then I would see if you can get any raw input from the serial port on your computer itself, to see if it’s getting anything from the camera when it takes a photo. If you’re running Linux you can look in the /dev/serial0 file, or serial1, depending on which port you have it plugged into. or you can run a program like minicom that allows you to access the serial port directly. There’s probably a similar tool in Windows that allows you to access the serial port directly and change the settings and send and receive data directly to the port itself. When you access the port directly, it’s helpful to know if you get anything from the camera when it takes an image - does it looks like gibberish to the computer, in which case it’s a communication sitting mismatch, or some kind of corruption in the camera itself, or is the camera just not sending anything when it takes a picture. Serial port debugging is horrible. Good luck!

[@edting]

Thanks for that. Now, do I have the energy to revisit that device...

[@fruitypebbles803]

@@edting hehe choose life! People in the 90s were so jealous of us techies when they saw how high our salaries were, but none of them appreciated the fresh hell that was stuff like serial port debugging. Unless somebody is paying you a lot of money to do so, feel free to let this device go. Or maybe one of your fans out there really loves serial ports and can take a crack at it. 😆

[@stats432]

HI guys, just a thought that maybe the scopes turned the wrong way around in the movies to prevent dust settling on the main mirror when not in use? I know I store all my reflectors that way. I love all the videos on this channel, thank you Ed!

[@Mandragara]

Could also be for sun-safety. If someone took the cap off at just the wrong time and at just the wrong angle, the sun could shine into the scope and damage things. I actually read a story on the internet of someone who exploded their Meade LX200 that way, left with the cover open outside overnight after planetary work and somehow it just happened to be in the path of the Sun :(

[@stats432]

@@Mandragara That's a very good point that you brought up there, and a very good safety check for other telescope owners. I have even heard of cases where people have nearly burned their house down due to the sun being concentrated into a beam from the pets water bowls left outside. It sure is something to think about! It's a dam shame about the Meade being destroyed, it's such a gorgeous instrument :( Clear skies to all my astronomy friends out there :)

[@jgostling]

@@Mandragara very true. Whenever I leave my scope assembled I make a point of leaving it pointed away from any nearby windows.

[@jgeur]

Mr Ting, if you got scammed then what hope do any of us have, the end times are nigh! just curious, if you own that many scopes, how many bikes do you own?

[@jimmyfaulkner5746]

How do you look through that beautiful big baby? Are step ladders involved

[@jackphoton]

Over 100 telescopes in one person's posession? Wow. apart from collector's and specialists, how many scopes would a 'dedicated' amatuer need? I would guess 2-5, at most. Small/big, slow/fast, portable/fixed. Informative stuff! Thank you, Ed!

[@BlueTrane2028]

Over 100 telescopes? I’m gonna need a bigger house. I’m at 10 ish right now. I’ve owned at least 30 so far, would have to seriously think about it to arrive at a concrete number.

[@ibleebinU]

Over a hundred telescopes in their house? Now I don't feel so bad about my snare drum collection!

[@edting]

Someone recently showed me their Ham radio collection. I am still dazzled...

[@edhogue7943]

Ed I have a question would a Takahashi. Starebase 80 f/10 Doublet Refracting telescope off of there web site any good for around $620.00

[@edting]

I have been curious about that thing for a while. It isn't a part of any of Tak's other lines, and they stop just short of saying they make it. It's gonna cost one of us $620 to find out...

[@nazmulsajib]

That scam story is really interesting.

[@tjzambonischwartz]

I find color filters tremendously useful for isolating specific features when sketching the planets in mediocre seeing, but that's a niche edge case. I think the only filter novices really need is a moon filter. It's indispensable, but everything else needs to come along "as needed" as your interests in the hobby develop.

[@Mandragara]

I think urban novice observers really need an O-III filter. They don't know how to spot nebulae well and the contrast from an O-III filter really helps. A Chinesium O-III filter would do.

[@ryanyoder7573]

Any chance scopes will be available again? Stock seems so bad due to covid.

[@kazeshiii]

Your best bet might be to search local stores for stock.

[@JamesAdams-ev6fc]

Hi Ed, In the new Disney Pixar film Luca, there is a neat scene where the human girl child takes Luca to her telescope (a refractor) to show him the night sky. And guess what? It points the right way! Yes! And the two of them look at Saturn with it. It’s done ✅

[@edting]

I haven't seen that yet!

[@JamesAdams-ev6fc]

@@edting It’s quite well done 👍 and I recommend it. It also features an astronomy book, Il Universo, which the girl gives to Luca. Virtue ethics all around.

[@garrettdodgen3771]

I got lucky and found a Meade ETX Astro from the 90s at a flea market for $40. And it seems to work fine, however I find that Venus and Jupiter are really too bright to see anything. I can just barely make out Jupiter's clouds and Venus is always just a bright ball of light, what could I do to the telescope or what filter could I get that would help reduce that glow? Also the effect is way worse when trying to get a picture with my phone using a phone mount.

[@gammondog]

I’d try a polarizing flyer. You can control how much they dim the light without affecting the colors. They are a must for lunar observing, in my opinion.

[@limebulls]

Is a ND 25% 0.6 filter and / or variable polarizing filter good to see more details / contrast on planets like the moon? Have seen some videos, but can’t decide if I need one and if yes which one

[@edting]

Don't use filters - any of them. I am thinking of doing a video on this because it's a huge pet peeve of mine. Beginners buy filters despite me telling them not to, it's just what they do. Then they never use them.

[@limebulls]

@@edting your suggestion to make a video is awesome! Because I did not find a video from you yet that mentions nd/polarizing filters. Of course, here you are mentioning color filters & sky glow filters are unnecessary. Another comment I received and found helpful, to understand this matter: Magnification is the only needed ND filter for the Moon. Haven't found any need to dim down the view and I have 10" Dobson. And when observing the Moon and planets you should aim to avoid eye's dark adaptation: Resolution of scotopic vision is major amount lower than that of photopic vision.

[@rashie]

👍👍

[@SDisonYT]

Is the Celestion Nexstar 6se and 8se overrated? Or are they solid telescopes for the money? (I found a new 8se for $1399, and a 6se for $999, which seems like a decent deal, but still not sure if it’s worth the money.)

[@edting]

Hi, I've owned both, and between the two I strongly suggest the 6 over the 8. The 8" OTA is too heavy for the poor NexStar mount, and its extra 500mm of focal length causes accuracy problems. I've written a lot about these NexStar mounts on my web site. I would rate these mounts as "good" but not "great". They are less accurate than the CG-5/AVX class, and in my experience, less reliable as well.

[@IamMusicNerd]

@@edting Thanks Ed! I’ll keep looking then. I like the portable size of these models and the computerized location option, but I wasn’t sure if they were the best options in that category. So I appreciate your insights!

[@scott_meyer]

I see you've taken up wrestling water heaters.

[@NatarajanGanesan]

Can you help fix the focusser on my Meade ETX80 AT-TC?

[@edting]

These inexpensive refractors can be hard to fix. See if there's a local astronomy club near you.

[@pivottech8881]

Smurf jupiter with the filter.

[@swissoutdoor777]

Did you ever get your hands on a Meade ETX 80 Refractor? Are they any good?

[@DP-qb1zw]

I have one. It finds objects, the lens and images are OK. The drive is noisy but the achilles heel is the rough gears in the drive make the image constantly shake so unusable for high powers.

[@swissoutdoor777]

@@DP-qb1zw I have one as well. I never go below a 9mm Eyepiece.

[@mariospenard5125]

❤

[@myfishingadventures1509]

Can you do a review on the Celestron power seeker 127eq please?

[@BlueTrane2028]

Friends don’t let friends buy powerseekers. Leave it at that.

[@myfishingadventures1509]

@@BlueTrane2028 oh I see

[@BlueTrane2028]

@@myfishingadventures1509 I also tried an AstroMaster 130, the worst optical tube I’ve ever encountered. So probably cross that line off the menu as well. Seems if you want a quality scope from Celestron, look at the Omni and NexStar lines (skyprodigy and Astro-fi have some okay ones too). A 6se would be a fantastic start in the hobby.

[@rooftopastronomer2697]

If you really want to get a Celestron telescope, you can get a Celestron Cometron 114mm. It has parabolic mirror and its f4. Other cheap Celestron scopes are mostly horrible with spherical mirrors.

[@kcfks]

What about moon filters?

[@brucegelman5582]

He had a yen for customers like you!

[@3_Gold_Coins]

Is it worth getting a light pollution filter for planetary viewing?

[@Mandragara]

Not really, the planets are so bright they're not really hurt by light pollution. I'd spend the money on making sure your telescope is collimated properly (if using a reflector) or on a comfortable planetary eyepiece (good eye relief). Also try and keep the planet near the centre of the eyepiece, towards the edge of the field things get less crisp always.

[@oninoyakamo]

Colored filters are from the bygone age of black-and-white photography. Manufacturers market them because they cost nothing and add perceived 'value' to newcomers. They should be avoided like department store telescopes

[@karl-70]

Owning 100 telescopes 😲

[@1TW1-m5i]

The real question is are there enough telescopes in frame

[@robertt9342]

Room on the desk.

[@PafMedic]

If Your Mother Here Tells You She Loves You..Check Your Sources🤣😂🤣😂🤣

[@christopherrollins7910]

If you ever want to donate a telescope of 8 or 10 inch or bigger. I sure could use it for my channel. Lol thanks