My Stellina has been a great asset!

[smp]

Good afternoon, all!

I purchased a Stellina back in February-March this year.

Back in the beginning of October, for the heck of it, I opened up the Singularity app that I use on my iPad and counted the number of "observing" sessions I've logged by saving at least one image since I started a "observing" with my Stellina.

I counted 33 "observing" sessions, not counting any sessions that I've logged since then.

33 sessions in 7 months! Up until now, if I logged a dozen or 15 sessions in a year, I counted myself as doing well with my Astronomy hobby. The Stellina has been an absolutely hobby-changing investment for me. I have now done more "observing" in the past several months as I might have done before in two good years in a row!

I do have to say that I do not get the same thrill as I do when personally seeing something in the eyepiece on a scope live, but as far as simply enjoying my hobby of Astronomy goes, the Stellina has been an excellent investment for me.

Thanks for listening!

smp

[Lady Fraktor]

Good to hear that the setup works for you Stephen.
Whatever makes it easiest to get outside.

[Bigzmey]

That's great! Right, enjoyable setup does get you out more often.

[smp]

Thanks very much, folks! Your congratulations and support are very welcome.

I've been looking at this product for some years now, and early on, when many folks didn't know how to "classify" this type of equipment, I worried that the naysayers might win out, and users of products like this might have to quietly stay under cover.

For me, and I have to emphasize for me, this is an earth-shaking change in my ability to do Astronomy.

For whatever reason, I've always had a difficult time translating from an atlas or planisphere or sky chart of any kind to what I see in the sky. This has hampered my ability to locate objects in the sky and point to them. Enter GoTo. Perhaps since I've always favored SCTs, my GoTo systems have always seemed finicky at least, un-alignable at worst. Even my best mount (my current Az Mount Pro) will sometimes align pretty much right on (with a 40mm eyepiece) and sometimes align 15 degrees east of right on. During use, if I don't have it 'perfectly' level, it will slowly go off as I scatter-shoot around the sky with my observations. Certainly, I can adjust the alignment along the way by synching on a current known target, but not so good for searching for a new target that I'm not familiar with, and causes me a lot of eyepiece changing and effort, too.

And finally, my age. I am aging, and I have my issues. I am now having a harder time moving my mount with it's counterweights, and then I'm much more nervous about lifting my largest OTA onto the mount. For me, a lot of effort to set up, and of course that is mirrored by a lot of effort to tear down - in the dark. Of course, let's not talk too much about the cold in the winter, and the mosquitos in the summer - or what Daylight Savings Time does to my ability to even get up the gumption to try.

I will keep my small scopes because I still love the thrill of observing at the eyepiece, but the Stellina looks to become a HUGE benefit, for me, to be able to observe many DSOs that I've been struggling for years and years to even get a glimpse of, given my locating difficulties and all I already mentioned.

FWIW, if you are still following this lengthy explanation, I have been quite attracted to doing EAA for a long time now, because of all of the above. However, the thoughts that there would now be more equipment and wires and batteries to deal with - further complicating my set up and tear down process - have kept me on the sideline.

This Stellina system seems, for me, to be a tremendous help to be able to not only keep on doing Astronomy, but also to expand my observing far, far beyond what I have been able to do up to now.

I apologize for ranting like a fanboy! Again I have to say this is all what I find for me. Others have their own opinions, and paths to what they feel is success in doing Astronomy.

Thanks again to all, and thanks for listening.

smp

[The Wave Catcher]

Stephen,

EAA definitely has a place in astronomy and is becoming more popular. I know there has been a lot of negative commentary about EAA on other sites but I for one am glad that you have found a way to stay in the hobby and enjoy it.

[Juno16]

Sounds like a lot of fun Stephen! I’m sure that I’ll try EAA some day, but your setup is so much easier than setting up an imaging rig.
Great to hear that you are having fun! That’s what it’s all about!

[pakarinen]

Impressive log! I'd try a Stellina, but I don't have near that much in my hobby budget.

[smp]

Impressive log! I'd try a Stellina, but I don't have near that much in my hobby budget.

Yes, I am very much aware of the cost of this rig. I am quite self-conscious, as I NEVER want to be seen as rubbing anyone's nose about it.
For me, in my situation, I was able to afford to purchase it, and it has been a complete hobby-changer for me.

There are plenty of others who have been fortunate enough to purchase other expensive equipment, like night vision (another hobby-changer) or a large Dobsonian that'll thrill the pants off of anyone with their real-life views, and imaging rigs can easily eclipse the expense of a Stellina - and after processing they offer spectacular images in the hands of a practiced imager. So, hopefully, this can be seen as simply another hobby astronomer having a great time with Astronomy.

Thanks for all the great comments!

smp

[smp]

OK, folks, here is an image I captured earlier this year of M60. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I captured the Super-Nova that was nearby!

For me, that was pretty thrilling - even though it was an EAA image, and not real-life at the eyepiece.

smp

[Bigzmey]

OK, folks, here is an image I captured earlier this year of M60. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I captured the Super-Nova that was nearby!


M60-90.jpg



For me, that was pretty thrilling - even though it was an EAA image, and not real-life at the eyepiece.

smp

Cool capture Stephen!