I started as a visual Astronomer and love going back to looking at the sky with my own eyes however there is only so much you can observe at times :)

Hi Ollie great introduction into visual astronomy, astrophotograph is nice but nothing beats seeing things in the night sky with with just your eyes

I started as a Visual astronomer. Memories looking at the sky with your eyes never gets old!

Amen Ollie!....I never forgot to use my Eyes and the Nexstar 5i is always for visual...that helps me find targets...Never forget your roots...Clear Skies!

Could I interest you in a Rowan AZ75 with DSC100? With push-to rather than goto, it's somewhere in between the two mounts you showed. There's a certain fun in moving the scope as with a manual mount, and yet the digital setting circles help for spending more time observing rather than finding, while getting a good idea of where the objects are in the night sky.

I can see you imaging with the ED80 soon lol, I have one & it's good for visual, solar & imaging so pretty much a good all rounder. The only weak point is as with a lot of Skywatchers is the Crayford focuser needing a tweak so they don't slip I've been meaning to upgrade mine but never got round to it. Dobsonians are good light buckets & can be bought at a decent price second hand an 8" is a good size without being overly massive. What is amazing to think is the light hitting your eyes has travelled 100's or more light years away. Talking about the ED80 with what I think was a UHC filter we managed to see the whole veil complex visually from a dark site so filters can help to. Clear skies!!

I have a flip mirror diagonal on my C9.25/6.3 - hop about then EAA the target. You need an eyepatch to keep vision in observing eye tho

i am still mainly a visual user and thats where the alt az mounts are so fast and handy👍 however now moving into astrophotography alot more

cool info for the person starting out Ollie.. good stuff..

Good video on visual astronomy Ollie! That will certainly help new comers into the visual side of it! Funny thing, I’ve never done visual, I went straight into the photography side! However, I do really enjoy on a dark night, just looking at the stars, nothing like it! Maybe one day mate👍 CS

When i start to think that my astrophotography endeavour is getting expensive I just take some time to browse quality eyepieces on some vendor sites…😂 Clear skies!✨🔭

Good video! I joined an astronomy club last year and found there's a generational divide between mostly visual and astro photographers, which is a real shame since, as you said, it's a totally different experience. I bought a 6" SCT for visual a number of years ago, but due to light pollution and not knowing what I was doing, got discouraged with what little I could see. Skip ahead a few years and my rig is astro photography only, imaging from Bortle 8 with narrow band filters. Two weeks back I found a cheap go-to mounted achromatic refractor which was actually well liked because if its 1000mm focal length. I have recently had it out more times than my astrophotography rig. I'd forgotten how much fun visual was! CS! EDIT: try putting a red-dot finder on binoculars

You can actually look through a telescope!!!?🤣. Nice run through for those wanting to do visual and a good option if the weather is a bit crappy since your eyes don't need to do 5 or 10min exposures. And seeing the planets with your eyes is always amazing, esp Saturn