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A really good video, heartfelt and sincere. We’re drowning in secondhand images. The other night I was out with my new 6 inch sct and was able to show various objects to other people, which gave me a good deal of pleasure and was, I think, much appreciated by them. Your video was also good by its absence of requests to like and subscribe, both of which were duly done!

Very true. Thank you for this video.

I think that the colorized Hubble images raised everyone's expectations. They get a scope and then are disappointed that they cannot see that in the EP. I grew up backpacking in the Sierras when you could read a book or safely hike in the light from the stars. I love the widefield view...

Astrophotography is for them, visual is for me

Thanks for your video, you spoke the truth!. I am an all around astronomer like you. I understand, but there is always hope!, in our changing World!. Lets always keep our roots in astronomy!

I really liked your video and I wholeheartedly agree with your thoughts about the positive aspects of visual astronomy. I was excited about getting a Stellina, but much more about setting up my new 24” Starstructure dob. Thanks for the video!

In My particular case I do EAA, but just because my eyes are not as sensitive as a camera. But I really enjoy to look through the eyepiece and realize that the object is there by myself. I specially love to look double stars because y think is quicklier to set up the gear and resolve the object with My eyes than with a camera, but in case of nebula My eyes cannot see the colors and details as the camera does

100 percent visual here. If I want to see pictures i would look at Hubble pics!

For me astrophotography became the dominant form of viewing the night sky as the light pollution at my location went from mild to terrible (Bortle 5/6 to 8/9). Visual just cant show me much at all anymore but astrophotography still can. In a dark sky however visual especially with night vision trumps astrophotography by a mile.

If a setup allows visual astronomy, and when you want a photo, by hitting a switch, that would be perfect first me. It is also how I started. I get bored waiting for 100 images of the same object. Sometimes I have the 8" Dob out as well. I guess having a mix is best.

In my eyes, visual is still very much alive.

I prefer looking through an eyepiece. There is a personal connection with the universe that is made when visually observing something that you just don't get from looking at a screen or photo.

I think the problem is actually way more insidious... Astronomy is going exactly the same way as many other hobbies in the 21st century: it's turning into a gear-fest, pushed by social media types, where the focus is shifting towards obtaining and collecting equipment and being less concerned with simply leaving your house and enjoying the night sky with whatever you have available. TH-camr after TH-camr constantly show off their telescopes (note: plural), their eyepiece "collection", their expensive astrographs, their computerised guidance systems, their tack-sharp & highly processed images, their home made piers, their observatories, etc, etc. It's a never-ending barrage of crap, it's fatiguing and I would expect newcomers to the hobby to be overwhelmed by all this nonsense. Too many folk are quick to suggest the "best" telescope for beginners to start exploring the night sky, without being mindful of the things that actually matter. Precious few are explaining that, before you even go near a telescope, you should take a modest pair of binoculars, a planisphere & a notepad outside and simply look up and see what you can find. They should also explain that, unless you are blessed with reasonably dark skies in your immediate locale, you will almost certainly need to travel to darker sites for the best viewing experience. It would be silly advice indeed, for somebody to recommend a 6" Dobsonian to somebody who doesn't own a car and regularly needs to travel to & from darker skies to enjoy the hobby, yet how many times have we heard this beginner-friendly advice from the gear evangelists pushing the "most aperture for your buck"? This is what I mean by the focus is almost always on amassing pieces of gear. Gear does not dictate your enjoyment of astronomy and having the most expensive gear will most certainly NOT provide you with the most enjoyment. Gear should come purely out of necessity and be purchased to fill the gaps in your viewing needs.

Finding a object in the sky with the naked eye is how it was meant to be seen. Thats the natural beauty of it and the reward of locating it. The newer generation wants pretty an bragging wright, but while your wasteing time with all that computer processing I'm enjoying the universe and all it has to offer with the naked eye and can appresiate it in it's natural form. With my 8 in and 14 in dob I have all bases covered for visual. Keep looking up you all, it's there.

I agree partially. Visual is the only astronomy I do but when there is a seestar and a screen on which you can see an image being produced (stacked on the fly) attracts attention too. Seeing an onbject with your own eyes is magical en for me the best thing in astronomy.

❤🎉😢 I'm getting back into visual astronomy in Canada BC with a 12-inch skywatcher dobsonian Trussell if you don't do visual you don't get a real live view I couldn't imagine taking a picture and not watching through add telescope good day Vancouver BC Canada😅

Thank you for the detailed review, I'm stuck on this and Skywatcher AZ GTi. Both of them are in the same price range and i would like opinion from you if it would be the right choice.

All true. My experience is that i went from a very polluted (and light polluted) asian city to australia, dark skies are accessible here and there are amazing objects in the southern hemisphere to look at. I eventually got a 12 inch dobsonian and have been enjoying visual astronomy ever since.

Visuals vs astrophotography. Not certain why the latter has supplanted the former. I suspect both cultural (Hubble) and commercial interests (baiting customers into believing it was their idea they need that next accessory to excel in our competitive culture). Part of that baiting is evident in companies pushing "fast" short tube scopes. My experience was different. I'm 73 and before a lot of todays motivations. My 1st scope at about 13 was 76mm Sears Discoverer refractor, probably about F/15 on an actually very stable wooden leg equatorial mount. Learned how to polar align manually and follow objects by a long flex cable attached to the appropriate axis I turned by hand to follow objects. Eventually upgraded to a "clock drive" but gave it up for the cable. :) Moon, Venus thru Saturn, Sun both with a risky filter but also a safer projection screen attached on the focuser tube. My favorite things were star clusters but most of all double stars I found in Menzel's Field Guide to the Stars and Planets. Loved testing my scopes ability to split double stars and see the distinct color of each star in the pair. Then cataracts and astigmatism got in the way. Surgery cured the former but not the later. So a branch of astrophotography, EAA came to the rescue. Using realtime live stacking of a Dwarf 2 displayed on my phone and eventually a laptop screen is giving me a larger image of some objects that are more difficult with my eyes directly through an eyepiece. I still view directly thru other scopes but EAA broadens my opportunity. I'd gladly go back to the visual days but I am thankful for that cousin to astrophotography, EAA to allow both real-time and "augmented" libraries of those memories as father time challenges youthful joys. For that reason I am thankful however I'm thankful for my 14 year old journeys that many younger kids today might never have. I think I'm the lucky one.

You make a good point. I have been into the hobby for about 6.5 months, and it has been challenging but I am convinced to keep at it. I have had difficulty with visual aspects because of focus which is not an issue when using cameras. People ask to see objects and I am not able to show them because of the cameras. I will focus more on visuals to be able to familiarize myself with both sides of the hobby. keep up the good work!

1. Once youve seen the moon, planets and the seven sisters several times and other star clusters not to mention all the smudges in the sky its boring. 2. Its a money pit and not everyone can afford such telescopes and accessories you have in your room. 3. Once people realise they need to spend literally thousands on bigger mirrors/refractors etc.. and good quality eye pieces to get a decent view they tap out. Astrophotography is affordable and much more satisfying and can see much more detail and colour than our eyes ever could. My Conclusion... If you spend thousands then you will be invested for a longer period (money pit). If you spend a few hundred you can be amazed until your bored then get into astrophotography for the win and share your pictures with others and diy that thing and truly make it yours.

im in an astro group, went one night to their meetup and everyone there was doing astrophotography. it was a lil weird me being at my scope all night and everyone else on their computers and tablets. i dont get photography, ive always been the guy to just go on a trip and not really sweat taking pics of it cuz 100s of others prolly already have and much better pics then i would have

My approach is very similar to yours- and so is my experience of the decline in visual. Nothing in the hobby has matched the joy that visual astronomy brings me. It's sad to see it declining, but at the same time it's worth celebrating the number of new people joining the hobby through automated smart telescopes. It will in future be only a minority who do visual, but the unique beauty it offers means it will never die.

I started off visual with the odd bit of planetary imaging using an old adapted webcam, however after time the lure of astrophotography got my hooked & there have been nights of frustration but rewarding when it all comes together. I also did a lot of solar outreach showing people views of the Sun & that was very rewarding. I've seen people join groups pour loads of money buying kit, back then I'd always say get a refractor decent mount & a DSLR to try it out just in case the hobby isn't for you, but then you got people going no buy mono & filters & in some cases they did they bought everything. Of course then they'd want to know how it works but no one would tell them so in the end they'd sell up everything at a huge loss it's pretty sad really.

Well said sir, you are quite right. I have been doing astrophotography since 1990 starting with a 35mm camera and 50mm lens on a tripod. Nowadays I always take my binoculars with me when i go to my dark site to use while my RC8 system is taking my subs. The astronomy society I belong to does school visits with three or four visual setups. It is very satisfying to inspire the children but it is the case that some are not interested while others get very excited to see the Moon or Jupiter or Saturn. If it is cloudy then we show them our images and try to get them using a planishere instead of their phone or tablet which is often not properly aligned with the sky. All the best, Peter.

I love doing astrophotography and visual but I wanted to see things like nebulae which in a Bortle 7 backyard is near impossible with small refractors while astrophotography allows me to see what’s actually there that I can’t see. If I had something like an 8+” dob I’m sure I’d do more visual. I think the decline of visual astronomy is a combination of the introduction of cheap smart telescopes and the reason I started astrophotography. My goal has never been to get a ton of likes on instagram etc. My goal is to share this hobby with anyone who may come across and get people into astronomy.

I agree with all what you think. My goal has always been to feed my memory, not my hard disk. I like to see or even take - time to time - nice pictures of the sky wonders, but no image gives me the emotions I got when I look directly to some distant nebula, cluster or galaxy.

Thank you for a really good video, I agree and really prefer visual Astronomy because it’s simpler and never boring. When I show someone Saturn in my telescope they are amazed what they can see with their own eyes, anyone can download and view a photo of Saturn from Hubble but to see these objects with their own eyes is awesome and is much less expensive. Thank you for your video.

I started in visual astronomy and just starting to get my feet wet in astrophotography. One thing I can say about visual astronomy is that when I am looking through the eyepiece at a globular cluster, a planet, the Moon, comets or even the Sun, I feel a connection to the universe. I can show a picture to someone but they can't grasp what they are looking at it the same way. You really notice this at star parties where people have seen many pictures but are in awe when they lay eyes on something for the first time.

I agree, that skipping visual astronomy is a mistake. We need to go back and not let technology railroad our lives. We are missing out by doing so.

Well put, you expose both perspectives with clarity, taking into account the human factor of living the connection with the real time experience with visual astronomy and also the learning curve and different experience of astrophotography, which involves a lot of post-processing and requires a lot of money and time.

Excellent analysis, I share your point of view. Astrophotography is exciting, but difficult, solitary and very expensive... Visual astronomy and astrophotography must absolutely coexist. And astrophotography sells dreams, but also greatly misleads people who imagine that it is simple.... The progress of astrophotography is also responsible for the disappointment in visual astronomy... we imagine that we will see wonders in the eyepiece, and it is most often false... Sometimes astrophotography is like a dangerous mirage... Considerably amplified by the social networks that we love so much...

Workmanship in terms of beauty. And here I thought scopes are about optical performance and a good focuser.

Been into astronomy about 12 years or more.. Light pollution here and I could see quite a few messier objects during 7 years, but only a handfull were visually impressive, like bright planets, and orion nebula. I have a 12 inch dob and was about to purchase a 16 inch but found out about night vision (light intensifiers). Changed everything. I could count mayby 7 stars on average naked eye where I live. With this, for example, I can see entire milky way band across the whole sky. So many galaxies etc. can now be seen even with all this light pollution. It's not cheap, but I could have spent same on new telescope. I do take lots of iphone images with it. But live viewing is much much better. The front objective lens is so huge like you're actually in the space itself.

I love visual astronomy but my location is bortle 7.1 so the only thing I can really see with my Celestron 8" SCT are the planets, the moon, globular clusters, bright stars, and bright nebula. Galaxies and faint nebulae are invisible. The only way I can see them is through astrophotography. I hate that. I'd rather be seeing them with my eyes. The first time I started astrophotography I was wondering why anyone thought that was fun. It was boring. You point the telescope at a point in the sky and go inside to watch TV or read a book. There was no real connection to the telescope or to the stars. Visual was relaxing and it was "my time." That said, I found it was a new challenge for me in my old age. I saw the light of astrophotography, so to speak, and now I do astrophotography more than visual. In fact, I haven't done visual in about 2 or 3 months mainly because it throws all my focus settings out the window on my EAF when I attached a prism and/or Binoviewer.

The idea of pointing an equipment to a specific sky object for long hours of exposure sometimes gets boring, and takes away the marvels of the night sky.

Try live-stacking as a way to get an image in a few minutes. You can explore a dozen targets in an evening. SharpCap is the best tool. You can save the frames and fully process them if you want, but you don’t have to. Also it’s great for outreach. You can have beautiful images in a few minutes.

The decline of visual astronomy summed up in 1 word. Instagram. Everyone wants that dopamine hit on social media.

I think visual astronomy is amazing. I love the photos as well. You can like both.

Hi There - I enjoyed this video I am an Astrophotographer who has recently got back into visual. I think you raise some great points, and even my good images dont compare to how I feel looking thru an eyepiece. I think visual is very good in helping calm us down too in such a busy world. I did an interview recently on my channel with a visual astronomer I think you will enjoy. Cheers Ollie

Astrophotography is too complicated for me. I like a grab and go telescope with no electronics. Sitting outside in a dark sky with simple equipment and a star map is all I need. Finding objects manually is all the reward I need. I agree that visual astronomy is slowly disappearing in favor of computerized cameras that create images with colors that you would never see otherwise.

I just began this hobby a few months ago. I already know my main focus will be visual, with my EP's and my 8" dob. I totally agree about finding a peaceful night of silence, and "WOWwwww!!"

I agree. I found that astrophotography is a rabbit hole. Yes, you can get started into astrophotography with a minimum of skill and spending a modest amount of money. However, one discovers quite quickly that to obtain print quality images it is going to be expensive. I am now retired and can tell that I simply don't have the kind of budget to come anywhere close to the level of quality, I actually gave up a long time ago. I know enough about astron0my that I turned to wanting to make a contribution to astronomy and am now turning to photometry of variable stars. Here I think I already have the necessary skills and equipment to accomplish it. Yes, I had to purchase a set of filters and a better mount, but I am going to use my existing CCD camera and OTA which are more than capable to do the job. Of course, I'd like to upgrade things but plan on seeing what I can accomplish without all the latest gear out there.

Hi, good video and i tend to agree. Started in this hobby 2 years ago with 8SE, which i still use today for visual. But, i now own 5 AP rigs and have kinda gone to the dark side too. Partly because i live in bortle7 and what i can see from my backyard is not much. I do drive to dark sky’s sometimes and my car is full of equipment. 1 visual, 2 AP rigs, tent , cooler, etc…. Technology and Social Media have hurt the hobby. So, where do we go from here?

nice one

very well explained

I agree with what you said, I don't see anyone interested in visual astronomy anymore at least in my circle here in UAE, all of these guys just want to see pretty pictures and the worst thing is people are buying smart telescopes for visual.

I like both but in my light polluted yard visual is useless and in reality get boring after seeing the rings of Saturn for the 125th time. Unless you have a very large aperture then there is only so many smudges you can observe.. You have an agenda since you sell scopes.

Not only am I an avid visual astronomer but I buy, fix up and resell telescopes for a side hustle. I’m shocked at how many prospective buyers want to see pics that I’ve taken with the scope. Everyone wants to be an astrophotographer with a $300 rig.