TOTK makes BOTW look like a tech demo. I wasn’t very whelmed with BOTW, either, but I am glad I checked out TOTK because it is, IMO, the best exclusive on the system.
I do agree that TotK was a better game than BotW, though I can also see how someone who may not love the BotW model wouldn’t be enamored with TotK either.
I just got totk for $20 black Friday a few months ago. I got through the first two or three minor dungeons and it didn’t really grab me. How far do I have to go before it becomes addicting?
Do you consider yourself as a creative or a Minecraft fan? (Or in a nutshell somebody who likes Legos, map edition/creation etc), because I don’t, and I love BOTW but the building mechanics of TOTK have me scared of it 😅
Do NOT buy a $200 telescope new. You’re going to overpay to get a piece of kit that’s okay at best and unpleasant to use at worst (possibly due to uncomfortable eyepieces, difficulty in actually using the scope with bad alt/az controls, bad ergonomics with the stand, etc).
If you want a cheap scope just to find out if you’ll like amateur astronomy: Go hit some garage sales or a resell app or Craigslist or something, but I particularly recommend garage sales. There’s plenty of these cheap ‘hobby killer’ telescopes that can be had for a fraction of their retail price this way, and the resell value is a little more reflective of what they’re actually worth.
Alternatively: drop about 1/4 of that on some good binoculars. You can absolutely stargaze with binoculars, I actually always bring some when I do public outreach. I’m very fond of 7x50s, because the low magnification (the 7) works really great on open clusters and makes them easier to steer, while also not being so heavy that they wear out your arms after ten minutes. The 50 describes the aperture size, which means that your binoculars will have plenty of light- gathering capacity. The bigger the apertures, the more light they’ll collect, but the heavier and harder to use they’ll be. Plus, their magnification won’t be too far beneath the maximum magnification of a generic retail telescope.
If you want a great starter scope: I’d suggest that you save your money, don’t burn your budget on a crappy retail refractor. I’d also suggest doing one of the two above things to decide if you even like astronomy enough to spend the money on a good scope. If you do like it, and you do want a good starter scope, it’s hard to go wrong with a 6" dobsonian. They’re relatively cheap for what they are, very portable and manageable, and there’s a LOT you can see with them, even in the city, but especially in dark skies. Also, you could probably find some good used ones in your area for a bargain; there’s lots of folks who splurge on telescopes and fall out of love with them, and then just have it sitting in the corner of the garage for years and years. Like I said, garage sales are really great for this.
Btw, don’t get aperture fever and splurge on a double-digit aperture. I did that, but I specifically did it for outreach purposes; if I was getting it strictly for my own use, I’d have a $1500 oversized dust collector because it can be a real PITA to move outside.
I never even thought about garage sales! Is there a way you can test to see if they’re damaged or defective in the middle of the day? I’d hate to purchase a broken one without even knowing it.
Tl;Dr getting focus before you leave isn’t SUPER important. It can be kinda tricky to figure out for newcomers, and you’re better off using your time to assess the action and components of the scope.
Yeah, so, you’re going to want to spend some time on YouTube U learning about how to focus a telescope. It could be trickier with a dobsonian/newtonian because you may need to collimate it (though the smaller the telescope is, the less important that becomes) to see clearly, and someone at a garage sale may or may not be willing to do it for you / trust you to do it. Generally speaking, though, if all the moving parts move like you expect them to and don’t move like you don’t expect them to, the lens or mirrors aren’t obviously damaged or scratched, the eyepieces aren’t obviously damaged or scratched (eyepieces are MUCH more sensitive to any kind of damage than mirrors or lenses in terms of user experience), then you’ve got a winner. It’s hard to think of a situation where a telescope’s parts would be in working order and good condition but somehow be broken in a way that prevents it from achieving focus.
For assessing movement: with a dobsonian in particular, but really any mount, you’ll want it to be very easy (ALMOST but not quite frustratingly easy) to move the telescope so that you can track targets across the sky easily. The telescope, however, shouldn’t move on its own without some force acting on it (i.e. touch, wind, etc). If it’s moving under gravity, then either the balance is off (very possible with a dob, and usually easy to fix too), the friction is off (also an easy fix with a dob), or the mount could be bad if it uses some other kind of altitude-azimuth (left-right-up-down) mount that uses clamps and locking knobs and such. Also, make sure you try adjusting the focuser tube. They stick out and tend to get whacked, and if your focuser tube is busted, you’re SOL. Just check to see that it moves when it should and not when it shouldn’t, and that it goes all the way in and out without falling out; if it doesn’t, check for some little thumbscrews on the focuser. Sometimes, when those are tightened down, they’ll keep the focuser from moving, or let it move way too easy if they’re too loose. If those thumbscrews aren’t the problem, then the focuser is busted and you should give it a pass.
I also highly recommend checking the finder scope- that’s the little buddy telescope that’s attached to the telescope that’s there to do business. They stick out a bit and have a habit of getting damaged. It’s not a huge deal if it’s broken, they can be easily replaced, but you’re going to want to replace it before you head out or you’re going to have a bad time. Lots of people love Telrad finders, I’m an absolute nut for RACIs; beware the little straight-through scopes, though, as they’ll murder your neck when you have to look at something high up.
If you really want to try and look at something (not a bad idea, per se, just not the most effective use of your time. I’m assuming neither you nor the seller will immediately know how to achieve focus with the scope), try to pick something both big and very, very far off. If the moon’s up, try looking at that. If not, try to pick the furthest, biggest thing you can see (big makes it easy, but if it’s too close, you simply will not be able to get focus on it, period) and try to sight it in.
This deserves its own post because I nearly forgot but it’s kinda important:
If you end up buying a reflector telescope from a garage sale, DO NOT CLEAN THE MIRRORS. Unless you can’t see your reflection in them at all, just don’t touch them. You’ll be shocked at how little the dust actually impacts your view, but these mirrors are super crazy easy to permanently mess up. If you must clean them, DO NOT use a rag, DO NOT use compressed air! Use a gentle stream of distilled water to rinse it clean. The big danger here is that you could end up dragging sharp/hard debris across the mirror and cutting some serious gouges into it. This is also true of the eyepieces. Don’t use re-usable rags to clean them. I use lintless cotton eyeglass patches to clean my pieces after fogging them up with my breath (that’s cheap and readily accessible distilled water) once I’m satisfied that they’re free of any large debris. I wipe in one direction, flip it, wipe in another direction, and dispose of it. That’s it. The eyepieces being a little dirty will mess up your view, but a dirty mirror probably won’t. Only clean it if you’re 300% convinced that you must.
Also good advice: try using the telescope at least twice before you go to the event. The moon is probably the easiest, brightest target, and it’s a good place to start with making sure your focus is close to perfect. Once you’ve got the moon, move on to a few slightly more challenging but still easy targets that you should be able to see, even in an urban area, to make sure you understand how to use the scope and put it through some actual use. A pretty easy target would be the first star out from the cup on the handle of the big dipper. Tell me what you see when you find it in the scope. Jupiter is also a pretty easy, rewarding target. The sword of Orion is another bright, easy one. Lastly, Venus is a really easy target and has a little surprise for you when you find it. But two uses is enough to get familiar with your equipment, get familiar with its use, and identify any problems before you actually get out there.
Thanks a lot for all your advice! I looked around Craigslist and ended up finding an astronomy enthusiast who was upgrading his gear and gave me a great deal. I purchased a Sky Watcher Heritage 130 Tabletop Dobsonian, SVBONY SV225 Alt-Azimuth Mount, and a SLIK PRO 700 DX AMT tripod for about $208. The MSRP with tax is easily triple that! The equipment was in great in shape and I could easily see some of the brighter stars in a Bortle 8/9 sky relatively easily. I plan to purchase a couple of light filtering eyepieces for seeing the sun and moon to complete the setup.
Hey, that’s awesome! Great job! It’s going to be real easy to drop a LOT of cash on eyepieces. Don’t. Start on the cheaper side and only move up if you find that the eyepieces are limiting your viewing experience. A lot of people really like the 8-24 mm click-stop zoom pieces for starter eyepieces, though I don’t have any experience with them. If you really want to splurge, buy a wide field of view piece. The full moon will be a deadly laser but doable without a filter. The sun will literally set your eyepiece on fire. I’ve seen it happen. An eyepiece filter will not be enough to protect you or your equipment from the sun. There are filters that will fit over the aperture (the end of the tube) that are basically the same material as solar eclipse glasses, and that’s what you need. They aren’t expensive, last I looked, though, again, I have no experience with them. For a list of possible targets to get some practice, see astroleague’s urban observing program here: www.astroleague.org/urban-observing-program/Note that there’s a separate list of multi-star systems you should be able to split (see at least two distinct stars) in a scope of your size. I’d also recommend using Stellarium; it’s a free app that’s actually free, and it’s absolutely dead useful for learning the night sky and planning/aiding viewing sessions. I use it to help me plan my outreach outings, and I really can’t recommend it enough. Best of luck, I’m really happy for you, and please let me know how it goes!
+1 on binos. They’ve kept me happy because they fit in a backpack or carry-on luggage. I’m deep in light pollution, so viewing is best done with some travel. They have less magnification, but they’re as bright as a much more expensive telescope and there’s a certain value to having two eyes on the night sky.
10x50 is where I landed. Probably the same weight as your 7x50. While yes, the 50(mm) describes the outer objective lens, the key thing is really the lens on the eye side. Divide the aperture by the mag and you find that exit pupil size. 50/10=5mm, which is about the size of a dilated adult eyeball pupil - and they get smaller as you age. I’m guessing you have a Celestron or similar astro bino which has some advantages for this hobby. I am surprised at the ~$40 price tag, so I no longer want to recommend against it. Where I WAS going was that 7x35s would likely give a similar image from a reputable manufacturer while saving a little weight and being more likely to be found at a garage sale. But who could say no to $40 new 7x50s? As long as OP avoids those 20x50 boating binos or 10x25 hunting binos, they’ll be in good shape. My 10x50s are closer to OP’s budget because I opted for Nikon Action Extremes to survive my beach spot, hikes, travel, drops, and any other mishaps alike. Things go bump in the night so rubber coating and waterproofing was worth it to me
I use 7x35s for outreach and they work pretty well. I got my kids the Celestron 10x50s and can’t recommend them enough. They’re really, really great. Not too heavy or bulky, even for kids, but still very capable of enhancing your stargazing experience. They can juuuust about split a Galilean moon, IME; Jupiter will look a little odd, but I haven’t been able to distinctly identify a moon with them.
By split a gallilean moon, do you just mean see up to 4 moons separate from Jupiter? I’m pretty sure I can distinctly see them, at least with elbows on a railing or on some mount. I guess I’ll have to look tonight if it’s clear. I kinda only remember catching 3 at a time and not investigating further. I do have 20/15 vision so I guess that plays a role. Good point to remind me not everyone has my hawk eyes. I don’t catch much color though. Usually too small and washed out. It’ll have slight pink bands at best. I haven’t been able to note a crescent shape for venus, either. But I figure even cheap scopes can show my planets, so it hasn’t been my focus
Yeah, that’s what I mean. I’m impressed! For me, Jupiter looked kinda smeary, like looking at it with an astigmatism, only it wasn’t an astigmatism, it was the moons. As for Venus, I guess you might just need higher magnification to cut through the glare and resolve the crescent. The minimum power I use in my dob is 50x and you can clearly see the crescent at that power.
Alright, seeing the moons was harder than I remember with 10x50 Nikon AE. Handheld, about 80deg up. For a few moments, I could pick them out, but the shakes got too intense to see them again reliably. That’s with decent knowledge of what to expect. My memory is probably based on the one time I actually used my homebuilt parallelogram mount. Or maybe when jupiter was 30deg up and my elbows were on a railing
Hey, it’s cool that you followed up with this! It would make sense that the shaking is too intense for the fine details, especially at that high angle. I feel like I’ve heard of people using image-stabilized binos for stargazing, maybe that could make a difference?
Looking at the prices, my cheap ass would sacrifice some portability and opt for a tripod and a lightly fabricated aluminum or oak stick (read: drill 3 holes) to make a 24-36" offset mounting plank and carry a 5lb counterweight
But as regular people, gamers, Lemmy posters, why are we doing the same? How is it serving us? Are we all influencers in waiting, hoping to up our updoot count and build a following of… dozens?
Many people are rationalizing their purchase decisions. Not everybody can afford to buy (and play!) two games so if you have two highly anticipated games or consoles coming out in the same time, most people can only get one. And then they have to choose. Afterward, they don’t want to hear that the other game is better, that it’s also great and they are missing out on a lot of fun and that the one they didn’t get is totally awesome.
I havent played 16 either but i also see almost no appeal. Its clearly an action rpg at heart and that isnt what Final Fantasy was originally about.
The depth of story people expect in the modern era is as high as it was when ff7 ot ff10 released, the only issue is that expectations for production value have gone through the roof.
If anything is holding square enix back from creating the next ff masterpiece, its their commitment to high quality visuals with extremely diverse gameplay, and unfortunately that is what they have groomed their fans to expect. This is why the ff7 remake is being done over 3 games, to get that much story into the visual and gameplay depth people expect, it would probably dilute the experience to cram it into 1 5-year production. That and they make money off 3 games instead of 1 lol
What would salvage ff17 in the eyes of a classic ff fan would be to cut down production value and variations of gameplay. SE just needs to boil in good turn based combat, then focus on creating a beautifully unique setting with deep, engaging lore. That is what was so powerful about ff7 and ff10 imo. A couple minigame distractions would be good, but the amount of effort that went into the minigames in ff7 rebirth is just ridiculous.
It would be nice to see a spinoff series that focused on this at least… We can dream.
Story is mediocre. Dialog is tiresome, I started button spamming to get through a lot of the conversations that didn’t matter. Combat is nothing remarkable, no matter the weapon combos, and the enemies are just damage sponges with no real tactics necessary to defeat a given enemy. Magic is kind of cool but you have to really spec into mage to get there. The immersion is about as deep as a puddle on flat concrete.
It is one of the games of all time, a game you could not play and miss out on nothing.
Edit: Just beat it, terrible ending that feels like it was tacked on last minute to provide some sort of conclusion.
I’m liking it. I’m big on exploration, and I hate when games have difficult but reachable places, but when you get there, there’s nothing. That is not the case with Avowed. Just about every hard to reach place I’ve managed to BS my way to has had something. It’s usually just money and some mats, but occasionally I’ve found some unique equipment or accessories.
Combat is just a slightly better Skyrim combat but with a dodge. I will say the dodge has fucked me multiple times because it’s just the jump button, but if you press any direction other than forward when you press it, you dodge in that direction. So no jumping sideways or backwards. I’ve accidentally dashed to my death off a cliff more than a few times.
I personally don’t think the story and characters are as bad as everyone is saying, but I’m easy to please. It doesn’t seem any worse than Skyrim story-wise. I like that the companions actually have personalities and banter with each other. They feel more like Dragon Age or Mass Effect companions, granted not nearly as deep. But I’ve already laughed several times from their ambient camp banter, and I only have two companions and less than 15 hours of play time.
The beginning tutorial area is weak, and character creation wasn’t very good. I honestly expected to quit after my first short 2ish hour session, but when I finally got set loose in the first real area and started exploring and climbing around on rooftops and finding underwater caves, and finding loot left and right, I got hooked.
The Fallout London mod for Fallout 4 was incredible. It’s like a an entire new game for free. They really captured the spirit of the Fallout universe. Better than anything Bethesda put out in the past couple years
I tried so hard to get this one to work and it just… didn’t. The intro played, vanilla FO4 started. I patched it again, vanilla intro started, crash to desktop. Even tried versions from Steam & GoG. Manually patched it, failed. Downloaded the patcher from GoG, failed.
Outer worlds was received perhaps even better and was more popular than Avowed is currently. People’s memories are fuzzy I guess but Outer Worlds was a genuine GOTY contender.
Yeah that doesn’t track at all with what I remember people saying, and what I remember thinking myself.
I distinctly remember people citing the repetitive gameplay, short campaign, shallow choices, etc. I’m not sure why it was ever a GOTY contender, but there simply never was any way it would ever beat a game like Sekiro. It’s likely that “new Obsidian RPG” drove any hype surrounding the game.
Edit: Disco Elysium came out in 2019, that fact alone tells you that Outer Worlds being a contender was uhh… if not fraudulent, then certainly questionable.
I’m sorry but I genuinely don’t care what game journalists think. Their opinions are about as valuable as mud, and at least I can grow plants from mud.
Every single discussion I see searching up on Google ‘is Outer Worlds good’ are sponsored reviews from people who got the game for free, or B average reviews from people who got the game for dirt cheap. When I find what real people have to say about Outer Worlds, it’s almost unanimous that it was bad.
Don’t apologize for having an opinion. Just apologize for discounting the ones that don’t agree with yours. It’s listed as very positive on Steam and sold very well. Your hyperbole about everyone saying it was bad is provably wrong.
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