Jennifere20

Thankyou! I will attempt it later! Too cold to go out yet lol

Ok great. Thankyou. You used to live up ‘norf’?haha

Ok so, will I have to align it with Polaris to fix my latitude to 53.3 or does it not Matthew where the scope is when I adjust it? 

Who’s jennifer Eccles? Ha. Nope. E is my surname. 

8 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

When you set up the EQ mount, you set the angle of the RA axis to match your longitude which I guess is 53.3 . That sets the rotation of the scope to match the way the objects will revolve around the sky for your location, relative to north (well, polaris). So for the mount to be most effective you want the RA axis pointing up toward north, for the EQ2 type mount a compass would get you approximately right. Now when you've locked onto your target, you should only need to adjust the RA sloMo to keep it in view.

Ahhh I get you. So rather than moving it up and down I’d only need to move it left and right? 

8 hours ago, Padraic M said:

One step at a time!!!! Get used to what you know now for a little while.

The key to 'pointing north' is that it's your mount that points north. Your scope can point in any direction you want. This is the next lesson to learn and it's called Polar Alignment. If your mount is properly polar-aligned, then you only have to manually adjust the RA control to follow an object (or you can use the motor drive if you want). If it's not polar aligned, you will need to use both RA and Dec controls to follow an object, and it's a bit more tricky. It's not a real problem for you immediately, but you will want to learn that trick soon.

 

Ahhh right. I might just try and find my way around the sky first before I get into all the technical stuff 😳

Will not having my scope set to north affect my viewing objects? Because I don’t understand it how you set it to north and then move the telescope around to find things? 

So they don’t work properly? Haha and my last post was meant to say move not love 😀

Oh bloody hell. Don’t talk to me about that yet haha. I’m only just figuring out how to love the thing! 😄

Around August? It was mentioned by John earlier? 

My only problem is is where to find the planets as I can’t find them

with the naked eye to zoom in on 

Oh I can’t wait! Is Jupiter viewable most nights? 

I hold a science degree believe it or not 🙄

Oh thank the lord for that haha. Was about to go get the hammer 😬

Just now, Jennifere20 said:

It’s bogged off behind the houses now. Will try again tomorrow 

What phone do you have? I have an iPhone 11. Can’t find the app you suggested? 

6 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

I'd like to hope it isn't broken, how far is the focuser racked in, do you get to the point in the focus where Venus shows as a sharply defined crescent that's quite thin especially at the tips?

My images are a little out of focus for the camera so bloat a little, not to mention its a very bright object against a dark background. 

Are you able to take a pic to show what you're seeing?
Not easy but phone against the eyepiece might just do it. Ideally you need the camera focus to infinity and manual settings mode (pro mode on mine) or try the FV-5 lite app. We'll have more of an idea of we can see what you do  

It’s bogged off behind the houses now. Will try again tomorrow 

7 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

Well done!!

if you're seeing a black dot then you need to adjust focus a bit as that'll be the secondary mirror you're seeing. Adjust until the image is at its smallest which should then be a sharp thin crescent in Venus' case.

I tried focusing. It was just constantly there. Could the scope be broken? 

Aww thanks!! I’ve just seen it!! Should there be a black sphere in the middle of Venus??? 

Later in the year as in when? I can’t wait that long. I need to see a planet!!

Oh jeez!! With all this frustration etc il be tucked up in bed by then! Ha

My neighbours house roof is in the way of Venus!!!!

2 minutes ago, John said:

There are quite a few that you can see with your scope. You need as dark skies as possible, and no moon in the sky. Low magnification as well. You can't really see them in the finder so you get the scope pointing as close as possible to the right part of the sky then pan around with a low power eyepiece in the scope.

Up in Ursa Major there are two close together that I have seen with a 60mm scope - Messier 81 and Messier 82. Here is a chart of how to find them:

They might look a bit like this though the scope:

 

Cool. I’ve got a few apps on my phone that show me those stars and star signs etc. I need to find the Big Dipper don’t I 

‘Norf’*

Haha ‘Borg’. Gonna get wrapped up and go out soon. I’m not going to let it defeat me

Have you ever found a galaxy?