Jasonb

Hi again, So, as some sort of a structured way of practising Observing and getting used to my Scope and the night sky, I decided to follow the Moore Winter Marathon, both the 25 Naked Eye/Binocular items and the 25 Telescope items. Last night was perfect for observing, clear skies all evening long. The only issue was I was shattered; my daughter hadn't sleep much the night before, so neither had I. I was in need of sleep, not observing, but I was keenly aware it could be cloudy for the next week. A compromise was to take out my 7x50 Binoculars and see what I could see for a few minutes without the scope, starting at the start of the Naked Eye/Binoculars Marathon. The first two were easy, the Pleiades and Hyades clusters. Both easy to find and both looking lovely in the bins (that's what they're called, right? ). I think sometimes having everything in a single field of view is just as effective as a high magnification view of it. After enjoying them for a minute or two, I moved on to number 3, The Triangulum Galaxy (M33). This was much harder, and in the end I didn't find it. I found Mirach ok, and Triangulum, so I was in the right region, but just couldn't spot it, my urban back garden probably not helping. The Moore Marathon does use The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) as a guide for M33, and I found that easily enough. That was the highlight of the night for me, my first Galaxy and it was pretty obvious in the binoculars. I'll be going back to that with my Scope when I can! Next on the list was M35 Cluster in Gemini. I found Castor/Pollux easily enough, but was struggling slightly to follow down the 'body' of Castor to its foot. It became a lot easier when I widened my FOV (i.e. stopped using the bins) I was able to get the full layout of Gemini easier, and then could find the leg/foot that lead to M35. It wasn't particularly bright but definitely ticked off the list. The next two on the list (Beehive Cluster - M44 and M67) were too low on the horizon, behind some clouds, for me to have any hope of seeing them. As I myself was fading, I quickly jumped to the well visible Orion and ticked off Number 22 (Orion's Sword) with the fuzziness of M42 visible even with binoculars. I'd looked at M42 before with my Scope and loved it, another place I'll be revisiting! Finally for the night was Orion's Belt itself (Number 25 on the list) and the Collinder 70 Cluster that is all around it. All in all it was only about 20 minutes, but a good start was made! I took advantage of also ticking off Number 7 (Jupiter) as while it wasn't visible at this stage in the evening, I have seen it and the four moons last week, so it has been 'observed' on the list. Not sure what the weather is like for the rest of the week, but I'm liking having a list to follow to look for items from, and a red light head torch helped as well. Have told myself that if there are any items from the Naked Eye/Binoculars list that I can't get with the bins, I'll revisit them with the Telescope. Maybe not quite in the spirit of the 'rules', but I'm doing this to get to know the night sky better, something I'm already improving my knowledge of, so it's all good!

Excellent report, can't beat getting some.time out under clear skies!

Yes, good points, I'll need to check how much weight the tray and its supports could take. From what I remember the tray screws on to the three supports, which are all connected to each other as well, but I'll still test it to see. The first couple of times I used the tripod I had it at the smallest height, thinking like you say that it would be steadier. But also as you say, it's far more comfortable for me to have it at full height so I can stand, and the back garden wall and other houses block out less of the sky the higher I have the telescope. In the end though, I know a stronger steadier tripod would be a long term upgrade plan if I keep at this for a year or two, right now I have enough to be getting on with, especially when I get the Barlow and one or two eyepeices. Am now waiting for more clear skies to start on the 50 Moore Marathon items though obviously I'll have seen some of them already. I was thinking that once I have that done I will have by default made a start on the Messier Catalog, so I might as well continue on that. If I can get both of them done then I should know my equipment, and the skies, a good bit better!

Yeah, I read about hanging something off it, I'm gonna get some cord and a 2lt milk carton with water in it and see how it goes, should be able to hang something off the little tray that is between the tripod legs. I've confused myself too about whether rotating the OTA within its rings changes the orientation of the view I get through the eyepiece or not, but I just did a very quick test indoors, without even using the eyepiece, and yes, if I rotate the tube, then the view I see through the focuser rotates as well, so that does change orientation! Yep, it's an EQ mount, but you're able to set the angle to 90 degrees and set it up so that it works like Alt-Az, so that's how I've been using it so far!

Cool, thanks for those details, I appreciate it! Definitely think just focusing on one subject and watching it for a while can be very rewarding. I'm also getting used to the slow motion controls, though I have noticed that I tend to need both to keep things in view. And if I rotate the OTA in the rings at all, for a better angle of viewing, I think that also changes the orientation on the EP (I *think* it does, am I right in that assumption?) which means I've a slightly different orientation to get used to. But the slow motion controls are definitely very handy. I did the maths and you were basically at what, 187.5x; the 8mm BST with a 2.25 Barlow will give me 183x, so definitely within my reach! I have noticed that the image in my scope is pretty shaky, I think that's down to the tripod, so I'm guessing that's another potential upgrade further in the future some day!

You and me both @astrocanito!

Any chance you have a pic of your 150 with the Dew Shield, just want to get an idea of how it looks, how long it is etc.? That sounds excellent about Mars, were you using the 150 or the Mak? What kind of magnification were you using? How do you find following a planet like that for an hour, lots of adjustments to keep it in the EP? Thanks Magnus, I'm in Naas. Baltimore is lovely, was there a good few years ago now, I'd say it's pretty dark there. I'm actually 10/15 minutes from Bortle 4 (either towards the Curragh in Kildare, or between here and Blessington), the Bortle 3 area is where my sister lives, west of Mullingar, so about an hour and a half away. Nothing but rain and clouds here tonight, but I have all 50 of Moore's Marathon printed off (thanks for the link Heather!) so that's my next task...

Thanks for the tips. I actually have the StarQuest 130p with a closed tube, so a shroud isn't needed (if I'm right in what you mean by it!). I tend to keep my eyepieces (all two of them) in my pocket and take one out at a time, so I'm thinking that should help keep them dew free? Am I right in thinking that the longer I stay outside, the more chance of Dew as the telescope temp drops more and more?

Thanks again for your encouragement, I'm aware that I'm reporting on stuff that is nothing new to nearly everyone on here, so it's hardly interesting! Yep, it is the Baader Q-Turret Barlow that I have my eye on (Da dum... Tish!), it was of course recommended to me on here. That'll be my second purchase, after the Cheshire. That said, a box with my wife's name on it, and also a First Light Optics sticker, arrived recently, so I may already have one of them, I just have to wait 'til Christmas to find out! That's a great link, I'll enjoy reading through all that, I do love learning things! Am also thinking that I may try to visit a darker site soon, now that I don't feel completely useless when setting up the scope. Though there will still be some self-consciousness (is that a word - Heather will know! ) with setting up in public. I'm in a Bortle 5 area, but there are some Bortle 4 areas within 10-15 mins so that would be easy to get to. Even better, my Sister has a house in the middle of the countryside, in a Bortle 3 area, so when lockdowns etc. ease a little I can see a trip being arranged. Though it's an hour and a half away, so I'd want to be fairly certain of the weather!

I completely agree! But sometimes I have trouble getting stars to focus sharply, and I'm pretty sure I should be able to get them to a decent sharp pinpoint. But it's all a learning curve. Yes, this would be very helpful alright! Someone knowledgeable looking down my scope and saying 'that's a nice image' or 'we need to fix that a bit' would help hone in what I should expect from it. I did manage to get out earlier this evening, I had the scope out at around 4:30 cooling down, and started viewing a little after 5 or so. After looking at Mars for a couple of minutes, I moved over to Epsilon 1 Lyr, the double double. I managed the first split easily, but couldn't see the second ones. There was some cloud moving about, and I spent a while looking for Uranus. I've tried this a few times but never managed it. I think the issue is it's basically in a fairly non-descript part of the sky right now, so there just isn't a killer star or shape of stars I can use to nail it down. Light cloud getting involved didn't help either! I can use Hamal, Sheratan and Mesarthim as a guide, and then go down towards Xi1 Ceti and Xi2 Ceti, but so far, while I probably have looked at it, I don't know for sure that I did. Next up was Mizar, which came out from behind the clouds. With the 25x I could easily see Mizar, Alcor and HD 116798 between them, and once I went to 65x I could split Mizar into A and B as well, so that was cool. I had a quick look at the Pleiades and used them to find the Hyades. I focused in on Aldebaran and that lead me to a nice little pair, Sigma1 Tauri and Sigma2 Tauri, to the south of it. Finally, as I was rather cold and more clouds were coming in, I had a look at Capella, nice and bright! Skysafari mentioned a small triangle of stars to its southwest called 'The Kids' or baby goats, but I couldn't see them, and Skysafari itself doesn't list them! Unfortunately Orion hadn't risen yet, so Sigma Orionis will have to wait for another night, especially as the clouds are here to stay now and rain is on the way. The cold got to me more tonight than last night for some reason (maybe it's just colder!) and I was having some focus issues with the scope. I think it was due to dew (I could definitely see some on the RDF) but I'm not sure if it was on the EP or the Secondary (the Primary looked fine). Occasional thin cloud didn't help with focusing for a clear sharp image either. Not sure if a dew shield would help much on a 5" Newtonian or not? Still, I got out two nights in a row so that's excellent, and my knowledge of what's out there, and how to see it, continues to increase!

Thanks! I'm am slowly getting better at navigating my way around and figuring out which star is which, and adjusting to the view in the scope being a different orientation to in binoculars or the naked eye. What I was actually referring to is not knowing what quality of image I should be getting. Should it be sharper/clearer, is there something I'm not doing that would improve the quality of whatever I'm looking at!

One thing I'm definitely struggling with is not knowing what to expect. Is what I'm seeing (in terms of quality of image) what I should expect from this scope/EPs, or should it be better with some adjustments or something. It's hard to know, and hard to find out as I can't get pictures of what I'm seeing to share. I do think you're right about learning something new Tiny Clanger, my first time using it was all about just trying to use the scope at all, and already I feel more confident about getting it lined up properly. I'm still using the mount in Alt-Az mode, and while I look forward to giving the EQ mode a go, I'm enjoying how easy it is to use this way for the moment. I had another look at collimation today using my cap, deciding that the secondary mirror wasn't quite presenting the perfect circle. Some adjustments later and I was happier, but then when I checked the alignment with the Primary it was all off completely! So I did my best to get it right again. I really need to leave it alone, at least until I have a proper piece of equipment to check it with. Thanks for the suggest for Epsilon_Lyrae, I'm actually getting my hopes up here as it's a really clear afternoon, and while it's meant to rain a lot tonight, I *think* I might some some clear skies this evening first!

Thanks for your encouragement! It's hard not to be enthusiastic when it's all so new! But it being new also means I'm learning as I go. It's one thing to spot 'Double Star' or 'Nebula' in Skysafari and think I'll give it a go, it's another when you get into the detail and find out that you're never gonna see it because, like you say, Pollux needs a big scope to spot the smaller one, or I need less light pollution to see the Flame Nebula etc.. But that's ok, it's how I learn. Thanks for the suggestions, I'm definitely gonna look for Mizar and Sigma Orionis next time, clouds permitting, and I've also downloaded the Moore Winter's Marathon (as recommended on here) to give me more targets to go for! Unfortunately 65x is the most I can do right now with the stock eyepieces I have. I do have an upgrade path in mind, a 2.25x Barlow and a 8mm BST StarGuider, but that'll be in the next few weeks/months. First up is a Cheshire; my take on it is there's no point throwing more magnification at the scope if I'm not sure if it's currently working at its best anyhow! So I'll get the collimation nailed down (I've done a bit with a home made eyecap, but clearly a Cheshire will be more exact) and then I'll see where I am with higher magnifications. The 8mm with the 2.25x Barlow gets me to 183x, from what I've read on here I doubt there's much need for anything more than that really with a 130P scope.

Hi all... I'm one of those newbies who was asking about Telescopes a month ago and then was lucky to find one and now am trying to learn how to use it! So please be patient with my first attempt to write about it. I've used it a couple of times, at the usual targets (Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) and each time I've got a little better, more used to the scope and to adjusting it, using an RDF and also getting used to Skysafari on my mobile, trying to figure out exactly what I'm looking at. I didn't hold out much hope for the weather tonight, though Met Eireann mentioned 'clear spells', so I was happy to see a good clear sky at around 10:30 or so. I tried not to get too excited and brought out the scope and left it to cool, telling myself if it was still clear at 11 I'd be in luck. And thankfully it was! I had a few ideas of what I wanted to see. First up was Orion, my favourite constellation, and I wanted a look at the belt and the sword. I was absolutely delighted to focus in with my 25x eyepiece and see a lovely clear M42, a distinctly 'fuzzy cloud'. My first nebula, I started with a good one. Using my 65x (after looking at Theta2 Orionis and getting my bearings) and some patient viewing, I could clearly see the four largest Trapezium, and slowly getting used to Skysafari I was not only able to identify them, but also note that I had observed them, thus making all this easier to remember later! I then decide to look at some known Double Stars to see if I could see them. I started with Pollux, but while I found it easily enough (it's hard to miss it, and I'm finding the RDF very useful!) I couldn't see it as a double with 65x. I've no idea if I should be able to or not though to be honest. Some clouds started appear, so I started looking for clearer spots. Sirius was just peeking above a house, so I gave that a go. I found the image to be all over the place, very colourful and hard to focus. I'm tempted to say that its proximity to the horizon, and the house roof I was looking over, might have been affecting the view, but I'm only guessing. Back to Orion's belt, I had a look at Alnitak for a bit, trying to see the nebula around there, but I realise now that they're much fainter and I had no luck. With the clouds getting worse, I gave the Pleiades a go. I got a good view, not as clear as I would have liked, and getting the orientation right with Skysafari, was able to focus in on Alcyone and also identify 24 Tauri, V647 Tau and HD 23608, each one fainter than the last. I do love the feeling of getting some stars in your scope, figuring out the shape/layout of them, and then getting them on Skysafari and orientating it until suddenly it matches and you know exactly where you are! With a final gap in the clouds I swung across to Castor to have a look, and convinced myself at 65x that I could just make out Castor A and B. I'm not 100% sure this wasn't just my brain telling my eyes what to see, but I do feel like it was more than one pin prick of light. At that the clouds won, and I packed away my stuff. A short enough session, so I felt the need to squeeze things in a bit, but at this stage of the hobby for me it's hard not to be impressed each time I use the telescope! M42 was the definite highlight, and finding out that Theta2 Orionis is 1546 light years away, that's far in the past! I also learned a bit more about observing and using the equipment (and learned to hate my neighbour's high-powered security light just a bit more too!). I do feel like my scope isn't giving the clearest images, especially off centre in the eyepiece. But I'm not really experienced enough yet to know what to expect from it. I'll be getting a Cheshire soon, which I'll use to check collimation properly.

Welcome Adam, I'm a newbie too (I didn't even do it in the Cubs!) and my Telescope has a focal length of 650mm, which means my 25mm and 10mm Eyepieces give me 25x and 65x magnification respectively. With the 65mm eyepiece Mars is basically a very small disk, though it it visually a disk, not a pinpoint of light. Jupiter and Saturn (if you can catch them early in the evening as they're low) are much more impressive, at 65x Jupiter is a bigger disk and you can see its four largest moons as pinpoints of light, and Saturn is a noticeable disk with a ring around it. Still not crazy impressive, but clearly something other than the pin points of light we're used to. Seeing them for the first time just brought it home to me that I was looking at a planet. If you get a chance, check out Jupiter/Saturn with your 10mm and see what they're like. Conditions make a huge difference too, while I was looking at Saturn, without me changing anything on the scope, it could change from what almost looked like a slightly out of focus bump around a dot, to a clear distinct ring with black areas between it and the planet, all down to conditions in the atmosphere changing for a second or two. I'm learning that it definitely helps to just observe and watch for a while. A decent Barlow is also on my list, along with a decent eyepiece to replace the 10mm one I got - from what I've read, the eyepieces shipped with scopes tend to be basic, and while the longer one (20mm in your case, 25mm in mine) can be ok, and shorter one (10mm) tends to be poor, and is recommended to be the first one to replace. Once Christmas is done, I'll be looking at getting a Barlow and hopefully a 8mm BST Starguider, as they're recommended on here as a good/not too expensive eyepiece. What I'd really like though is a chance to use the thing, the weather has not been helpful. I've had one good night for viewing, last Tuesday, and I couldn't do anything as I was busy! Any time I've been free it's been partially cloudy at best.

Thanks for the heads up, had a look at the sample issue, found lots of interesting things, and signed up!

Nice one! So many threads and questions on here about people trying to find *any* scopes (and hopefully the right one for them too if possible!) so it's good to see someone has got their hands on one!

Sorry, me again! This was another article I found helpful, using exit pupil size (easily calculated) to decide on the best eyepiece sizes for your telescope... https://agenaastro.com/articles/guides/choosing-eyepieces-for-your-telescope.html

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, have a look at this article... which really helps you decide on what Focal Length eyepieces should work best on your Telescope. Personally, I'm not sure if I see the need for anything longer than a 25mm right now, so I'd rather spend money on a 8mm or a 12mm than a 32mm, which is going to be 20x on your telescope, not sure what 20x gives you that you don't already have with your 26x? With some careful choices, you can get 3 well 'placed' Eye pieces and a Barlow and you have lots of options then!

I think I'm right in saying that if you got that exact Telescope in your link then you would have got a 25mm and a 10mm EP? Which basically means that you have approx. 26x and 66x magnification right now? I'm just starting too, and I have a different telescope (130P Reflector) but almost the exact same magnification (25x and 65x). I've only managed to get out a couple of nights so far, and am hoping to get a 'decent' observing session done soon. I already have a shopping list in my head too. A Barlow is definitely on it, probably one that was recommended on here that will give me 2.25x, and also 1.3x on certain eyepieces if they can take it. After the Barlow, I plan to get a 'good' EP (BST Starguiders come well recommended), probably a 8mm one, which will give me 81x on its own and along with the Barlow will get me up to 183x, which I reckon is more than enough to be going on with! I've read a lot that the 25mm EPs that come with telescopes tend to be ok, but the other ones (usually 10mm) aren't so great, so that's the one to 'replace' (or at least buy an EP of similar size) first. But the Barlow is first for me, that one piece of equipment will effectively double my magnification options in one go. I'm not sure if you have actually tried to look at Saturn or not yet, but even at 65x I can see the rings around the planet, and in moments of clarity I can see the distinction between the planet itself and the rings. So don't be waiting for a Barlow/Eye Pieces before having a look at it! I will probably look a some other Finder too at some stage, but really now my primary choices are increasing my range of viewing options via Barlow and EPs. Oh, I'm also getting a collimator as well, but that's not an issue for you with a refractor!

Yeah, I can see that alright, makes sense! Thanks! Now go get some sleep!

Don't know if the size is right for you or not, but @bottletopburly mentioned that the idas D2 occasionally come up second-hand, and FLO have put one up on offer...

Never mind back on topic, what I want to know is where phrasing such as 'he has gone and sat down' or 'he has sat down' comes from. I've heard that a lot in England, and in Ireland we just say 'he sat down'. No 'gone' or 'has' involved anywhere. It seems like a weird addition of tense or verb that's not needed. Any ideas? 😀

A question on this forum I can answer! No verb version of Secateurs that I know of, we call it pruning here in Ireland too...

Got a chance to go out for a few mins with clear skies to see what I could see and test the RDF. I picked easy targets, and it helped me focus on Jupiter, Saturn, Mars & Vega. It was close enough that my 25mm EP could do the rest with a very small adjustment. I did find myself sometimes seeing two stars through the RDF and having to choose which one to aim at, not sure what's causing that, something to do with each eye seeing it differently I'm guessing? As a proper test I saw a satellite moving along and used the RDF to judge its flght path and managed to find it. So I'm viewing that as a success! Also found that I was a lot less fingers and thumbs with all the equipment, got into a routine of loosening the clutch knobs, moving the OTA where I wanted it to go using the RDF, tightening the clutch knobs, using the slow motion controls to be more accurate and then over to the EP, and it seemed to work quite well. It probably helped that it wasn't completely dark outside yet! Am not really getting a 'perfectly' clear pinpoint image, but I'm not sure how much of that are conditions (not fully cooled down OTA, heat rising from the concrete in the back garden and other houses etc. etc.). Looking at Saturn at x65 I could definitely distinguish the planet from the rings, with areas of black in between them, and the more I watched, I got moments of more clarity and moments of less. As I'm so new to this, I'm not sure just how clear/sharp the image should/could be!