Newbie need some help

[west]

Hi all,

I have just registered today and would like some advice on a telescope I brought a while back.

I would like to start using it but it does not appear to have any eyepieces.

What considerations do I need to observe to get this up and running?

Also what advice could you give me in regards to where I should point this thing

What kind of objects will I see with this scope?

Any and all advice welcome

[sevs23]

Hi west. Not too sure about this scope but it sure looks like one I got outbid on eBay about 3 months ago:) it looks like a nice scope.

[west]

Hi Steve,

It was not me who out bid you

I brought it at a boot sale for around £10

[sevs23]

Wow that is a great price. I got outbid at 100 quid. I think its 1.25" eyepieces u can get some basic SW plossl eyepieces here very cheaply here on the forum. Worth a try.

[chemtom24]

cant comment on the make but for a tenner you cant go wrong.

as for eyepieces, I would suggest some cheap and cheerful 'kit' ep's that come supplied with telescopes. not the best eyepieces of course but nonetheless do the job very well, and can be picked up pretty cheap you should want to be looking at 25 or 20mm, a 10mm, and perhaps a 2x barlow or a 5mm. (a 2x barlow on a 10mm will give the equivalent view of a 5mm but will be slightly dimmer)

if youre new then you wont have access to the for sale bit on here yet, but have a browse through www.astrobuysell.co.uk and you should find something. If not then try astroboot, or scopesnskies, or first light optics.

once you have your eyepieces, you should line up your finderscope with the telescope. point the scope at a far away rooftop or aerial, and centre the view in the ep. then adjust the finderscope until the same object is in the centre of the finderscope.

now that you have lined up your finder, it wil be easy(er) to find objects. Jupiter is very bright atm, from 11pm onwards in the south east of the sky. centre it in the finderscope, then look through the ep and it should be in your field of view

It is only a 90mm scope but you sdhold get some nice views

**EDIT** as sevs said, you want to be looking for 1.25 inch diamter eye pieces. they only come in 1.25 or 2 inch, so it wont b too confusing! older ep's can be ~.95 inch but you wont find many of them so ignore it.

others will help out pointing you in the direction of some of the brighter dso's

[John]

For £10 it was an absolute bargain. The scope is a high quality Vixen 90M on the Vixen Custom-D alt-azimuth mount - Japanese made and an excellent quality instrument for observing double stars, the moon and the brighter planets.

Usually you would need to pay at least £200 for one of those, possibly more as they don't come up too often. They were marketed in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Not made any more.

It looks more or less complete but it's fitted (as they often were) for .965" size eyepieces which are pretty hard to come by - the standard now is 1.25". Unless you have some eyepieces in that size you would be best advised to purchase a .965" - 1.25" hybrid diagonal to replace the one on the scope. Here is a link to one:

Antares 1.25" to 0.965" hybrid diagonal

Then you can get a few (say 3) 1.25" eyepieces to use with the scope. The plossl design will work well and costs from £20-£30 new. I'd suggest a 7mm, a 15mm and a 25mm perhaps to start with.

The scope is worth investing in, in my opinion. It also looks like the tripod tray is missing - it holds the 3 tripod supports together to stop the legs splaying. You can wire them together just to get you up and running.

Download the freeware "Stellarium" to show you what is in the sky at a given place and time.

Hope that helps.

[west]

I think the eyepiece size is 0.96"

Should I be looking at getting a adapter? or looking to get the seemingly rare 0.96" EP`s?

[west]

Hi John,

Thanks for this confirmation and advice.

I`am getting really excited now. Can not wait to try this out.

[sevs23]

I can't beleive I didn't buy the same scope on eBay when the same one came up then. Damn:mad: Given what John says, it sounds line a scope well worth investing in.:-)

[chemtom24]

ah i stand corrected . OP, i would go for a .96 to 1.25 converter, you will have a wide variety of 1.25 inch ep's to choose from

[Darkhorse]

Bargin hunt would be proud I'm sure.

[spaceboy]

I'm just happy you bought it West as if the seller was only asking £10 for it there stands a good chance he wouldn't have wanted the hassle of taking it back home and it would probably have ended up in the site waste pile. At a guess I'm thinking they went to a local shop to buy EP's (1.25" as standard) only to find out they didn't fit and figured the scope was worthless but would try their luck at a car boot.

[John]

You may be interested to know that another forum member has one:

http://stargazerslounge.com/members-equipment-gallery/91502-my-vixen-90m-refractor-custom-d-alt-az-mount.html

[chemtom24]

http://stargazerslounge.com/sale/153405-skywatcher-10mm-25mm-plossl-ep.html

[Pavel]

Wow!

Good price, good bargain, good equipment.

[glowjet]

There is one thing West, if ever wanted to upgrade to a larger more modern refractor/reflector in the future, you will make back your initial expenditure many times over, Vixen are a very well respected Jap manufacturer, suggest you have a look at their web site, what a bargain

[west]

Thanks for all the replies and help

[JimStan]

An old set of junk binocs will supply you with eyepieces that have very close to .965 barrels. I believe that most 7 X 35 binocs use an eyepiece with around 15mm FL. I have stuck one into a smaller telescope and had very satisfactory results.

If you are really anxious to try out that scope and have a junk binoc sitting around, you might want to give that idea a try.

Good luck with the scope. You are going to probably find it more suitable for the moon, planets, and brighter DSOs such as M13, etc. Enjoy !

Jim S.