That first scope question

[pvaz]

Oh, I forgot! Congratulations on the scope and clear skies!

[anuvid]

Well I've found the 880 which they'll flash and supply the 1.25" adaptor for £ 29.90 delivered. Had a first crack tonight. Couldn't get star align to work - not many bright stars and the laser in the finder scope is a touch wider than most stars. So manually slewed to the moon. The kids were excited. Looked at Jupiter and could just about make out two bands. Not sure if the points of light surrounding it were stars or moons. Such a great hobby.

[Ags]

The points in a rough line were moons - there should have been four of them, brighter than any of the background stars. It's fun to try and pick out the reddish one (Io) and then confirm your observation in Stellarium.

As you get your eye in, you will make out more detail on Jupiter. You might want to upgrade to a better planetary eyepiece for that purpose.

You should have had some bright stars to align on - Vega, Deneb, Altair, Caph, Capella come to mind, but perhaps not all of those are visible from your observing location due to trees and houses.

[listy]

Enjoy the new scope!

[anuvid]

Listy thank you. Ags, what kind of EP would you recommend for planetary views ? Would this be an eyepiece that magnifies ? We're so spoiled these days with video cameras that I find myself looking for a zoom button down the side of my scope :-)

[pvaz]

There are some nice zoom EPs in the market. The Baader Hyperion Zoom does get many good reviews, so does the Pentax, but they're not cheap.

Cheaper zooms usually get bad reviews, but may actually work fine in a slow scope such as the 127 MAK.

[anuvid]

Thanks. I will start a thread asking for recommendations based on my scope. Don't want the moon and Jupiter to be it

[pvaz]

This thread helped me a lot when I started: http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/80772-eyepieces-very-least-you-need.html

As a general idea you should have a kit of 4 EPs. If well chosen they are all you need.

- One wide field, giving you 40x magnification or less. This is used as a finder EP and to observe very large DSOs such as the andromeda galaxy or the orion nebula.

- One mid range, around 60 to 80x, used for most DSOs.

- One around 100 to 150x for planets and tiny DSOs (planetary nebulae/supernova remnants).

- One around 200x for higher detail on Planets and moon.

Your scope haves a theoretical max magnification of 250x. I'd try to keep a bit below that, say 220x max, for quality views.

[anuvid]

I may have to make you my first friend on here Pvaz :-). Do you think I'm better off choosing individual EPs as a newbie or should I go for the Celestron 'kit'

[pvaz]

Can't really give an exact view on that as I never owned or tried the celestron kit.

With the kit you'll have have a lot to experiment with. It is certainly one of the best ways to find your own conclusions and, if you get hooked, you can then upgrade the 2 or 3 focal length you find spending more time on the focuser.

The good news is F/11 is very kind on EPs so you won't see much of a diference between high end EPs and affordable ones. Personally, I didn't go with a kit when I was starting because my scope is f/5.9. In your case, with that specific scope, the kit may be a very good idea.

Hopefully someone who have tried the kit on SCTs or MAKs can give you a hands-on opinion.

[anuvid]

I have been using the 25mm EP for viewing the moon. Not found a use for the 9mm yet, however I couldn't get alignment to work on the GoTo. It was a tad cloudy and aside from the moon and Jupiter, no trully bright objects to align to. I'll try when next (if ever) there's a clear sky.

[brantuk]

I have the Celestron kit and I was decidedly unimpressed. It doesn't have multi lens eyepieces as inferred by the advert. They are all single lense except the 32mm which is quite nice.

The 6mm and 4mm are so "pea hole" sized in the viewing end that they are virtually unusable and produce too much magnification in most scopes. The other eypieces aren't that much better than the supplied eyepieces. I only tried the moon filter which was just "acceptable". The best part of the kit is the alluminium padded case imho.

I think it's very expensive for the "not so good" quality within. I would recomend putting the money towards a Hyperion 8mm-24mm Zoom for £165 ish.

This piece is a significant step up in lens quality and views, very crisp and clear, little or no peceptible internal reflections, "5 in 1" eyepieces, and has a thread for attaching an adaptor ring and dslr camera T-ring.

I still use mine regularly and is one of the best investments I ever made. My first scope (150P EQ3-2) started to sing with that - the difference was amazing

[anuvid]

Brantuk, thanks. I think I'll have to give the bank account a wee while to recover since it has forked out for an ipad, scope, powertank, bedroom furniture, carpet and Sonos system in what feels like a week. But I'm really glad that you said what you said so that I can put the money that would have gone into the Celestion EP kit into the EP you mentioned. It has been suggested that I abandon SLR use as my modest 127 SLT doesn 't come with an EQ mount.

[anuvid]

My scope is considerably far from being f/5. This reviewer suggest a much better f rating than my scope has for this EP

First Light Optics - Baader Hyperion Zoom Eyepiece

[smudgeball]

Hi Congrats on your scope purchase

Always pleased to see another SE owner.

All these Newt and Dob owners keep ganging up on us SCT folk

Perhaps something else to think about would be "piggybacking" your DSLR ?

I fancy trying this for some nice wide angle exposures and have purchased an adaptor. The weight of a big camera hanging off the back of a SCT is an issue so placing it on top of the scope is better.

I agree with what everyone else has said on here.

You're ALT / AZ so a bit limited on exposure times before rotation kicks in.

I'm mainly a viewer but do put my webcam on for some planetary images.

You can get some good results.

Have fun

Regards

Neil

[smudgeball]

Just read one of your posts again and realised you went for the 127,

But still a Cassegrain so that's good.

Enjoy

Neil

[pvaz]

My scope is considerably far from being f/5. This reviewer suggest a much better f rating than my scope has for this EP

First Light Optics - Baader Hyperion Zoom Eyepiece

He says "f/5 or slower" which mean above f/5.

The focal ratio is the division of the focal length by the aperture. The lower it is the more demanding the light cone produced can be for the EPs. The terms fast and slow comes from photography use. On photography images can be taken with more speed on a fast (low f/) scope.

[anuvid]

Neil thanks for your kind words. Yes went SLT at the last minute. Can't tell you if i'm happy until the sky is clear and I successfully align for GoTo. Not managed it yet. Pvaz thanks for clarifying the f thing. I have the same problem working this out with cameras. I can build a computer from scratch. I manage multiple mutli million pound projects and programmes. But can I understand f stops ? Nope. Now I;m toying with the idea of starting a thread about viewing black holes. Just for a laugh.

[smudgeball]

Celestron have several alignment settings and I'm sure you'll find one that you prefer.

Spend a bit of time levelling and inputing your location and time/date correctly and you'll be fine.

I always think of F numbers on a camera at least as high number less light, low number more light.

[pvaz]

Neil thanks for your kind words. Yes went SLT at the last minute. Can't tell you if i'm happy until the sky is clear and I successfully align for GoTo. Not managed it yet. Pvaz thanks for clarifying the f thing. I have the same problem working this out with cameras. I can build a computer from scratch. I manage multiple mutli million pound projects and programmes. But can I understand f stops ? Nope. Now I;m toying with the idea of starting a thread about viewing black holes. Just for a laugh.

Are you a hardware developer? I'm a software developer, I noticed quite a few here, astronomy must indeed be a nerd's hobby!

[anuvid]

No I manage projects and programmed for a service provider in IT

[anuvid]

Smudgeball I neglected to comment on your piggybackiung question. I've seen it referred to, but not sure how effective it is, because I assume that either the weight is still carried by my mediocre mount, or it's on a seperate mount to take the weight, in which case that's two devices to try to track an object with, and synchronise. What's your experience ?

[anuvid]

For anyone even remotely interested, I have only really managed to view the moon and a very stunning Jupiter and several moons through my scope - due to cloud cover. Audaciously, I thought I'd put my eyephone camera to the 25mm EP that came with my 127 SLT. And the results (lunar only) are in the album in my profile.

[smudgeball]

Hi

To give you some idea,

And with my EOS 40D mounted

[anuvid]

Smudgeball that's really useful thanks. My problem now is that I got GoTo calibrated on a clear night and it worked well. But once I switch to a higher magnification eyepiece (9mm ? or 6mm I don't recall which) the 'judder' in the motors is really noticeable as the thing tries to track say Jupiter. I may seriously have to ditch £ 400 of telescope and acquire £ 1500 worth of telescope with GoTo and an EQ mount. Or am I jumping the gun here ?