wobble

[AdamBuckley]

hiya folks i was out having a scope last night with my new new scope and the image was wobbly i'm guessing the wind which was blowing was a contributing factor in this happening would i be right in thinking this ?

[Telrad]

It probably was given the current meteorological conditions. What tripod do you have?

[AdamBuckley]

it came with my scope, i bought it from jessops it's the TA800x80 model i know it's not the best in the world but everybody's got to start somewhere

[AdamBuckley]

Oh it's a alt azimuth mount if that helps

[Pete Presland]

the higher the mag you are using the worse the "wobble" will look through the eyepiece.

[cantab]

Yeah, a scope like that probably will be prone to wobbling, especially when the wind gets up. Even with no wind, however, the mount probably won't be rock-steady.

Any shakes are going to be worse the higher the magnification, so if it's a windy night you're probably best off sticking to low mag and picking targets to suit, ie DSOs not planets.

[rfdesigner]

There's a nice thread here somewhere where someone has got quite a lot out of a similar scope.

He placed a sandbag on the mount to keep it steady which gained quite a lot.

The other thing to remember with these small scope is not to push them too far, with 800mm fl and 80mm aperture the shortest usable eyepiece is going to be about 5mm (or 15mm & 3x barlow / 10mm & 2x barlow)

clear skys

Derek

[K9Lewis]

I have started with the same scope (had it about a week now). Last night I did manage to see 5 moons around Jupiter (this was a real Wow for me), yes I also experienced wobble, (waiting for it to settle down didnt seem to work - as Jupiter moved too quickly).

[John]

Adding extra weight to the center of the tripod, eg: a bag of sand or a plastic bottle filled with water, will help make thinks a little steadier.

I'm glad you have seen Jupiter's moons but there are just 4 visible with amateur scopes - the 5th one would have been a background star.

[K9Lewis]

Thanks. I shall be trying those ideas out.

[Double Kick Drum]

Adding extra weight to the center of the tripod, eg: a bag of sand or a plastic bottle filled with water, will help make thinks a little steadier.

I'm glad you have seen Jupiter's moons but there are just 4 visible with amateur scopes - the 5th one would have been a background star.

Yep, sadly four Jovian moons is all you get with amateur telescopes as the next largest is much much smaller.

When you get the chance to look at Saturn in the spring, you should be able to see its biggest moon Titan with an 80mm scope.

[AdamBuckley]

thanks guys for the solutions you have given me i shall be trying them out next chance i get