First scope, a little advice needed

[stoneage]

Hi

I've been getting gradually more interested in astronomy recently, and enjoyed viewing the heavens through binoculars until now... I have recently took the plunge purchased a TA1100-102 Newtonian scope from Jessops to start me off, I have used it for the first time tonight and seem some lovely detail on the moon. After this I have tried to view Jupiter, I can get it into my field of vision but am finding it impossible to focus sharply on it and there is a black cross with a circle obscuring the view also (which is like some sort of shadow in the shape of spider support)

Any ideas if I am doing something wrong, or should I be taking it back to the shop?

Thanks in advance, hope one of you more experienced stargazers can point me in the right direction.

[DOBBY]

Hi Stoneage... & welcome to the forum

Sorry but i have no experience with this 'scope... hopefully someone who has will help you soon

[stoneage]

Thanks, me too

[Stephen]

If you are open to a friendly suggestion, take it back full stop and have a read through the forum here for better alternatives. The Jessops scopes are pretty bad to be honest

However to answer your question, the effect you can see is the secondary and spider as you have identified. This is normally visible when the telescope is not focused correctly - are you at the end of the travel of the focuser?

[Anweniel]

I am assuming that used one of the supplied eyepieces when trying to observed Jupiter. It will probably help if you said which one you were using when you saw the shadow of the spider vane.

I'll be brutally honest 102mm (approx 4") is very small an aperture for a reflector considering the objective is also intruded upon by the secondary and vane.

Almost certainly the reflection of vane is caused from out focused, my own reflector a skywatcher with 130mm diameter (approx 5.1") I would still consider very small for a Newtonian reflector and I would say the advertised max magnification of yours is rather an exaggeration (although mathematically possible with the eyepieces and barlow supplied) and practically due to the small aperture and typical seeing conditions in the UK ( I am assuming since you purchased a Jessops scope you are in the UK) it is extremely unlikely you would ever be able to use this magnification.

In fact I'm sure most will agree with me here if I said magnification is not really a hugely important factor (despite that sounding counter-intuitive considering we want to study objects hundreds of thousands of km away - thousands of lightyears away) and effectively all you would be doing is magnifying any interferance between your objective and the scope.

I've jibber jabbered on a bit but I think the possible problem you have encountered is try to get a lot of magnification then finding problems focussing, try the 20mm eyepiece alone and you should probably get Jupiter as a bright disc, with a bit of luck see upto 4 moons. Adding the 3x barlow with the 20mm eyepiece should give you 165x magnification and maybe you will be able to discern the northern and southern equitorial belts as beige/brown bands.

I'm sure I may well be bashed for this sweeping and outdated generalisation but if you take your objective diameter (in your case 102mm) and multiply it by 2 (i.e for you 204) this should give a good approximate maximum useable magnification for your scope and as you can see viewing jupiter at 165x would be almost at the limit of this and thus you may expect to have some issues with this.

Also it appears from the picture in the advertisement that your focuser is of the rack and pinion type and this to be honest makes accurate focussing even more difficult particuarly at higher powers.

Hope this is of some help to you

[malc-c]

Just googled that scope... If it's this one then I woud have to agree with the suggestions to take it back to the shop and get your money back.

Why they feel the need to fit such a large spider to support the seconary mirror on such a small scope I have no idea. 400x magnification... mathematically yes... prcticality NO WAY !!

[stoneage]

Thanks for all of you comments, I am very tempted to take, it back as it seems quite shoddily made, even with my lack of experience. It does seem quite 'clunky'.

I may try again with it and apply the suggestions you have offered, but think this scope and I may have a very short lived relationship!

I appreciate your advice and am glad to have found a friendly forum to discuss these matters

[Anweniel]

If you have a little more funds available there are some great scopes out there around the £200-£300 mark.

Certainly those with experience with a variety of scope types will be able to advise better than I but on the whole it is dependant on what you want to do with it as some are more suited to certain uses/targets than others.

Whatever you decide you are sure to get some good advice from the SGL community

[malc-c]

What's your budget, £200 will get you a nice 6" dobsonian which will give you some nice results. If you can stretch a little further to £275 you can get a 6" on a EQ mount

[Anweniel]

What's your budget, £200 will get you a nice 6" dobsonian which will give you some nice results. If you can stretch a little further to £275 you can get a 6" on a EQ mount

Exactly the ones I had in mind!

[stoneage]

Thanks again, I think around £200 is about the limit at the moment, maybe I should save a little longer...

What manufacturers would you guys recommend? Do you think its better to buy from a shop or online?

[Anweniel]

Check out the forum sponsors, first light optics (click the link top of the page it opens up a new window) I cannot fault them for service and price is very competitive. If you can manage the £200 I would think your best bet is the 150p First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian

I would suggest though you talk to somebody on here who owns one before you buy.

Also what are you hoping to do with your telescope?

[malc-c]

Thanks again, I think around £200 is about the limit at the moment, maybe I should save a little longer...

What manufacturers would you guys recommend? Do you think its better to buy from a shop or online?

Stick to Skywatcher or Celestron - Stay away from Seben (and other rubbish) on e-bay. Most retailers such as Greenwich, Rothervalley Optics and The Widescreen Centre also sell via websites or over the phone. Or if you have transport they are well worth the visit... but be careful, it's tempting to spend more than the budget if you do

[stoneage]

Just got back from Jessops, feeling much happier now I have had my money refunded , and by the looks of the amount of scuffed telescope boxes behind the counter, I wasn't the only one who wasn't entirely satisfied with their purchase lol

Now looking forward to making a better advised purchase, thanks to all of your tips and suggestions.

Going to try and find a shop that specialises in telescopes in travelling distance so I can have a look 'in the flesh' as it were, before buying online I think.

@Anweniel - I am mainly hoping to view the moons surface, get a closer look at the planets and hopefully some stars - do you think this is acheivable within my budget?

[Anweniel]

Most definitely! In (most) cases aperture is king, I suppose that is rather contradicted by the fact my scopes are releatively small in aperture lol!

The best value for £/diameter is going to be a dobsonian and I think its almost a case of go for the biggest you can afford/is convenient the flextube a variety offer a compact solution if you wish to take your telescope to a dark site. However the flextubes start at 8" and looks like well over your budget. The 2 malc-c posted I'm pretty sure would be great for you at 6" the solid tube should be quite manageable for you but like you say best see it in the flesh.

I would imagine any telescope or binocular will give you decent views of the moon due to its relative proximity to us it is going to be the easiest observable astronomical object and you can see good detail even in poor seeing conditions when everything else can be pretty much out of grasp.

For planetary I guess the recommended type of scope would be a Maksutov Cassegrain, I have NO experience of using one, I am just passing on information that has come from literature and others experiences on places like SGL. It would be possible to get a Maksutov Cassegrain (or Mak to abbreviate) for a price well within the £200 mark but beware that it will of very small aperture so I am not entirely sure how good this scope will be First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skymax 90 (EQ1)

I think if you can get closer to the £300 mark you will be very happy with your scope and the 127mm Mak from skywatcher looks a good scope, you should get moon, saturn, Jupiter possibly Mars when it comes closer and on the supatrak mount it works out just under £300 @ £298 First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skymax 127 SupaTrak

Before you actually make a purchase though I suggest you decide your ultimate budget and take advice from people who actually USE these scopes dont rely on advertisemnts which boast most maximum magnifications.

Majority of my experience is with a 5.1" newtonian on a supatrak mount. I see good deep space objects- andromeda galaxy, ring nebula, orion nebula. Moon looks great and I can really pump the magnification without having any problems on the moon. I have viewed Jupiter and I expect to get saturn and possibly Mars soon too (when I can get myself up early enough and have a good clear sky!). The dobsonians are essentially a newtonian just on a different mounting (a dobsonian mount hence the name) and at 6" and just within your £200 budget then personally if it were me in your shoes with that budget I would be very tempted to opt for First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian

Of course a personal choice and I must stress I HAVE NOT used a dobsonian so get some more advice on this.

About as much help as I think I can be I hope its useful for you and good luck with getting a new scope (oh and post on here when you do - we all love to see people with new gear )

[malc-c]

Stoneage, glad to hear you have received a refund. I suggested you upgraded your profile to include the county or town you live in. It's no good us suggesting a retailer that may be hundreds of miles away from you. It would also help us to recommend an astronomical society that's local to you. Most societies run observing sessions and are only too willing to demonstrate various scopes owned by their members.

[stoneage]

Thanks for all your advice, it has been very enlightening, I didn't know there were so many different types of scopes available out there, I feel a lot more well informed now as to what factors to consider when making a purchase.

I have been looking at various scopes on the net and I keep coming back to the Skywatcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian. Although I do not intend to jump in straight away again (especially after the Jessops debacle lol) and may even wait a little longer and try to increase the budget slightly.

In the meantime I will be continuing with the binoculars and trying to learn more of the constellations etc.

Malcolm, I tried to enter my location on my profile last night but couldn't work out how to do it. (Just sorted it now though) I live in Banbury in Oxfordshire, if you are aware of any decent retailers/societies nearby I would be very grateful to hear about them.

[rickygoespop]

I'm a beginner and have recently purchased the Skywatcher 150p dobsonian from amazon at £197 inc delivery. A great scope I have done a write up on my experience on it if you want to check it out.

Just search - first experience sky-watcher 150p

[stoneage]

Thanks, I'll give it a look now

[Anweniel]

Seems you are a little out of luck for retailers nearby, there is a section on SGL with local astro societies : Astro Events - Stargazers Lounge and Social Groups - Stargazers Lounge check these out.

As for retailers the closest to you I can think of is sherwoods-photo about 30 miles from you. I have visited the shop myself a few months back and found it pretty tricky to locate at the back of an old farm house you kind of have to frive onto the farm and park near the farmers field, seems they opened the shop specially for us as we pulled up! A very small setup looks mostly internet run but they did have a dozen or so scope setup when we went and were unconcerned with us having a peek around them, if I had any other issue I would guess it was they didnt seem very forthcoming to talk to us about them or offer really much assisstance.

Sherwoods 'About Us'

The next nearest I can think of are greenwitch and the widescreen centre but a good 70-75 miles away those:

Telescopes UK: Telescopes & Telescope Accessories in your only London shop

Telescopes and Binoculars from Green Witch of Cambridge, the Astronomy Specialists

London and cambridge, respectively.

[Anweniel]

Oh and judging by the websites the one with the most astro credential (if there is such a thing!) appear to be greenwitch, what the shop would be like I can only speculate

[malc-c]

Oh and judging by the websites the one with the most astro credential (if there is such a thing!) appear to be greenwitch, what the shop would be like I can only speculate

It's actually the rear half of a double garage attached to the house of one of the directors. The gave up a retail shop in Sandy some years back. However, the showroom has around half a dozen scope and they have a "stock room" within the house. I would suggest that you contact them first to make sure they have the scopes you are interested in before you set off.

Closest astronomy group is in Brackley brackley comets astronomy club - Home

Or a little further is Chipping Norton Cnaag

As mentioned, it might be worth popping along to one of the meetings and have a chat with them.

[Steve777]

I also bought a Skywatcher 150p recently & have had good use out of it. I recommend

Steve

[stoneage]

Thanks again for for all this fantastic information think I may well go to one of the meetings at one of the societies mentioned, I noticed the Chipping Norton one is having a lot of involvement with BBC stargazing live in January, and they have access to an exclusive site near the Rollright stones, and the membership is only £15 per year which sounds good value.

I think I might pay a visit of to Cambridge, as I have also found a place on the net called The Astronomy & Nature Centre Ltd which is not far from Cambridge as well The Astronomy & Nature Centre

It seems there are three different companies in one place there, have any of you ever visited here?

Thanks Steve, it seems this is a very popular scope

[Steve777]

Btw, got mine of Amazon for £189 inclu postage. Showed in a couple of days.

Steve