First Light & Scope Review

[stevepenny]

Merry Christmas all,

Santa finally lived up to his promises and delivered a Skywatcher Explorer 1309EQ2 (130mm Dia - F/9 - EQ2 Mount) on Christmas Morning. Not the Meade Lightbridge that I had envisioned but Mrs Santa said this was the best place (and price) to start.

Once out of the box it is like a piece of flat-pack furniture to put together (not Ikea flat pack furniture I might add) and took approximately 45 minutes which included balancing.

The Red-Dot finder is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard and had to be jammed in at an obscure angle to get it to line up with the optical tube - but at least it worked. Using the collamation guide that came with the scope all is apparently tickety-boo i.e. I can see all three mirror clips etc. By now we have reached 10am so time to put the new toy away for now......

First Light....

I didn't bother with polar alignment and left the scope outside for a scant 5 minutes to cool down before having a look at Jupiter. With the 25mm EP the view was awesome (not a word I use lightly) and to be honest I could have spent the whole night just looking at Jupiter but as the scope was not aligned properly I couldn't keep it in the field of view long enough. I flipped over to Orion to look at the Orion Nebula and again I was struck by the beauty of it. Anyway standing outside in slippers and dressing gown was never going to make for a long viewing session so I went to bed.

Second Light....

This time I did the Polar Alignment thing which made it much easier to track objects using the twiddle knobs (The Dec and RA ones). Spent 2 hours looking at Jupiter, Orion, Cygnus and M31 but ended up slightly dissapointed. If anyone can help with the questions below it would be appreciated.

1. Jupiter looked great (but distant) with the 25mm EP with just a hint of the equatorial belts. However, the 10mm (with and without the 2x Barlow) produced a very bright ball with no definition. Do I perhaps need a filter; and if so which one?

2. M31 is "PANTS"; or at least using the 25mm EP it is. Just a faint smudge running north/south in the sky. Adding a Barlow just filled the EP with an even bigger smudge. Can I assume that this was just a case of bad viewing as I have nothing to benchmark it against? Or does M31 always look this faint?

3. I might be a tad thick on this point but it seems to me that narrowing the FOV or increasing the power with a Barlow produces a dimmer image than when using the 25mm EP. This would seem to be correct in logical terms but i'm not certain?

All in all the experience has been very positive and comfirmed that this will be a life long hobby.

As for the Scope It is well made (I is an Engineer so I know these things); goes together easily; is light enough to be a 1 person lift; and comes in at a nice price.

Thanks to Viking Optical in Rose Street Edinburgh who supplied it and for throwing in a 6mm EP as they opened 30 minutes late the day Santa collected it.

Steve

[bombassa]

Hi,

First you're lucky with a ms. santa like that.

You're right that higher magnification gives a dimmer image.

And yes, M31 is pants. It's very big and getting it all in the FOV can be a challenge. But in general galaxies will be faint smudges.

I don't know what went wrong with your Jupiter. I assume you adjust focus when changing eyepieces. I also assume the eyepieces are the standard Skywatcher 'Super' 10 and 25 where the 10 combined with a barlow in my experience is not top notch.

How about the 6mm they gave you. Have you tried that on Jupiter? I was a bit puzzled by the description of the scope and I think it's perhaps the 130/900 you have? In this case the 6 mm should give you a magnification of 150x which would be a good start on Jupiter and the two dark bands should be clearly visible.

I guess it could also be bad seeing, collimation or dew on the secondary.

I hope third light will bring more luck.

[Mr Spock]

The supplied 10mm eyepiece isn't all that good and the Barlow lens is of variable quality - does it look any better with the 6mm eyepiece you have?

Galaxies like M31 are always going to be a faint smudge in a 130mm, they are still a smudge in much bigger scopes.

[stevepenny]

Thank you for your replies.

Bombassa is correct it is the 130mm Dia with the 900mm Focal Length; and you have both said the 10mm EP is not a top-notch product.

The 6mm 'freebie' is unbranded but claims to be an 'Ultrawide 6mm Multi Coated'. It is being sold for £34.95 so it is no superstar in that respect.

The problem with viewing Jupiter seems to be related to not being able to achieve a sharp focus but I'm not sure if the cause of that is the EP, the focuser, or perhaps a colimation problem.

I will keep trying....

Steve

[bombassa]

Is it anything like this?

Sky-Watcher Ultrawide 6mm Eyepiece at Astronomia

I have no experience with these but guess it should still be a step up from the supplied eyepieces.

After two hours the scope should be more than sufficiently cooled down so I would suspect dew perhaps.

Good luck

[Charon]

Good luck with your new telescope Steve.

[Noseypixie]

I have a Skywatcher Explorer 130 and I've used the supplied 10mm eyepiece with the barlow lens to look at Jupiter and it looks fine to me; a bit small but I can certainly see some detail. You'll get used to the red dot finder too, well, I have.

[WayBig]

...get used to looking at faint fuzzy smudges , they may not look spectacular, but when you find out a bit about them, eg the size and, structure, how distant they are etc they become fascinating.

[stevepenny]

Is it anything like this?

Sky-Watcher Ultrawide 6mm Eyepiece at Astronomia

I have no experience with these but guess it should still be a step up from the supplied eyepieces.

Hi Bombassa,

Yep, that's the one. Quite heavy when compared to the supplied 25mm EP and yes it is good in that Jupiter filled 30% of the FOV; but not clear enough to see any detail.

If dew is the problem what is the best way of dealing with it? Can I blow cold air down the focus tube or should I just leave the scope in the garage (which is unheated) permanently?

Thanks for all your help so far.

Steve

[todd8137]

hi and welcomein the case of 2,with my 90mm frac its almost a faint as faint smudge but wow what i no about the smudge just makes me look even more,the scope needs at least 5 mins of cool down ,per inch of glass a good 45 mins is no probs

glad you got a good look round

[bombassa]

If its dew your secondary mirror will be visibly wet. You can purchase a dewshield or make one yourself by adding a cheap campingmat or similar around the frontend of the scope. Google for pictures of this idea.

On the other hand - you wrote you could make out bands with the 25mm but no details with higher magnification so perhaps it was just a case of very bad seeing. Perhaps give it a try some more nights and see if it gets better.