a push in the right direction :)

[andyroo]

hello to all. my wife has just brought me a jessops 1100 telescope for christmas and as happy as i am with it (at the time being ) i was just wondering if there was a way of improving it.

the scope came with 20mm,12.5 and 6mm lenses and a x3 barrell. would buying new ones improve my views at all or would a whole new scope be needed? if new ones would help which ones do you recomend?

any help would be greatly recieved. sorry if you've heard this all before.

thank you andy

p.s. ive never loved looking up so much as i do right now

[LukeSkywatcher]

Use what you have. Get used to it and enjoy the views.

[Grunthos]

Hi Andy

You will have re-read the answers to your previous posts so no need to go over those again.

There have been a couple of threads relating to Jessops instruments (similar to yours) recently here and here.

A few "starters for ten":

Go for the low magnifications! (e.g. the 20mm and 12.5mm lens).

Focus on the Moon (no pun intended).

Get a decent sky atlas (search threads on SGL...)

Download software like Stellarium

Have fun.

Just my 2p worth.

[rowan46]

yes some better eyepieces will help and when you upgrade you will still have some nice eyepieces. However there's a lot to be said for just enjoying what you have, You will not get a super improvement ultimately your optics are only as good as your worst piece of glass.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Stick with it for now - there are plenty of things you can do to squeeze the best out of your scope. Once you get into the habit of doing these things, have learned your way around, and have enough experience to be able to tell that your scope is limiting you, THEN think about upgrading.

Some quick tips to squeeze the best out of your scope -

1) let the scope cool down, the general rule of thumb is to allow 5 minutes for each inch of aperture. Stick your scope outside for 30mins or so before you intend to view. It's perfectly fine to leave dust caps on etc during cooldown.

2) don't view over tarmac or over houses or cars, or anything that gives off heat. These things spend all day absorbing the suns heat (even on cold winter days), and give it off at night, creating thermal currents akin to the heat waves you see on tarmac in the blazing hot summer sun, they are just less obvious in the winter (until you magnify them through the scope.

3) view from the darkest place you can. Get away from the town/cities and head out into a rural area for the best experience. This makes a HUGE difference.

4) get dark adapted. It takes roughly 20 minutes of darkness for your eyes to adapt, and only a fraction of a second to destroy it. Your night vision is brought to you by a chemical called Rhodopsin, which builds up in your retina over time. It is incredibly sensitive to light, meaning it reacts well in low light, allowing you to see, but gets destroyed by brighter light. Even looking at your phone, or kitchen/lounge lights left on (if you're in the garden), or looking at bright objects like the moon/jupiter will prevent the buildup. So do yourself a favour, and at least just once on a moonless night, experience night vision at its best.

5) Spend time focusing. Sounds silly, but at higher mags, the "sweet spot" for focus gets smaller and smaller, and can be tough to find if your mount wobbles as you focus. Spend some time to make sure you got it just right.

6) Spend time at the eyepiece. I can't stress this enough. It takes time for your mind to build a detailed image of what you're looking at because it is either big and faint, or tiny and bright. My first few sessions on jupiter were basically a small disk, with 2 grey stripes on in. One night, i took a chair with me, and sat at the eyepiece for over an hour. After 20 minutes or so, a whole new world opened up to me. It wasn't a sudden thing, but i began to see small hints of swirls either side of the stripes. After 30minutes or so the swirls were definite, and i was seeing 4 stripes, and a heck of a lot of surface detail. Same with the orion nebula, though it wasn't quite so obvious - after a while i started to get hints of nebulosity through averted vision, unfortunately just as it was almost visible with direct vision i had to leave, but i have certainly learned the value of "learning to see".

That should get you started, after all is said and done though, you're at the mercy of the atmosphere. Some nights can look clear as a whistle and be absolutely terrible for astronomy. Just keep at it, and as long as you do the above, you can be sure "it must be the atmosphere". When you do have a night of good seeing, you'l certainly know about it.

[Marcrosson]

Great tips above, I've also just recently starting viewing with a scope and this is very helpful no end!

[todd8137]

stick with it can you atach any type of weights to the mount it sits on ,jessops are not the best,but thats what you have so make the most of it

focus and take ya time running in and out the house every 20 mins will not help your night vision spend more than five minutes on one thing ,theres no rush to see every thing in one night congrats on the new scope

[bullettooth]

thats some great advice from jimmyjamjoejoe. ive only used my scope a handfull of times and thats defo gonna help me. thanks

[andyroo]

thank u so much 4 the replys, they are greatly recieved. i must give a BIG thankyou to jimmyjamjoejoe. you went the extra step with your advice and for that i thank you