I am a dope, and I need you help.

[Tripel]

So I am an amateur, and my wife bought me an amazing, and likely far too advanced, telescope for Christmas -- the Celestron C10- NGT. In reading the instructions manual I got it set up (I think) and realize that I need to power the scope (need an adapter to get the mount going), and need to collimnate as well... But I tried just to have a look thru the thing, in hopes that I could see some fascinating things, but no joy... The stars just look like stars, albeit slightly brighter. I am looking thru the 20mm eyepiece that came with, and cannot figure out how the 2" eyepiece adapter that also came with is used. It will not fit into the eyepiece aparatus no matter how I try. So I am left wondering do I have the right pieces? Is it pointless without powering the mount, and having it slew to the right stars to orient itself? Am I simply too big a nitwit to own a scope like this? What exactly am I supposed to do? The instruction guide is vague, insofar as it seems to assume I am not an astro-moron, and so is little help. Can anyone out there give some guidance to an enthusiastic beginner, likely over his head, with too much telescope? What do I do next?

Cheers, and thanks for any help

[Parus major]

Welcome to the forum!

Don't feel you have to rush at it like a bull at a gate, you can take each of the issues one at a time. The most pressing is actually getting power to the mount, without that you won't be tackling anything else. There's "official" Celestron/Skywatcher ones which do the job but a lot of people on here use the car ones from Maplin Compact Battery Jumpstarter with 260 PSI Air Compressor : Jump Starters : Maplin Electronics Personally, I use a mains adaptor but you can use a mains to 12v adaptor or the like. Once there's leccy running to it then the goto function will be doing the business and showing you where everything is.

You shouldn't need to worry about collimation just yet, at this stage of the game if it's out it won't be by much.

[stevetynant]

I can't help I'm afraid being completely new to the hobby myself - I've just got a n 8" Dobsonian Reflector - but that looks like one hell of a telescope for a beginner- keep us posted on how you get on. My plan is to see how I get on over the next few years and then possibly upgrade with an eye to AP - looks like your abot 5 years ahead on my plan - good luck

[sunshine185]

Wow!! C-10!!, all I got was a lynx shower gel/ deoderant gift set and a block of cadburys dairy milk.

[stevetynant]

all I got was a visa bill for everyone elses presents:mad:

[Tripel]

Haha, thanks -- it is huge, and beautiful (though dominates the living room somewhat ... Wife bit less thrilled about that part..)

I will get the adapter going to power it up first thing, then report back with progress.

Thanks all

Ps, it did come with a car adapter, but not one with a regular plug, which I thought was odd.

Also very vexing that I can't figure out this 2" eyepiece adapter...

[malc-c]

So I am an amateur, and my wife bought me an amazing, and likely far too advanced, telescope for Christmas -- the Celestron C10- NGT.

Wow - nice scope ! and one that will see you through many years of observations.

Take it one step at a time. Purchase the power pack as suggested or use any other 12v supply that can provide 2amps, obviously using an RCD if using mains outside. Search the forum for polar alignment and become familiar in setting the scope up - practice in the daytime. Once you have the scope visually polar aligned then run through the star alignment process via the hand controller. Once complete you should then be able to select an object and the scope will slew round to its location. Start with a low power eyepiece and then increase in magnification once the target is centred.

It's a steep learning curve... but take your time and enjoy the learning process

[Tinker1947]

There are a few things you will need to learn, getting power to it, not to hard, polar aligning its not hard once you have done it, do a bit of reading about "Polar aligning" once you understand why then the how will be easier, download Stellarium its free and will help with finding stuff, report back here on your progress and people will point you at the next step in your new hobby...

[dishmop]

Wow. Even if the telescope doesn't quite work out, make sure you keep the wife

While you're not fiddling with the telescope and the mount, I'd suggest trying to get hold of Stellarium for your computer, or a smartphone equivalent like Google Skymap (android), and figure out where some of the more popular objects in the sky are, and if you'll have line of sight to them from your house. With that scope, you should be able to get some great views of Jupiter to start you off...

[mcsheffield]

I am still a newbie after a year just using binoculars, the best 3 pieces of advice i could ever give are:

1) join your local astronomy group, they will be very helpful.

2) ask questions on here, everyone will be very helpful.

3) download Stellarium

[Catweazel]

Hi Tripel, that sure is one hell of a scope you have there!

Just looking at your comments about eye-pieces; are the ones you have 2" or 1.25" pieces? Have you got the 20mm to fit without the adapter (I guess you have as you mention viewing stars). The stars will look like stars of course, and 20mm is a medium FOV eye-piece, so you wont be as close to individual stars as you would with a 10mm eye-piece. having said that, you would normally want a larger mm eyepiece to see some things like clusters, say a 32mm for wide FOV. For planets, you want more like 10mm or 5mm (or 10mm with 2x Barlow = 5mm). Just remember that the lower the mm of the eye-piece, the higher the magnification, so it's best to find things with a larger mm eye-piece, and then "zoom in" on objects by swapping to a lower mm one.

Hope that makes sense!

[Tripel]

Hi Tripel, that sure is one hell of a scope you have there!

Just looking at your comments about eye-pieces; are the ones you have 2" or 1.25" pieces? Have you got the 20mm to fit without the adapter (I guess you have as you mention viewing stars). The stars will look like stars of course, and 20mm is a medium FOV eye-piece, so you wont be as close to individual stars as you would with a 10mm eye-piece. having said that, you would normally want a larger mm eyepiece to see some things like clusters, say a 32mm for wide FOV. For planets, you want more like 10mm or 5mm (or 10mm with 2x Barlow = 5mm). Just remember that the lower the mm of the eye-piece, the higher the magnification, so it's best to find things with a larger mm eye-piece, and then "zoom in" on objects by swapping to a lower mm one.

Hope that makes sense!

I think I figured it out -- they're not meant to go together

The 20mm that came with is a 1 & 1/4, and the 2" thing is an adapter to fit eyepieces that are bigger. So when I buy different eyepiece I can get either size....

Dealing with power adaptor now

Also, tried getting Stellarium for iPad, and it DL'd, but won't work. When I tap the icon it flashes quickly then shuts down. Anyone have any ideas?

Thx

[foundaplanet]

Also, tried getting Stellarium for iPad, and it DL'd, but won't work. When I tap the icon it flashes quickly then shuts down. Anyone have any ideas?

Thx

I don't think stellarium works on the ipod, I may be wrong there though. I think you will need to get something like skysafari.

[solo]

Maybe this a daft question, but do you have a skychart. It helps if you know where to look in the first place. Do you have slow motions on your mount ? The old, well-worn phrase 'walk before you run' comes to mind. Hope you see my point.

Good luck anyway.

[Dai150PL]

Hi Tripel, get yourself the Star Walk app. This makes use of the ipad cameras and compass, you point at the night sky and it will tell you what your looking at, £1.49 last time I looked. Also advise watching the astronomyshed videos on youtube and astro babies guides. Goodluck and your in for a treat with that telescope.

[Tripel]

Hi, an update --

I DL'd the Night Sky app so am set with a map, and also got the power to work with the mount, so success there! Hauled it outside last night to do some scoping (man it's a beast to move), and was able to find Jupiter manually, using the power in the mount, so that was great. I am using the 20" lens that came with, and the image was not terribly impressive (Jupiter a slightly larger white blob than the stars), so I guess I need some lower # lenses, and likely a 2x Barlow. One other issue is that the range finder on top of the doesn't seem to be aligned with the eyepiece view ..not sure how to adjust that as it seems fairly locked in there. Next up, I need to figue out the polar/star alignment deal so the mount driver will find the objects for me. But i consider it a successful weekend!

cheers

[Parus major]

The finder thing is best done in the light. What you do is point the telescope in the general direction of something fairly far away, look in the eyepiece and pick something easy like a chimney pot, lock the clutches on the mount so it doesn't move then twiddle the knobs on the finder until the crosshair is on the same object. Done.

A 20mm eyepiece is a little short for observing Jupiter, magnifications are the tube's focal length in mm devided by the mm of the eyepiece so you were looking at it at 60x. Ideally you want 200x+ish.

[ollypenrice]

Apps are all very well but a sky chart shows the whole sky and will help you to learn the patterns on a nice large format page. A planisphere is cheap and effective, too.

But above all I'd try to find an astronomical society near you. There is bound to be one and they are listed by The Federation of Astronomical Societies - which will 'Google' instantly. While the odd society can be a bit quirky the vast majority are absolutley great.

Olly

[Charon]

Just make sure when you are aligning the telescope for GOTO you must make sure that your targets(Stars, planets etc) are in the telescopes database.

[Tripel]

Hey all -- one more Q, as I consider buying one of these Celestron eyepiece and filter kits.

Any POVs on which to buy?

I notice the 2" format kit is 2x as expensive

Celestron Telescope Eyepiece and Filter Kit - 2 Inch Format - Telescope Eyepieces at Telescopes

as the 1.25" format

Celestron Telescope Eyepiece and Filter Kit - 1.25 Inch Format - Telescope Eyepieces at Telescopes

yet the latter seems to come with more pieces...

Is the 2" kit worth it? I like the idea of the bigger view, but wonder if I will have fewer options with this ...

thanks again for any and all input

cheers

[Parus major]

To be honest, you're better off buying eyepieces one at a time, that way you don't end up paying for stuff you don't use.

[Merlin66]

The kits look great...but you'll never use half them.

Better deal is to buy two or three "good" eyepieces - they will stay with you for a long long time. (Mine are almost thirty years old - good investment at the time!)

[Trickystar1]

Nice scope! I promise you, that you will get some great views in time. Your scope is a decent and advanced piece of kit, like the other folks have said just take your time setting it up, the sky will still be there in a week or twos time! To polar align your scope watch this video. This guy is a bit odd... but gives good advice, although this is for a manual scope so you will 'may' need to move (slew) yours with the hand controllers depending on the set up

[dmahon]

Anything you buy 2nd hand, you can usually sell again later for the same price that you bought it at. If you're not sure exactly what you want, that's a good way of finding out and all you have to lose is the postage costs. You could try that approach to get th right size eyepieces.

Check astro buy/sell.

PS. A reticule eyepiece (or a webcam) is good for setting up the GOTO spot on.