Initial beginners thoughts, musings and findings

[Scorpionfoot]

Hi all,

Kind of a 2-part post as I'd like to give other starters a little heads up and also finish by asking some (probably) daft questions to the experienced people on the forums.

First off I finally got my first telescope late last year which was a Celestron Powerseeker 50AZ from ASDA - I believe it was in the camera section instore and approx £37.

Knowing nothing about telescopes apart from zoom sizes and pricing of other starter scopes this seemed the most zoom for the cheapest price (therefore the most value for money).

The scope comes with:

o Full-size tripod

o SkyX software for knowing what you are looking at in the sky

o 3 eye-pieces for different levels of zoom

o 1.5x tube for looking at earth based things

o 3x barlow giving 450x zoom with the strongest eye piece supplied

This all seemed great to me as a beginner however for others thinking of getting this scope here's my main issues with the scope now I've had it a few months.

For telescopes the size of eye-pieces seems to be 1.25 whereas this 50AZ uses an older size 0.96 which isn't too bad if you don't plan to buy any other bits for it but as I found out quickly, soon as you want to either buy new filters/eyepieces or get into astrophotography you have already made things harder for yourself by not buying a scope with 1.25 size eye-pieces (even Celestrons 60AZ comes with 1.25 eye-pieces).

So having bought this telescope I knew whatever I did look at I wanted to be able to capture the sights so needed to look into astrophotography.

Having used Morgans alot in the past I had noticed the SPC900 webcam kit that they do and also the fact they sell the items in the kit separately so a month ago I started checking the site every few days to see when they actually had everything in stock as they were always sold out of the camera on its own and the full kit. Last week I gave up and emailed and phoned them to ask and on the phone did not get any info but through email a nice guy from Morgans emailed me to say it was difficult and they currently cannot source any in the UK or Europe. Giving up on Morgans I found 2 other places to get it from one was an eBay seller selling the whole kit and other extras for £79.99 and the other was Telescope House selling the kit for approx £55.00 - Morgans I think were pricing the kit at around £40.00

To be fair to the eBay seller although he is charging the most he is a stargazing nut like most on here and seems very helpful and the extras he offers to throw in are helpful however as Telescope House were cheapest and in stock I got mine from them. Delivered in 3 days I was impressed! Sadly now Telescope House are sold out and the astro nut eBay is the only person selling the full kit so I would recommend anyone wantiing this kit to get it off eBay quick before he shifts all his stock.

Got the webcam all setup on a netbook and then went to fit it to the telescope... gutted! As scope is not 1.25 won't fit.

So now I'm looking around to see if I can get a 0.96 to 1.25 adaptor for under £10 or a hybrid diagonal I believe it is called for around this price or less

This is probably the longest post I will ever do on here but thought it might help at least one other person BEFORE they buy a starter scope!

And finally,

Part two of the post for the more experienced folks on here...

What things do you now know about astronomy that you wish you had known before starting? eg kinda like the noobs 100 rule handbook to astronomy

Cheers,

Mark

[RikM]

Rule 1: It will cost you at least double your initial budget but it will be worth it.

Rule 2: Telescopes don't 'have' to come on a tripod. A Dobsonian mount is an advantage, not a compromise. When I started out, in my head a 'proper' telescope came on a tripod. Now I know better and have rectified my mistake

[Black Knight]

Rule 3: Most DSO's will just look like a grey fuzzy smudge, even through the largest apertures*

*Exceptions excluded

[Capricorn]

3x barlow giving 450x

Not a chance!!!!!!

You might get 80x, doubt if you will get 100x and 450x is someone writing a number of the side of the box hoping someone will believe it and spend their money.

Everyone has their idea of a telescope, Rik says a dobsonian mounted Newtonian scope, I say an apo triplet refractor on a driven equitorial mount.

2 views at opposite ends, and we are both right.

I am not sure that the eyeoieces you have supplied are plossl's.

Buying additional items to convert your scope to be usable with the webcam and then other bits could cost more then simply searching out a better scope that is already setup for the standard 1.25" items.

For astrophotography the mount will need to track and that means an RA motor at least. Can one be fitted? What cost?

[Scorpionfoot]

Not a chance!!!!!!

and 450x is someone writing a number of the side of the box hoping someone will believe it and spend their money.

Exactly haha - Told you I was new to this!

If I'm honest I am realistic as to what I expect to get from this starter scope, however on first impressions of seeing craters up close on the moon if I can focus (no pun intended) on this kind of observing to allow me to learn how to use and get good shots through the spc900 then I will feel like the scope has served its primary purpose.

As a side note given the size of this scope and having tried I don't find it possible to focus on anything at 450x - but as I'm new to all this maybe more work is needed. One lesson I did pick up quick from reading this forum was the stated mag vs what can actually be used mag.

Also as a side note, nice to see there is a group for central scotland as I was beginning to worry that a place housing one of the 4 public observatorys in the UK would not have an astro group!

Mark

[John]

Rule 4: The planets will appear smaller than you think they ought to, even Jupiter.

Rule 5: Deep sky objects are 99% shades of grey visually - unlike the photos !

[Squagnut]

Yes, it's not necessarily a bad idea to get cheap kit to learn about the principles of how things work. I bought a Seben 114 monstrosity, from which I learned how equatorial mounts work without the expense of getting a good one. It would have been cheaper to loan a decent 'scope, of course, but I prefer not to kick myself over it - if it was a mistake, then I've learned from it.

You'll have a job getting an adaptor for that small EP barrel, however. But it's not impossible to make your own, if you can find a piece of plastic tube which fits snugly into the focusing tube, and a bit of trial-and-error with fixing the webcam to it.

Which leads us to ...

Rule 6: Many of the problems you will encounter do not have an off-the-shelf solution, but can be dealt with easily and cheaply with a little application and ingenuity.

[cantab]

Scopes 'n' skies do a hybrid diagonal for a tenner. From reports their service can be hit-and-miss, but they're better than they were a few years ago.