1st Month Summery

[Singlin]

I have had my Skywatcher 200p Newtonian for a Month now and have so far accomplished the following:

1. Colliminated using Astro Baby's guide without the use of the Cheshire.

Astro Babys Guide to Collimation

2.Learnt how the sky is mapped using Right Ascention (Lat) and DEclination (long) with their corresponding scales on the EQ5 mount.

3. I learnt how to setup and polar align the Eq5 mount using Astro Baby's guide:

Astro Babys HEQ5 Polar Alignment

4. Managed to roughly orient myself around the sky using my setting circles and Stellarium. I found that I could get my telescope to point reasonably close to an object with the setting circles, close enough to slew and find the object whilst looking through my finder scope.

I have purchased a second hand EQ6 Pro mount and have purposely not used it yet in order to learn the ropes on the fully manual Eq5 that came with the scope.

My aim is to go down the Astro photography path and next week I will setup the EQ6.

Question:

1. I know that I have asked as many others have about eyepieces and I feel guilty asking again.

But which eyepieces would you recommend for no more than 100 quid each as an upgrade, Taking into consideration the I will probably attach a dslr to them in the future?

This web site has been my pillar for information and I can't thank everyone enough for all the information posted on this forum. I live in a remote part of the Alps which favors stargazing but information can only be had on the internet.

Please advise:) on the eyepieces.

Happy Stargazing

Regards,

Simon

[brantuk]

An 8mm eyepiece will give you 150x magnification in your scope which is very nice for seeing Jupiters banding and Saturns rings. UK seeing unfortunately limits us to 200x max most of the time- and then on a pretty clear night.

For looking at galaxies and clusters you'd want lower powers - perhaps 30mm-35mm wide field eyepieces. The better the quality you buy the better the views will be. I picked up s/h TV Radians for around £100 each and Baader Hyperions for £95 new. There are others at lower prices though.

I would get down to an Astro Soc and see if you can borrow one or two to try before buying. Ep's are quite personal and what suits one person doesn't necessarily suit another. So you need to find what suits you best. Do consider s/h - most people look after their eypieces and there are savings to be had

[Singlin]

I am thinking of ordering the following:

8mm, 17mm and 22mm of the following: http://www.otticasanmarco.it/catalog.asp?page=prod&prodID=3287&famId=2

Also the 35 mm of the following:TS-ED 50,8MM: - Centro Ottico San Marco