getting my first scope today...

[c3po]

hi all,

i just can't contain my excitement any longer - today i collect my first telescope; its a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ-MD

i've been out over the past couple of weeks when i could(blumming clouds! ) getting acquainted with the skies using some basic binos , but hopefully i can really get into astronomy now with my scope!...i just have so many questions now, like where shall i start, what's easiest to see with this scope, what would be the limits of it's "power"...?

[brantuk]

First thing to do (once you have it correctly assembled) is to find out where the pole star is and how to polar align the mount. Find out your lattitude at your location - this will be the setting for the altitude scale.

Next familiarise yourself with the Plough and Cassiopeia and how to find the pole star using them, that's your azimuth setting towards the pole star. Now you can orientate the scope using only the right ascension (RA) and declination (Dec) axes to find objects and when you engage the motor it will track for you.

Download "Stellarium" (free) for a view of the sky at your location. Good luck

[John]

Congratulations on your scope !

brantuk has given some great advice.

My advice would only be to not think of the scope in terms of magnification. Many people new to scopes think that magnifying to the maximum is what it's all about but it's not. Most observing, particularly of deep sky objects (ie: galaxies, star clusters, nebulae etc) is done at low to medium power. The strength of a scope is that it captures more light than our eyes and binoculars can so these faint objects become more apparent.

High magnifications (in the case of the 130 Astromaster I'd suggest that means 120x - 180x) are for use on the moon and planets, when the seeing conditions allow.

Other than that, I hope you enjoy your scope !.

[c3po]

hi brant,

many thanks for the reply....and for being so quick!

I've had Stellarium installed on my laptop and main PC for a while to help, and even got a version for my Android (i think its Google SkyMaps).

My house faces north, so finding Polaris isn't an issue, recently both Ursa Major & Cassiopeia have been near enough right above my front lawn so that helps confirm Polaris for me...

here's hoping for a few more nights of clear skies so i can get out and use my 'scope!!

My advice would only be to not think of the scope in terms of magnification. Many people new to scopes think that magnifying to the maximum is what it's all about but it's not. Most observing, particularly of deep sky objects (ie: galaxies, star clusters, nebulae etc) is done at low to medium power. The strength of a scope is that it captures more light than our eyes and binoculars can so these faint objects become more apparent.

High magnifications (in the case of the 130 Astromaster I'd suggest that means 120x - 180x) are for use on the moon and planets, when the seeing conditions allow.

thanks John, having been lurking on here for a while, and reading many of the topics on the beginners area, i've soaked up so much info i've come to realise its not about magnification and much more about aperture...i think by my question about 'power' was more about the biggest/smallest EPs i could/should use to get the best out of it rather than getting the biggest magnified image. I'm more than aware that a larger eye piece will mean more light to my eye and a brighter picture, but at lower magnification, but how big is enough and how small would be too much...is there a calculation anywhere?