What other things will I NEED?

[JT723]

Hello, complete newbie here.

I've just about settled on purchasing a Skyliner 200P Dobsonian. It's my first telescope, and having read a bunch of things on here and from what the guy at the shop tells me, I'm quite happy with it. Although I'm thinking now that it's probably going to be larger than I thought and I'll have nowhere to put it. Ah well. I'm sure I'll be told where to stick it.

My main question is though, bearing in mind that barring use of binoculars I'm a TOTAL newbie, will I need to get anything else at the same time, other than what comes with the telescope itself?

I hear talk of other lenses/eyepieces. It comes with 10mm and 25mm eyepieces. Should I get a 6mm? Or a 2x Barlow lens (whatever the heck that is)? Or am I right in thinking that those can wait until later?

How about a moon filter? Is it necessary for looking at the moon, or is it something I can get later on just to improve the experience?

Finally, the biggy that I'm worried about - do I need to get some sort of collimation device type thingy (if you'll excuse the technical terminology)? My knowledge of "collimation" is that it's some sort of set up type thing that people have to do. Will I need to do it before being able to use my scope for the first time, and if so, will I need to buy something extra to do it with? I just want to keep the whole thing as simple as possible while I'm starting out, but I don't want to get home with a scope I can't use because I don't have the equipment to set it up properly.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[welshrob87]

I was in the same position as you a couple of weeks ago. The advice people gave me was to just use the scope with the supplied equipment for a while and you will work out what you need as you go. If when you're using the scope you think 'I could do with so and so' then you can look about getting it

I did get a Cheshire collimation device with my 200P but it's not essential. Many people just use a cap with a hole drilled in the centre.

[faulksy]

hi and welcome to sgl.good choice in scope by the way you will have some fun with that.the supplied eye pieces (e.p.) will be fine to start with, the barlow alters the focal length of the e.p.if you use a 2x barlow with the supplied 20mm e.p. this e.p. will become 10mm and the supplied 10mm e.p. will become 5mm.a lot will reccomend a collimation tool as you will need this. this tool alignes the mirrors correctly so that you get better detail in your viewing.a red light head torch is a good idea and down load stellarium so you can plan what you want to see. hope this helps

[Ian123]

I was in the same position as you a couple of weeks ago. The advice people gave me was to just use the scope with the supplied equipment for a while and you will work out what you need as you go. If when you're using the scope you think 'I could do with so and so' then you can look about getting it

I did get a Cheshire collimation device with my 200P but it's not essential. Many people just use a cap with a hole drilled in the centre.

+ 1

You will need plenty of patience as well

[PreludeToADream]

Patience and enthusiasm!

But, other than that, I recommend a good book such as Turn Left at Orion (you can get it from Amazon).

Stick with the eyepieces supplied for now. Yes, they're not brilliant but they'll do for starting with. You can always look to upgrade later.

A collimation tool and a red light torch would be useful. Take a look at this list to get an idea of other things you might want to buy: http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/135991-new-top-10-useful-inexpensive-things.html

[JT723]

Thanks to everybody for their help so far. I didn't think of needing a red light torch, but I have one of those already so that's fine. As I thought, I'll stick with the lenses provided for now and look into alternatives later on.

I get the feeling I should get some kind of collimation tool. Am I correct in assuming that I will absolutely have to do some collimation before I can use it, and the only question is as to how I go about it?

If so, I know WelshRob said people use a cap with a hole drilled in it, but (a) I don't think I'm likely to have a spare cap to drill through, and ( I'm hoping that a proper tool will come with instructions as to it's use, as otherwise I wouldn't have a clue where to begin. I found a website that provides a supposedly simple guide, and frankly most of it still sounded like technical gibberish to me. Is a "cheshire" the kind I should be looking at? I know laser ones need collimating themselves first, and the last thing I need is to be collimating a collimator to collimate with, when I only learned an hour ago what collimation even was.

[welshrob87]

Thanks to everybody for their help so far. I didn't think of needing a red light torch, but I have one of those already so that's fine. As I thought, I'll stick with the lenses provided for now and look into alternatives later on.

I get the feeling I should get some kind of collimation tool. Am I correct in assuming that I will absolutely have to do some collimation before I can use it, and the only question is as to how I go about it?

If so, I know WelshRob said people use a cap with a hole drilled in it, but (a) I don't think I'm likely to have a spare cap to drill through, and ( I'm hoping that a proper tool will come with instructions as to it's use, as otherwise I wouldn't have a clue where to begin. I found a website that provides a supposedly simple guide, and frankly most of it still sounded like technical gibberish to me. Is a "cheshire" the kind I should be looking at? I know laser ones need collimating themselves first, and the last thing I need is to be collimating a collimator to collimate with, when I only learned an hour ago what collimation even was.

My scope arrived pretty well collimated but I went through the process anyway just to get used to it. It is quite daunting the first time, I found it a lot harder to read about collimation before having the scope in front of you, but once you have the scope and can look at the things mentioned in the instructions it becomes much easier.

The cheshire collimator I got (First Light Optics - Premium Cheshire Collimating Eyepiece) didn't come with nay instructions but Astro Bbay's collimation guide is very comprehensive:

Astro Babys Guide to Collimation

I have also read that instead of using a spare cap you can use an old film canister, if you have any of them left over.