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SteveWxm

By SteveWxm
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SteveWxm

SteveWxm

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hello everyone. Me and the missus bought a Sky-Watcher Classic 900 Astronomy telescope starter kit just before Christmas and are still learning the ropes, the lingo and what lens' are best to use on what stars etc. I've been reading all i can on here and other sites and have been using trial and error with the telescope.

Already this week we've seen meteors, venus in the day, Saturn's rings, and our first M's.

Is the telescope we have any good for starters? Any helpful tips about lens' etc would be appreciated :(

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Catweazel

Catweazel

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Hi Steve, Your scope is a good starter scope, and should afford you some great views of moon and planets particularly. In terms of lenses, I think the scope comes with 25, 10 & 4mm lenses? If so, this will give you 36x, 90x and 225x magnification; the latter being at the absolute limit of the scope. For planetary viewing & double stars you would want higher magnification (i.e 4mm lens) and for DSO's lower magnifications. Hope that helps a bit. :( CW

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SteveWxm

SteveWxm

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Hi Steve, Your scope is a good starter scope, and should afford you some great views of moon and planets particularly. In terms of lenses, I think the scope comes with 25, 10 & 4mm lenses? If so, this will give you 36x, 90x and 225x magnification; the latter being at the absolute limit of the scope. For planetary viewing & double stars you would want higher magnification (i.e 4mm lens) and for DSO's lower magnifications. Hope that helps a bit. :( CW

Yeh it came with them lenses but we've misplaced the 4mm and 10mm one. So past few nights we've been looking at the moon, saturn, venus and mars through the 25mm lense. Seen some very distant stars on the 25mm last night, but they didn't show up on my girlfriends android app. Think it's google sky maps. Downloaded stellarium so going to have a look at that later tonight.

Looking at a lot of your telescopes and viewed lists i've got a lot to learn :(

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Steve and welcome to the forum. I would second using Stellarium, as it has many features and importantly, can be configured to your exact observing location. My recommendation on the eyepiece front would be to replace the 10mm and if you want a little bit more power then getting hold of either a 5mm or 6mm as this would give you x180 or x150 respective magnification. There are very few nights that will allow you to magnify an object past x200 so replacing the 4mm (x225) in my view would be a waste of time.

What I think would make a big difference to your setup, would be to attach a RA motor (moves the scope left to right) to the mount. I expect you have already discovered how 'twitchy' the mount is when you attempt to manually track or focus the scope. Keeping the object on track whilst trying to squeeze out that little bit extra detail can be a frustrating experience. With the RA motor attached, it would mean one less excuse to touch the mount but, as you observe with 'her-in-doors', it makes handing over the scope for someone else more of a relaxing experience without running the risk that they lose the object during the 'transfer' (which might have taken you half an hour to find!) - it might just help save your marriage Steve!:(:D:D. You will also feel a lot happier leaving the scope unattended for a while while you consult a book or Stellarium for your next object. Hope that helps.

Clear skies for now

James

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Ricardo70

Ricardo70

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Hi Steve & Missus, I am new myself, joined a few days ago, but you will find any and everything you need to know. Already my first upgrade was a decent Barlow x2 lens and now am looking into which eyepieces to upgrade. All I can say at the mo is the scope is rarely an issue until your ready to take astronomy further and deeper, the first and foremost is quality ep's and the right sizes for your needs. Remember these can always follow you to your next scope if and when you upgrade. Hope this helps a little and there is loads more info throughout the forum.

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SteveWxm

SteveWxm

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Hi Steve and welcome to the forum. I would second using Stellarium, as it has many features and importantly, can be configured to your exact observing location. My recommendation on the eyepiece front would be to replace the 10mm and if you want a little bit more power then getting hold of either a 5mm or 6mm as this would give you x180 or x150 respective magnification. There are very few nights that will allow you to magnify an object past x200 so replacing the 4mm (x225) in my view would be a waste of time.

What I think would make a big difference to your setup, would be to attach a RA motor (moves the scope left to right) to the mount. I expect you have already discovered how 'twitchy' the mount is when you attempt to manually track or focus the scope. Keeping the object on track whilst trying to squeeze out that little bit extra detail can be a frustrating experience. With the RA motor attached, it would mean one less excuse to touch the mount but, as you observe with 'her-in-doors', it makes handing over the scope for someone else more of a relaxing experience without running the risk that they lose the object during the 'transfer' (which might have taken you half an hour to find!) - it might just help save your marriage Steve!:(:D:D. You will also feel a lot happier leaving the scope unattended for a while while you consult a book or Stellarium for your next object. Hope that helps.

Clear skies for now

James

Yeh the twitchiness is a big problem! I saw when we bought the scope that an RA motor can be added. Think i may invest in one tomorrow as i get paid. Also think i'll invest in a 5 or 6mm ep too as there's only so much we can see through the 25mm.

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SteveWxm

SteveWxm

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Hi Steve & Missus, I am new myself, joined a few days ago, but you will find any and everything you need to know. Already my first upgrade was a decent Barlow x2 lens and now am looking into which eyepieces to upgrade. All I can say at the mo is the scope is rarely an issue until your ready to take astronomy further and deeper, the first and foremost is quality ep's and the right sizes for your needs. Remember these can always follow you to your next scope if and when you upgrade. Hope this helps a little and there is loads more info throughout the forum.

What sites would you reccomend buying ep's from? Not many shops anywhere near me to be honest.

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