Any tips for a beginner with an 8" Dobsonian?

[Stuart B]

Hi;

I've looked on here a few times prior to buying a Skywatcher Skyliner 200 Dob. Was considering a 150 as are in stock in lots of places but managed to find a second hand 200 and picked it up at the end of last week.

(I also have a Celestron Nextstar 60 that I bought off someone at work for £30 earlier this year. Having been re-aquainted with the skies by the StarGazing TV shows and some excellent events in Oxford I got a decent pair of binoculars and started finding my way around the sky and have now taken the extra steps.)

So what tips would you give me?

I found Saturn on Sat night and was as excited as I can remember being! I've looked at the 4 main planets to view, and of course the moon. I've tried to look at the Orion nebula but not sure if I've found in the telescope. I can see a fuzzy area through binoculars but don't seem to be able to locate properly.

I'm looking at the middle area of the sword (sheath) - is that correct?

Any other "easy" sights I should go for with this scope?

My current "kit" includes the above scopes / binoculars with a 25mm wide angle eye piece, another 25mm eyepiece, a 10mm erecting eyepiece and a 9mm eyepiece.

Any suggestions on a what I should go for to compliment / improve?

Should I get any filters? (would they help with looking at Saturn / Jupiter?)

(I've looked at the excellent sticky on eyepieces but wondered if anyone could recommend further) Thanks.

[richbyers]

hey man

you seem to be looking in the right area, use a low power eyepiece for the deep sky objects as it will be brighter, and things such as m42 are large, so you want them to fit in the eyepiece

a moon filters handy as it cuts out the extreme brightness for more comfortable viewing

also many people recommend upgrading the stock eyepieces as they can be naff

for sights try m44, m45, the ring nebula in lyra, double cluster in perseus, m81/82 are great and are located in ursa major

also at this time of the month try and get comet garradd before it goes- you can download its location into stellarium

also the moons particularly good at this time, go along its terminator and pick out major craters and maria etc, theres a check list called the lunar 100 which you may want to look at, as well as the messier catalogue

rich

[Tinker1947]

Just be aware, while the Moon's out the DSO's are not, well there not so easy to find with the lp from the Moon.....good hunting..

[umadog]

Buy a Telrad and Turn Left At Orion. You will see lot more stuff with those two.