First light with new 127slt

[JonnyK]

I received my new scope from FLO on friday and had a good read of the manual hoping the skies would clear but alas it was not so. However last night was crysatl clear so out she came, I set it up to cool down for about an hour. I looked up my coordinated but not sure I did this right as one was a negative value? Anyway I was too excited and manually slewed it around the sky. I only had a limited amount of time so straight to saturn, and I have to say the red dot finder on this works a treat I was very impressed (after aligning it using venus earlier on). Once I had found saturn I played around with the eyepieces and a barlow I had previously bought. I was absolutely blown away how clear and detailed it was!I have an astromaster 130 eq and the views through the mak were much clearer, it was like the wow factor you get when you first set eyes on it all over again. If it's clear tonight I will have ago aligning it and maybe get the webcam out. So first impressions are excellent, quality seems very good, the mount is sturdy enough for what I want and the handset is a doddle to use. Thankyou to all the people on here who hepled me choose this scope, it was definately sound advice!

[M4lcs67]

I too had my 127 SLT out last night (first time out in about 2 months due to the rubbish weather), so I was seriously chomping at the bit. Had my new Hyperion 10mm ep and 14mm fine tuning ring to try out for the first time as well. Had a great night and the new ep and ftr combo was a real hit. Got some brilliant views of Mars and Saturn which were nice and clear. First tried the Hyperion 10mm on it's own and it was great, but with the addition of the 14mm ftr it increased magnification really well without losing any sharpness or clarity. For an extra few quid for the ftr's the Hyperions are brilliant as it is like getting an additional ep for the price of the tuning ring (£12/£15). Bargain......

[JonnyK]

Fine tuning ring?you will have to forgive me I am stil very new to all this.

[M4lcs67]

They are additional rings that you screw into the middle of the eyepiece to give you more focal length and therefore more power. The Hyperions are a modular design and by unscrewing the bottom of the eyepiece from the top and adding the fine tuning rings you can increase their magnification. I would recommend that you get some experience with you eyepieces that came with the scope for the time being. However you may find later on that you want some better eyepieces and I would definately recommend the Hyperions in the 127 SLT.

[JonnyK]

Thanks Malc, I will definately be getting some more eyepieces but like you said I need to spend time at the scope getting used to it. Hopefully tonight will be clear so I can have a go with the GOTO, i've got my longitude and latitude ready so fingers crossed!

[M4lcs67]

Best of luck with it. When you actually get to grips with the 127 SLT it is a great little telescope.

[JamesM]

Congratulations Jonny on observing Saturn, those Maks are true planet killers for sure. You might want to take a look at downloading a free piece of planetarium software called Stellarium, you can view it here. It might help decide on which stars to choose should you decide to elect to go for the two star alignment method. Stellarium can be configured to present the precise view from your observing location in real time which is very helpful in predicting what is coming up when.

You mention a negative value for your location. If you provide us with your home town/village perhaps we can clarify that your co-ordinates are correct.

Clear skies for now

James

[JonnyK]

Just a quick update I dragged the Mak out last night to attempt my first ever 3 star align with the intention of trackin Saturn. I have no knowledge of the sky really (except where the planets are) so I though I would use Mars, Saturn and another random star for alignment. I should probably say at this point that I have since found my location in the proper format for entering it into the scope (i.e degrees minutes seconds, thankyou for the offer James). All the data was placed into the handset, which for a complete newbie was so straight forward! Went straight to Mars to align followed the very straight forward instructions and as easy as that my first attempt was succesful! I couldn't believe it so I got Saturn up on the menu hit enter and there it was (a tiny bit off centre in the 20mm but to be honest I only aligned using the 20mm and not the 9mm so I could gain some accuracy using the higher mag eyepiece for centering). I thought this is too good to be true so after 20 mins of looking at it I replaced the 9mm with the 20mm and went inside for a good 30 mins and on my return there it was samck bang where I left it. I cannot express how excited I was and how hugely impressed with the celestron system I am. It took me ages to choose this scope and thanks to you guy's on here I am now the very happy owner of a telescope that will keep me entertained for years to come.

[Loki Calavera]

Glad you're having a good time with the 127 Jonny! I'm still yet to take mine out for a proper viewing session, but at least I know what to expect

[Stewpot407]

My sons (*cough* 'our') 127 SLT turned up yesterday (great services from FLO!). It's not his 10th birthday until tomorrow but already very excited....for him.

Stupidly I didn't order a barlow at the same time, hope he isn't going to be disappointed

Cheers

Stew

[Dunkster]

@JonnyK - another great alignment feature is solar system align... if you can pin point Mars/Saturn/Venus in the sky with the finder scope, you can use that too. I've found it works best on planets though.

@Stewpot407 - the 127SLT might be bundled with a 25mm and a 9mm (mine was), so no need for a barlow.... 9mm is probably about the highest magnification you'll be able to get most nights. At some point, you might want to consider a focal length in between, like a 15mm or thereabouts.

[Ali C]

Jonny / Dunkster

I also went for the 127 slt and am not disappointed, I would echo Malc's suggestion and invest is some reasonable quality EPs' it makes a huge difference.

[M4lcs67]

Yeah Ali C. I was amazed at the difference that sticking good quality eyepieces on the 127 SLT had. Almost like a whole new scope.

[tico]

And for DSO...how good is this scope?

best regards