first 'play' with Meade LX200 10" GPS ..??

[oldman101]

first night with no cloud, so play time

tried to use Stellarium and the handbox to goto Saturn

had loads of problems - just got empty sky. went to manual..

wasn't expecting a big black ring in the centre of the view ( which I guess is the secondary baffle coming into view) ; i got rid of it with the large focus knob

then all I got was a tiny bright star

Is this what I should expect?

or

should I be able to see more of Saturn rather than a pin-head

so far (and I don't know what I am doing!!) not very impressed

[Naemeth]

Even with the 25mm eyepiece on my 130P (5.1" Scope), Saturn is recognisable, so you should definitely be able to recognise that it's saturn with a 10". Something is not right..

[John]

You will be impressed - when you point the scope at Saturn. You may have been looking at Spica which is a bright star near to Saturn in the sky at the moment.

My old 60mm refractor shows the ring system of Saturn at 60x - with your 10" there will be no doubt whatsoever what you are looking at - even with low magnifications.

[Mark1970Vintage]

I did a quick set up tonight and was operating without goto... Just for a quick look at Saturn. I thought I was doing something wrong too until I realised I was pointing at the wrong thing (spica). Soon found Saturn unmistakeable even in the 25mm. Going to 10mm plus Barlow and it looked stunning.. But without tracking it was moving accross the fov very quickly. I also realised that the lp at the front of my house is far worse than in the back garden where I am mostly sheltered from direct lights.

[oldman101]

thanks guys

was on the concrete pad on the roof of the house - pitch black!

will continue tomorrow .....

left scope up there (its very heavy!!) but we haven't had rain this year

[John]

...was on the concrete pad on the roof of the house - pitch black!....

You will have fun with the concrete gradually releasing the heat it has has stored during the daytime - it could make getting a steady image from the scope, especially at high power, a challenge !

Grass is much better to observe from, if you can.

[oldman101]

Grass is much better to observe from, if you can.

I am not going to move to the UK for grass.

Don't have any of that here!!

[damnut]

In that case I recommend putting some sort of rubber mat (excercise mat??) down because you will drop an expensive piece of glass on the concrete soon!

The views from the 10" will be outstanding, I had the older classic model. Saturn & jupiter are great objects . Get a peterson eye opener and take the back to full 2" and get a low power wide field of view eyepiece. Your scope is f10 so is forgiving on less expensive ep's.

You will be amazed....

Clear Skies

[ollypenrice]

Barlowed 10mm EP makes 500x magnification. That's too much. The optics can do it but the atmosphere can't. 250x is a good working upper limit, occasionally worth exceeding on the planets, but the trick is to look very carefully and for a long time at an image in the EP. The eye will retain much of what it picks up in passing moments of good seeing.

My setups are on concrete and I can't honestly say it's been much of an issue. It's not as hot here as Teneriffe but it can get into the mid thirties. To be fair, though, we do mostly DS imaging here.

Olly

[John]

...My setups are on concrete and I can't honestly say it's been much of an issue. It's not as hot here as Teneriffe but it can get into the mid thirties.....

I stand corrected on that then

A recent thread on surfaces to observe from seemed to roundly condemn concrete and tarmac due to their propensity for storing heat absorbed during the day and releasing it slowly back into the air during the night hours

I can move my scopes back onto the patio now

[oldman101]

... and take the back to full 2" .....

I assume you mean, ditch the 1.25" prism and replace it with a 2" diagonal mirror ??

see - told you I know nowt!!!

[oldman101]

thanks for the advice

as I said, I feel very disappointed so far;

I might read the instructions sometime - that might help?

but, blokes don't do instructions....

[ollypenrice]

I stand corrected on that then

A recent thread on surfaces to observe from seemed to roundly condemn concrete and tarmac due to their propensity for storing heat absorbed during the day and releasing it slowly back into the air during the night hours

I can move my scopes back onto the patio now

No, the objection to concrete makes perfect sense, John, but it seems to work for me. I also don't have many issues with cooldown here so perhaps the clarity and the altitude helps things to cool abnormally fast. We also get a sunset wind pretty regularly which aids cooling. It does 'drop cold' pretty sharpish here when the sun goes in.

Olly

[Davey-T]

If your going to leave it in the same place it's worth setting it up and aligning it properly

and then parking it .

Next time you turn it on you won't have to go through the rigmarol of aligning.

Then scroll to object ,star,named, pick one starting with A ,Arcturus at the moment push

goto and when it appears (hopefully) in the eypiece, center it and hold down the enter

button for a couple o fsecs and it should say "sync on Arcturus" press enter and it will track

and stay centred

Davey-T

[damnut]

Hi Oldman101,

Ditch the 1.25" and get the Peterson back!!! Don't expect hubble type views as you will really only see black & white on the fuzzies.

You are blessed with clear skies in the Canaries, do try low power wide field of view. If you cannot focus at night try & focus during the daytime use the standard 26mm that came with the scope. When focussing you may need to turn the focusser a number of turns, just remember which way for distant objects...

You can always send me a pm. I'll try to guide you through,.

Best Regards

Damian

[oldman101]

thanks guys - very helpful

looking cloudy now, bah!