New to astronomy.

[robbieboy]

Hello East Midlands Starters i wonder if you could help me? I've just bought my very first telescope (200p skyliner dob) and used it for the first time on Saturday night/ Sunday morning. All though it took a bit of getting used to initially, i was really impressed with the images i was seeing. When i was viewing Jupiter at about 4.40am i could clearly see the different bands around the plant but the colour was in shades of grey and white. Do you need a larger aperture to pick colour up? Also although the view was amazing the image was quite small. I was using the 10mm eyepiece provided. Would a 2x barlow improve this or should i just stick to smaller and clear image? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Rob.

[robbieboy]

*it should say planet, not plant. I didn't see any of those up there.

[BAZ Senior]

Hi Rob, welcome to EMS.

With the 10mm eyepiece you are getting 120x magnification. A 2x Barlow will give you a larger image to look at, 240x, but the image will be a lot darker as a result.

Colour is fairly difficult to see with dark adapted eye's, as the colour receptors don't work well in the dark. That said everyone is different, and we have different abilities to pick out colours.

Your scope is a great first scope and will keep you busy for a good while. You may when you have the funds want to upgrade your eyepieces, but this doesn't have to be expensive to get better results.

There's a whole bunch of us local to you, and have two dark sites where we meet up. You would be very welcome to pop over and say hello.

http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.co.uk/

Enjoy your new scope.

[robbieboy]

Hi Rob, welcome to EMS.

With the 10mm eyepiece you are getting 120x magnification. A 2x Barlow will give you a larger image to look at, 240x, but the image will be a lot darker as a result.

Colour is fairly difficult to see with dark adapted eye's, as the colour receptors don't work well in the dark. That said everyone is different, and we have different abilities to pick out colours.

Your scope is a great first scope and will keep you busy for a good while. You may when you have the funds want to upgrade your eyepieces, but this doesn't have to be expensive to get better results.

There's a whole bunch of us local to you, and have two dark sites where we meet up. You would be very welcome to pop over and say hello.

http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.co.uk/

Enjoy your new scope.

[robbieboy]

Thank you for the info Baz, appreciate it. Yes ill have a look at the link to your dark site meetings. It would be better talking to people with the experience rather than reading about it.

[brantuk]

Hi Robbie ad welcome to East Mids Stargazers on SGL - hope we see you at a local meeting soon

[robbieboy]

Hello brantuk. Yes id like to come to the next local meeting. when is it? I live at Heanor, so your dark site at Belper is only about 20 mins away. It would be great to talk to people with the same interest and pick up some knowledge. Do you know if they do a carry case to transport an 8inch dob in the car?

[swaylight]

Hi all, I'm also new to stargazing, got my first scope for my birthday last week and god have i been out looking at everything lol. I'd love to come along to a star party night if possible, i live in nottingham. I'd like to come and chat and see what others see, I'm looking for some new EP's for my scope which is the new 130P which unfortuantly now doesn't come with the barlow so i'm stuck with the original EP's at the moment, the 10mm and 25mm. But i also ended up buying another 6mm EP at the same time, kinda wished i'd waited now as i still don't really understand how the EP's work. Anyways, hope to hear from you soon

[red dwalf]

welcome to the forum Swaylight,

you would be more than welcome to come along to any of our meets, we hold regular meets at the belper site and more spare of the moment meets, usually Saturdays at the Sawley site which is very near to Sawley marina.

where in Notts are you ? we have a few members in the area, i`m in Sandiacre, and we have a few members in Hucknall.

if you would like to join our forum also of course you would be very welcome to which has about 280 members now in the midlands areas and there you can get more information about the meets. just click on the east midlands stargazers link below in my signature.

hope to see you soon.

nice scope by the way, i started with the 130p and loved it.

[swaylight]

Thanks for the welcome Red Dwarf (hope your watching the new season of that soon too lol)

I'd love to come to one of the meets, i've been into astronomy for some time now, and only just been able to get my scope. Belper not that far from me, 40 or so mins away, I'm from Clifton so just the otherside of the river from you red. I was about to sign up to east midland stargazers earlier but had to nip out but i'll do it now i'm back

I love the 130P just it's the same old thing, you get something and automatically want something better. But i want to start small and work my way up that way i'll appreicate it more and hopefully it'll help me fight to find that little more detail that i want.

[red dwalf]

in woundn`t miss it ! L.O.L.

the scope is a good first choice, i always recommend it, very easy to use and doesn`t take long to set up unlike my gear, which because of the time it takes i`m building an obsy to put it in, i had my 130p for about a year before i sold it on to a friend and i still miss it due to the quickness of setting it up.

anyway welcome to the 2 forums and don`t forget to look out for the meets, there`s also a site in Sawley we use which would be closer still to you.

[brantuk]

Hi Swaylight and welcome to East Mids Stargazers

Everythings been said above so hope we see you at a meeting soon

[swaylight]

Hi brantuk,

thanks for the warm welcome i've now signed up to EMS so will be on there too now

look forward to coming to a meet soon just need to find a free night lol.