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Hey from West/North Yorkshire!

jbdtaylor

By jbdtaylor
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jbdtaylor

jbdtaylor

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Hey everyone!

Got my first telescope the other day, a Skywatcher Explorer 130p. It's a Christmas present from my girlfriend, so I've got to impatiently wait until then until I can use it. Although I have taken it out twice with the cheeky excuse of "better make sure it all works fine"! Jupiter was the most amazing thing I've seen all my life. Managed to get a good look at the Pleiades, Orion Nebula, and the double star Epsilon Lyrae.

Absolutely cannot wait to use it again.

I've always loved astronomy, had loads of books on it when I was a kid and used to enjoy looking through my Dad's telescope when I was young. So looking up into the heavens for me feels like a bit of a childhood adventure.

Just wondering also, as the eyepieces for the telescope are the ones that came with it, "starter eyepieces" essentially. What is the main difference between these and higher-end eyepieces? I was getting very good images of Jupiter from mine, but then again I don't have much in my memory to compare it to!

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swamp thing

swamp thing

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Hello and welcome to the forum.

130mm is a nice starter scope thet should give some impressive views. Pity you can't use it :p

Mind you, it sounds like you've already viewed some of the nights treasures ;)

I shouldn't worry about other eyepieces until you've been using it a while.

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Vlad

Vlad

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Good starter scope, no doubt about that. Also easy to handle, carry and take indoors when you've done observing. Anything bigger starts to become more chore.

About they eyepieces. Not a lot wrong with them. They are many times better than eyepieces were just a couple of decades ago. Probably Plossls, very good really. The new range show a wider field of view, but no great loss there, also, like just about all eyepieces, they show stars a small flares near the edge of the field of view, in any Newtonian scope. Use 'em and love 'em.

Great Christmas prezzy! :grin:

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. Fancy opening your prezzie early - shocking! Personally I don't blame you though keeping it in the box till crimbo is going to be a tough challenge, given those long crispy clear dark winter skies that are bound to appear between now and then. As Vlad said above, the standard enclosed eyepieces are certainly an improvement on the glass jam jars they used to supply and will certainly help you use the scope and offer good views of the night sky. There are more expensive eyepieces out there and the difference they offer through exotic glass, coatings and more precise build quality and design, is a final image that offers the potential for better contrast yielding a little more detail, stars that pinpoint to the edge of view and the field of view itself which can extend from 50-60 degrees in standard plossl design all the way up to 100 degrees. In the case of a premier optics company like Televue, it might in general allow you to use a 10mm eyepiece that gives a good deal of useful magnification whilst still holding the whole of the moon within the eyepiece creating what is often described as the moon walk feeling where the view seen is larger than what the eye can take in one go. The important thing to point out here is that the price for this 'alchemy' is not in proportion to the difference in performance. You might have to pay twice the price for a particular eyepiece to obtain a difference of 15% in contrast definition but for some, that might mean the difference between seeing the Cassini division in the rings of Saturn or not at all. You will have noticed that I used the word 'potential' above because of course the eyepiece is at the end of the light pathway having been refracted or reflected along its journey and so although an eyepiece might come with a very good reputation, it can only perform as part of a partnership with the qualities of scope that it is being used with. I would certainly recommend that you read "Eyepieces - the very least you need" at the top of the Beginners Help & Advice Section written by Warthog and it will certainly help you set the scene with the technical understanding of how to improve your eyepiece collection. I hope that helps.

Clear skies, keep your hands of that prezzie and hope you enjoy the rest of the forum! :grin:

James

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jbdtaylor

jbdtaylor

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Thanks for the kind words and advice everyone!

My name's Johnny by the way, when I signed up I didn't realise you could have spaces in your name and I wanted something I could remember haha.

I absolutely cannot wait until I can get it out again, I've been given a few good books by my Father on it, and we're going to have a few little "star parties" after Christmas too, which should be good. I wouldn't mind a good look through his 8" Maksutov-Cassegrain either!

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