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Skywatcher 200 Dob. First sight of Jupiter

JonFaulkes

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JonFaulkes

JonFaulkes

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Finally decided to buy myself a telescope after thinking about it for years. Decided on a Skywatcher Dobsonian with 200mm tube.

Built it on Saturday and then couldn't get it to focus, cue sleepless night wondering what was broken.. Sunday, removed the eyepiece and adapter to see how the focus mechanism worked as when I turned the knobs, nothing moved externally. Click. Suddenly noticed the silver retaining bolt on the focusing tube thingy.. With it unscrewed, surprise surprise the eyepiece moved in and out..

D'oh

Anyway, tonight was reasonably clear so I took the Dob outside, left it for 40 mins and then turned it towards the rather bright object in the eastern sky..

A quick focus, now working of course, and blumming hell. A science orgasm as the 4 galilean moons around Jupiter came into view. Extra focus and there are the storm cloud bands around the planet.

Couldn't believe it. First night of viewing and I get a great view of Jupiter.

40 years old and feel like a child again!

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rory

rory

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hi jon, welcome to the forums. jupiter is a real beut eh. enjoy your scope,youve made a great choice :grin: .

by the way,loads of us have made that mistake with the screw that keeps the focuser from moving,very common.

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JonFaulkes

JonFaulkes

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hi jon, welcome to the forums. jupiter is a real beut eh. enjoy your scope,youve made a great choice :grin: .

by the way,loads of us have made that mistake with the screw that keeps the focuser from moving,very common.

Felt a bit of an idiot about that. Only clicked when I looked inside the focusing tube and there was no mechanism.. Therefore to focus, the eyepiece needed to move...

I did read up a bit about scopes before a purchased, not least as it seemed too good to be true, but the reviews were all pretty solid so I took the plunge.

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JamesM

JamesM

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Congratulations Jon on sorting out your scope and bagging a very impressive prize at the same time. Believe it or not we have all done daft things with our setups and I suppose it must be a right of passage sort of thing - though the trouble is I still keep doing it! :grin: :grin: :grin:

The best one and most obvious was whilst viewing through the scope after setting everything up only to discover a very dark view of the night sky - hang on, blast I haven't taken the protective cover on the front of the scope. :iamwithstupid:

I'm getting to the age where I can blame it on getting older. Keep up with the observations and look forward to reading about your next discovery.

Clear skies

James

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Tom2012

Tom2012

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Finally decided to buy myself a telescope after thinking about it for years. Decided on a Skywatcher Dobsonian with 200mm tube.

Built it on Saturday and then couldn't get it to focus, cue sleepless night wondering what was broken.. Sunday, removed the eyepiece and adapter to see how the focus mechanism worked as when I turned the knobs, nothing moved externally. Click. Suddenly noticed the silver retaining bolt on the focusing tube thingy.. With it unscrewed, surprise surprise the eyepiece moved in and out..

D'oh

Anyway, tonight was reasonably clear so I took the Dob outside, left it for 40 mins and then turned it towards the rather bright object in the eastern sky..

A quick focus, now working of course, and blumming hell. A science orgasm as the 4 galilean moons around Jupiter came into view. Extra focus and there are the storm cloud bands around the planet.

Couldn't believe it. First night of viewing and I get a great view of Jupiter.

40 years old and feel like a child again!

Excellent choice regarding telescope mate!

I had a similar idiot moment when I first tried mine. Instead of making your mistake, mine was having both, 1/1/4" and 2" EP adapters in and wondering why it was focussing properly! Haha I too felt like a complete idiot! Luckily enough the kind people on this site helped me to understand what I'd done wrong!

I got mine in September but only got to see Jupiter for the first time on bonfire night! And it is indeed a "WOW" moment! Got to see the 4 moons and 3/4 bands! Can't wait to see it again! Hurry up and clear up! Hah

Enjoy mate!

Tom.

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Tom2012

Tom2012

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Finally decided to buy myself a telescope after thinking about it for years. Decided on a Skywatcher Dobsonian with 200mm tube.

Built it on Saturday and then couldn't get it to focus, cue sleepless night wondering what was broken.. Sunday, removed the eyepiece and adapter to see how the focus mechanism worked as when I turned the knobs, nothing moved externally. Click. Suddenly noticed the silver retaining bolt on the focusing tube thingy.. With it unscrewed, surprise surprise the eyepiece moved in and out..

D'oh

Anyway, tonight was reasonably clear so I took the Dob outside, left it for 40 mins and then turned it towards the rather bright object in the eastern sky..

A quick focus, now working of course, and blumming hell. A science orgasm as the 4 galilean moons around Jupiter came into view. Extra focus and there are the storm cloud bands around the planet.

Couldn't believe it. First night of viewing and I get a great view of Jupiter.

40 years old and feel like a child again!

Excellent choice regarding telescope mate!

I had a similar idiot moment when I first tried mine. Instead of making your mistake, mine was having both, 1/1/4" and 2" EP adapters in and wondering why it was focussing properly! Haha I too felt like a complete idiot! Luckily enough the kind people on this site helped me to understand what I'd done wrong!

I got mine in September but only got to see Jupiter for the first time on bonfire night! And it is indeed a "WOW" moment! Got to see the 4 moons and 3/4 bands! Can't wait to see it again! Hurry up and clear up! Hah

Enjoy mate!

Tom.

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Caelus

Caelus

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Suddenly noticed the silver retaining bolt on the focusing tube thingy.. With it unscrewed, surprise surprise the eyepiece moved in and out..

If it makes you feel better, I've had the same scope since February and I didn't even notice that screw was there! :embarrassed: After reading your post I had to go and look at my own scope to see what you were on about!

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Welrod50

Welrod50

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Welcome aboard Jon :)

Jupiter is a great sight with good seeing conditions and as has been noted already, wait until you spot Saturn and the Orion Nebula (to name just two). Many more 'wow' moments to come.

I'm nearly 37 and giggled like a 5 year old when I first saw Saturn!

Priceless ;)

Clear skies....

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JonFaulkes

JonFaulkes

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Since my wife doesn't read this forum...

What's the next thing I should look to buy? I've got the generic 10 and 25mm eye-pieces that came with the scope but should I buy some better quality ones? Do I need a collimator to check the scope is working as it should be?

Eventually, I hope to get a DLSR to connect to the 200P but that might have to wait until the next budget year :grin:

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Matt Scunthorpe

Matt Scunthorpe

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Id say a collimator should be first, then maybe a Telrad if you think you'll get on with it. Ive not really had chance to use my Telrad yet, but from what i have, it seems pretty good. I would keep hold of those EPs at the moment, there not great, but there not bad either, I bought the Celestron Xcels, at £70 a pop they're not cheap, and i've never really been able to tell the difference, maybe i should compare the xcels with the stock EPs next time i'm out.

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