Report from first 2 nights observing and a couple of questions!

[Oser]

Hey everyone!

Thanks to some of the advice I'd read from here and other places about a month ago, I finally got round to purchasing a 6" f/5 reflector. Here's a pic! It's a sky watcher 150P. Despite the fact that new telescopes are supposed to bring weeks of cloud, I was able to get out wednesday (the day I bought it) and thursday. I have the telescope balanced but I've yet to properly align the EQ mount, though I was still able to get out and point towards things easy enough!

I started with Jupiter and for the first time I was able to see two parallel belts across the center of the planet along with the 4 moons. I was using a 25mm (30x) and a 10mm (75x) eyepiece along with a 2x Barlow. At the higher magnifications there was a circular glare around the planet, almost as if it was too bright? Or could this be another effect of the optics or atmosphere?

I then had a look at the Pleiades using the lowest magnification and could see lots more stars. I thought I was maybe seeing a hint of blue or is that my imagination telling me it's there after seeing pictures on the internet? lol

The orion nebula was interesting to see. It looked like a group of bright stars with a white cloud surrounding them. Finally the moon looked great, the most detail I've ever been able to see although it was very bright, I was glad of the light reducing effect of the barlow lol.

I also tried to look at M81 and M82 by using the diagonal of Ursa Major but I soon got lost after moving away from Dubhe . I'll have to try again another night, I'm hoping if I can get polar aligned I can used the RA and DEC scales to help me navigate but from what I've read on these forums, the scales on the EQ3-2 mount are more for decoration.

I'm wondering about collimation though, I think it's ok but i'm not 100% sure. I've read several guides online and from tinkering with it I was able to make it worse and then bring it back to where it was. I took this picture looking into the focuser, i'm not sure if it shows much pic Towards the end of tonight, I noticed dew forming on the outside of the telescope and when I brought it back inside, there seemed to be condensation covering the primary mirror. It soon disappeared though. Is it ok for this to happen or would it leave water marks after a while?

Also for storing the telescope when not in use, is it fine to leave it on the mount or is it best to take the telescope and counter-weights off the mount?

I read too that in an F/5 scope, the quality of the eyepieces becomes more apparent, especially at the shorter focal lengths. The two eyepieces that came with the scope are these super MA ones http://www.scopesnsk...yepiecekit.html Would I benefit much from purchasing some better eye pieces?

Sorry I wrote quite a lot there! Thanks if anyone is able to answer any of the questions

Kind Regards,

Matt

[Marki]

Hi and welcome to the Lounge Matt!

I'm not a reflector owner, but I imagine the dew shouldn't be an issue. You'd be surprised at just how much a mirror can get messy (dew spots, water, dust etc.) without it affecting the views. Don't be temtpted to clean it unless you really need to!

Not sure whats best for storage - I tend to dismount and pack my refractors away, and break the mounts down into the various pieces too, but thats as much because of the the space it all takes up when assembled.

I'm sure some other more knowledgeable folks will be along to answer your other queries soon!

Clear skies!

[Kropster]

Hi Matt

I am a novice with telescopes, but was able to collimate my Tasco (!) 119mm reflector very easily using a cheapish laser collimator.. about £30 or so.

It makes the job easy ........ once you have worked out which are the locking scres and which are the adjustment screws on the mirror cell.

You will also probably need an allen key to adjust the secondary mirror.

There are plenty of step-through guides on the interent, Youtube etc..

It really was quite easy to do with the collimator. I wouldn't hesitate to have a go. I found my scope was quite far out.

Steve

[Astro Imp]

Hi Matt and welcome to the forum.

As far as polar alignment is concerned for visual use you don't need to be spot on. A quick and easy way is to point the north leg of the tripod north (use a compass) and set the altitude to your latitude. Doing this you will find that when viewing you can track objects by using the RA slow motion control with an occasional tweak to the declination control.

The moon is getting quite bright at the moment which will make seeing galaxies and nebula difficult/impossible.

To help you find your way around have you downloaded Stellarium, a free planatarium program http://www.stellarium.org/

Good luck.

[Oser]

Thanks for the warm welcome chaps!

Marki - I definately agree about not touching the mirror. So far whenever I have brought the telescope back inside from a cold evening, a lot of condensation forms over the mirror. It clears up after aout 10 minutes though without any noticeable marks left on the mirror. I would hope that over time any marks that I cant see wouldn't build up to the point were they start to affect the image.

Kropster - Yeah I did have a go at collimating the telescope. From what I can tell the secondary mirror is alligned ok with respect to the focuser and primary as I can see all 3 primary mirror clips in the centre of the focuser. When I look through a home made collimation cap (a 35mm film container lid with a centre hold punched and the back covered in tin foil), the centre of the collimation cap seems slightly off the centre spot of the primary mirror. I might have another go at tweaking the primary and see if I can make it any better. I like your idea of a laser collimator, though, It seems rather handy

Astro Imp - Yeah I was able to get out last night for a spell, it wasn't a great night, with intermittent clouds but I still was able to get the mount roughly polar aligned and I was therefore able to track using mostly just the RA axis. I had a go at locating the Whirlpool galaxy by hopping from the end star in the handle of the plough but I wasn't having much luck. I also tried finding an object with the same declination and then sweeping RA but it was unsuccessful too. As you say though the moon is reasonably bright and I don't think it was too good a night so maybe it was too difficult to see.

I'm hoping to get out tonight again, BBC weather reports a clear sky from 8.00PM onwards so I'll maybe take a short drive to a relatives house located further away from street lights. With the current moon brightness, would there be any deep sky objects that would be easy to locate? I'm thinking of andromeda galaxy and I'll give the orion nebula another look as I can find it easyily enough

Thanks again for all your help!

[Oser]

Sorry for the double post, I couldn't see a way to edit my previous reply.

I just wanted to add a picutre I took looking through my home made collimation cap, I'm not sure if it shows any usefull information. You can jsut see the circle of tinfoil on the back of my collimation cap to the right of the centre mark of the primary mirror.