first scope

[tigerjon]

good evening all, tomorrow i will be ordering my first scope ( dob 200p) i was wondering if there is anything else i will need to order to help my viewing pleasure? i keep hearing the word ' collimate' and it scares me a bit, should i get a premium cheshire collimating eyepiece? is yes are they easy to use as this will be my first scope? I hope u can answer my 2 questions.

thanks in advance

jon

[DoctorD]

Don't be frightened after a while it will become 2nd nature. Both Cheshire and laser collimators have their fans.

Read the various tutorials (Astrobabys is very good for the Cheshire) and make a choice.

Enjoy your scope!

HTH

Paul

[Lee M]

I'll try to be the first but almost certainly not the last to say Telrad.

[skir]

I'd just go for a normal collimator if it were me. I'd then get 2 books, the stars by h a rey and turn left at Orion. Telrad as mentioned and maybe a decent high power eyepiece. A red head torch would come in handy too.

[tigerjon]

what high power eyepiece would u recommend??

[brantuk]

If you buy second hand you'll save a good third of the price and most respecatable astronomers look after their eyepieces. If it's high power then I wouldn't go mad - the scope is 1200mm so a 6mm or 8mm will give you something that's useable from 150x to 200x on most clear nights with good seeing.

For around £40-£50 the TMB and BST ranges are quite popular and for a little more (£60'ish) you might find a nice Baader Hyperion. It would be a good range filler along with the 10mm and 25mm that you get with the scope. WO also do some nice "starter" planetarys and you wouldn't go wrong with a Celestron X-Cell.

I would also think about the future and eventually filling the range with something around 16mm and 31mm - perhaps go 2" with the 31mm for some nice wide low power views of open clusters and large galaxies. Just my humble opinion but hope it helps.