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smallpaul

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smallpaul

smallpaul

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Hello Everyone and thank you for all of the information that is contained on here, It's been interesting reading for me having found the site a few weeks ago.

I'm relatively new to stargazing/ astronomy; I thought it was something I'd like to have a go at and so last Christmas my wife bought me a cheap (Celestron Powerseeker 40) refractor telescope to have a play with. The main reason I suggested something cheap was because I didn't want her to spend a lot of money on something that I might never have used. Despite the budget telescope and the blurry images, I still managed to get hooked! I've been thinking of upgrading my telescope for a while now and as we're expecting our first baby, I thought now was the time to do it (I've been told kids take up every spare penny you have and so thought if I wait until the baby comes along I might never be able to afford one!!).

So for the last few weeks I've been looking for reviews and general information on an upgrade and ended up going for the Skywatcher Explorer 130p. It arrived the other day and was rather shocked to see how big it was (My wife keeps refering to it as Jodrel Bank!). I excitedly unwrapped and unpacked it all, thoroughly read the instructions and then spent the night assembling and playing with it. Despite the quite comprehensive pictures and diagrams, it took me a long-long-long(!) time to figure out the way that an EQ mount worked, having been used to a simplistic alt-az on the powerseeker. At around 2 am, the penny finally dropped having realised I'd been interpreting the diagrams wrong...

Luckily I only had to wait two nights until a relatively clear night (last night) and I went out to test the new toy. I know many people have said it before on here, but last night I definitely had my "Wow" moment. Although in my powerseeker I could find Jupiter and see some of it's moons, I'd never been able to see any detail before. Last night I managed to see some of the bands! This raises the first question I have - It kept going from a white dot with no definition to a planet with defined bands! I couldn't tell whether or not this was to do with my eyes watering/ unfocussing or whether it was poor "Seeing". Having never had anything that clear before, I don't really know what good or bad seeing actually looks like. Any thoughts?

The second question I have is regarding the pointing/ orientation of the EQ mount. Again, I read the instruction that came with the telescope, and followed what I thought were relatively simple and straightforward instructions:

1) Set up the tripod making sure that the head is level

2) Change the latitude until it matches your location (53° where I am) - lock

3) Set the DEC to 90° - lock

4) Rotate in azimuth until the telescope points towards the north celestial pole - lock

Done.

The problem I found was that when I tried doing this, the telescope was pointing a long way below Polaris (My NCP substitute). I had to significantly alter the latitude (to ~60°) for it to be in the vicinity and then a few small tweaks made the scope point towards my target. Although I thought this was odd, when I had a target centred in the scope, turning the R.A. did track the object reasonably well and so thought it must be right... Can anyone tell me whether I did something wrong, whether the dial on the mount is significantly off or whether this is normal? One thought I did have was that I struggled to level the tripod head and so if that was off, could it throw the rest of the head alignment out?

Thanks in advance for any comments/ hints suggestions and thanks again for all the advice already on here!

Paul

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JamesF

JamesF

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Welcome to SGL.

It's quite normal for images to drift back and forth between clear and fuzzy. It's worse if the scope hasn't had time to cool down properly, but you'll always see it a certain amount because of the distortion caused by the atmosphere.

As regards aligning the mount, I'd set the alt axis to your latitude and leave it there, then just point the RA axis roughly north -- anywhere close is good enough for visual use really. Other than that I wouldn't worry too much about it.

James

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smallpaul

smallpaul

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I think it took me nearly an hour of pottering around trying to get things level and adjusted before I really started looking (Is 'observing' a more accepted term? it seems to get used a lot) at things, so I would have thought it'd had sufficient time to cool off?

I've gone for the obvious things to look at first I think (Jupiter and the moon), how do people start wider searching for things like Messier (?) objects, nebulae etc. Is it simply time spent reading and learning?

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Paul and welcome to SGL, I am afraid it is a long learning curve with its occasional frustrating interludes, one piece of advice is to invest in a copy of "Turn Left at Orion", available from most good high street book shops, if you want something more comprehensive, that is along the same lines and slightly cheaper, then "The Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders" both books will will show you what subjects can be found in the Constellations and how to find and locate them. If you have not already done so, down load the free program Stellarium, that will help you find your way about the night sky, enjoy your Astronomy :

John.

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tuckstar

tuckstar

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You need to get yourself a good star chart, turn left at orion is a book that is highly recommended by all on here as a must book. Stellarium is a free software for windows which is another must. There is also plenty of phone software if you have a smartphone.

Most important learn the night sky constellations as this is the key to navigating your way around with your scope, oh and don't pay to much attention to setting circles they will not be accurate enough to be much use and will only confuse you.

They did me!!

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Rich MedRev

Rich MedRev

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Hi Paul and welcome to SGL

+2 for TLAO

as James has stated once you've set the latitute to roughly where you are, swing the RA northwards and as you've already discovered you'll be fine to track visually.

As Tuckstar said "ignore the setting circles" and star hop away.

It will take time but TLAO will show you just what to expect.

Good luck

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Paul and welcome to the forum. You might want to look at this

on polar alignment to make sure that everything has been done correctly. Polar aligning your scope for visual use doesn't have to be that precise but doing the best you can will certainly mean that you only need to use the azimuth manual drive (sometimes called RA drive) to track an object after you have located it. Particularly useful when viewing planets at high magnification when these objects whizz across the field of view! :grin:

Clear skies and hope you enjoy the forum.

James

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smallpaul

smallpaul

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Thanks for the warm welcome, all of the comments and the birthday/ Christmas list ideas with the books (I'm a nightmare to buy for apparently...) I'd already downloaded stellarium and had a good play with that, so hopefully next time there's a clear night I'll be able to recognise a few more things. I think the biggest problem is knowing what to expect, but I guess that'll come with time and experience. This forum will definitely be a big help!

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