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Hi from the Highlands

SteveOD

By SteveOD
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SteveOD

SteveOD

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Hi all, excited to join your lounge. 'Very much a newcomer (of sorts) to astronomy and am delighted to have just bought my first telescope.

After reading what seemed like a gizillion reviews on scopes and accessories i finally settled on the Skywatcher Skyliner 250px flextube GoTo. "To GoTo or not to GoTo?" seems to be a hot topic, but hey i gone got a GoTo.

After reading all dem gizillions of reviews n reports n mathematics n thingemy jiggers about watcha ma callits n exit pupils v focal lenghts n wot not, i kinda thought i would just go for a safe wee eyepiece n filter set. A celestron one with a 6,8,13,17 and 32mm 52* AFOV plossl eyepieces, x2 barlow + six coloured filters and a moon filter, watcha reckon? any good?. i mean the scope comes with an SP10 and SP25mm eyepices also, can i get a decent swatch at stuff with those eyepieces?.

Also i bought a Telrad finder scope, a laser collimator n a 17ah powertank. oh and a webcam adaptor for my spc900nc, ( i have another spc900nc which the dude at astronomiser says he can B+W / LX amp off it for me if i wish, is it worth the £125?).

Next on the list is a light shroud, skyfi wifi controller, skywatcher auto focuser, and a magnifi iphone holder? are they worth getting? or should i use the remaining coin on other items? I'm open to any suggestions/ help, so please feel free to rate or hate the items on my list.

As it stands at the moment, i am beside myself with excitement awaitng the postmans knock, also looking forward to hearing from the experts (hey thats's you guys!!!)

hasta la pasta n all that

Steve.

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Helite

Helite

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Hi Steve, you will definitely find all the information you need from here, I cant really help too much on your questions as I have no experience of some of the kit you have bought/thinking about buying. I am also still learning a lot myself.

I am not sure if a LX webcam will be of any benefit with a dob, I may be wrong though and I am sure someone will correct me.

General consensus seems to be to avoid eyepiece kits, after reading the advice on here I went down the individual eyepiece route. The supplied 25 and 10 should be fine to start with, and with it being a skywatcher it probably comes with a barlow too??

Good luck and have fun!

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SteveOD

SteveOD

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Hey Helite, nice to meet you.

I kinda thought the same about the lx mod on the spc900nc, until I spoke to some dude who runs a shop which will remain anon lol, and he was saying something about GoTo dobs are good for asto-photos, and assured me that the astro cam that he wanted to sell me was good for the job, now I'm not convinced either way(groan).

Don't know if the skyliner comes with a Barlow tbh, wish I'd known about the eyepiece set being inferior to the individual eyepieces. I'm told they are of pretty good spec (4something multilayered thingy ma jigs?, coma free watcha ma call its?), that's a shame, oh well, I guess they can be used for my wee Bushnell 4.5" scope (or not) lol. The Bushnell is a cute wee thing, a gift, looks like one of them old Edmund scientific astroscan that "Turn left at Orion" was written with, looks more like a bong if you ask me but hey...

Any eyepieces you'd recommend?

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Helite

Helite

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Oh I didn't realise you bought the kit already. I am sure the eyepieces are good and will do you fine. The issue with kits just seems to be all the "bits" thrown in to bulk it out that will probably not be used.

As for the webcam I honestly cant give you a definite answer, I believe the only mount you can do any kind of long exposure with is an EQ mount, again some wiser mind will probably be able to furnish you more information on that.

I wouldn't bother spending cash on more eyepieces until you get a feel for the stuff you already have, and all I can really reccomend is the budget eyepieces I already own, lots of folk seem to use the BST's though which I think speaks volumes.

And living where you do, download Stellarium for the MANY cloudy nights, that's about the only way I get to see stars half the time!

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SteveOD

SteveOD

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Yeh Stellarium is pretty cool huh, i've been using it for a few months now, it's actually what swayed me towards a GoTo, i hear that i can control my scope with it, how cool is that!!

I also mess about with StarWalk on the iPad/phone, which is actually pretty darn good too, excellent for finding celestial objects. And what with the Skyfi wifi/ Orion Starseek (haven't decided which yet), i can actually control the scope from my iPhone!! Gadget heaven!! ya got to love it. I bet Galileo wished he had an i phone huh? lol.

Dunno if i'm getting ahead of myself here but... i'm thinking on sometimes hooking the iphone up to the finderscope and the webcam to the eyepiece/focuser, and (for example) track comet Ison n let my friends and family view it live on a youtube channel. Is it as easy as it sounds?, surely it should be, shouldn't it?

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SteveOD

SteveOD

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Thanks for all the welcomes folks, much appreciated.

Today my spc900nc webcam adaptor arrived today, so I had a go at modding the cam, surprisingly straight forward tbh. Was nervous at the thought of cracking the cam open so I simply pop the focuser off and gently prised the lens out with an electrical screwdriver and masking tape( scratch free leaverage lol). The adaptor just screwed right in.

I have a question, do I have to knock out the led on the cam or can I simply cut a wee bit of red translucent paper n stick that over the top of the led? Figuring it would be handy to have a wee red led on the go whilst in use outside. Has anyone tried this? Or am I being silly?

Celestron eyepieces and filter kit arrived today also, has a handy wee spare slot for my cam to fit snugly, perhaps tonight if it's a clear one, I'll try the cam and the Barlow on the wee Bushnell 4.5" reflector I have.

Any one got any tips or advice for me?, anyone used the spc900nc with the red led? Should I get a x3 Barlow for the webcam?

Skies are pretty vast up this neck of the woods Diripio, however there are 2 thing that go against me, 1) i live in on a north facing glen of a firth, so southern skies are limited from my house and 2) i just happen to have a street light dirctly outside my garden.
 

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