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skijumptoes

By skijumptoes
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skijumptoes

skijumptoes

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…A giant leap in to stargazers lounge!

I've just signed up, mainly looking for some advice but hopefully to sit in the shadows and pick up on what people are doing and all the great advice out there.  Every time i search google for information, i end up with these dark black pages on my screen… So, thought it's time to sign up.

Bit about me:  I used to stare out at the night skies back in the late 80's when i was at school, we got a tasco telescope for watching Halley's comet as it was in view at the time, and my dad thought it was important to see it as either may not get the chance again.  I lost hours each night, in hindsight it was basically a toy i was using, but each shiny object still moved my imagination in wonderment.

I suppose many hobbies and children of my own have come in to my life in that time since, and coupled with a bit of panic attacks/anxiety that i had a few years back i couldn't really come to terms with planets and the earth as a globe* so never had a chance/guts to continue.  

(*I had a hard time coming to terms that what was once solid ground beneath my feet, was in fact just a rock 'floating' in space.  As mental as that sounds, once you ask yourself enough times which way is 'up' and your brain shifts itself on an axis so that you are no longer 'on top of the world'… but 'under' it, it changes your whole outlook on things.   I used to lay on my back in the garden and pretend that i had the world on my back, and i was stuck, velcro like, with deep space hanging beneath me.   It is almost life changing to experience that, i can't explain it.  Needless to say, i had to hide in ignorance from this as it did affect my mental state, and played a part in me developing agoraphobia - if i was in open spaces, on playing fields for example, i would experience the axis tilt in my brain and crawl off the field on my hands and knees!).

Anyway, purely by chance Mark Thompson was at our local school the other night, kindly giving up his spare time to show the kids the moon, jupiter and it's moons, and something where 'stars are made' around orion's belt - Honestly, it blew my mind to see the quality of images through his rather modest portable scope.  And it set me back to the hours i used to spend gazing up at the sky and thought to myself that it's something to relish not fear.

My lad (8) has got a budget telescope (Just says 525x magnification on the box) - and while it's ok with the 20mm eye piece, it's so hard to align with the finder, and you have to push it so far over what you want to see and keep tapping it slowly to get things aligned… And then focus moves in steps.  Anyway, i had a good couple of hours with it the other night and really enjoyed it.  Even got some photos by sitting a camera on a tripod behind and focusing it on the eye piece of the telescope.

However… I really want to see more now, i would love to see planets like Jupiter and Saturn for myself, and let him have a look at them too as (like most kids) he loves anything to do with space.

So, cue a bit of searching around on the internet for advice, and i've landed here by default.

I'm currently looking at getting something like the Skywatcher explorer 130P or 130M, but not sure if the motor is a better option, or going with the better (parabolic) mirror.  As my lads eyes have a slight movement he sometimes finds it hard to look into the eye piece and get a good view, so being able to somehow pick the image up on a screen, be it webcam or my dslr would be such a big bonus for us to view together.

Reading these forums, i seem to be most excited that people are picking up on DSO's/Nebulas etc.  I can't believe you can achieve such images.  However, i don't know how far off a 130P, for example, is from being able to stick my Canon 550D on to it and attempting some long exposure shots myself.

Oh boy… I think i'm going to leave it as an introduction now, and just move myself slowly into conversations, i tend to write books when i get on forums.

Look forward to talking with some of you anyway! And if anyone has a suggestion on what scopes to look at please reply, it would be most appreciated! :)

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red dwalf

red dwalf

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welcome to the forum,

i had the 130p and was a great entry level scope and mount, scope is in my avaitor, focuser is ok for a webcam so you will be able to get images of the moon and planets onto the laptop screen very easily and cheaply but the focuser i don`t think will be up to hanging a canon camera off it.

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guiseppe

guiseppe

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Hello and welcome to the forums. I'm not much more than a beginner myself, but these forums have helped me immensely and I'm sure the people here will do the same for you. 

Around this time last year, I was in your situation. I was looking for a good "all-round" telescope for both observations and astrophotography. After reading (a lot) I finally went with a SkyWatcher 150PDS on a NEQ-3 mount, and it has served me quite nicely. The 150P is essentially a step up from the 130P.

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HIP3802

HIP3802

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Hi, skijumptoes, and a warm welcome to SGL! If you haven't done so already, I can recommend the free planetarium 'Stellarium' which is used by many on here as both an aid to finding objects, but also in planning a viewing session. The software is customisable not only to location, but also to individual telescopes - giving an idea of what you should be able to see through the eyepiece. Downloadable here: http://stellarium.org/

Hope that helps,

Martin

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Knight of Clear Skies

Knight of Clear Skies

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Welcome to the forum, nice introduction and thread title.

For imaging of DSO's you'll need a scope with an equatorial mount. On an alt-azimuth mount objects will slowly rotate in the eyepiece, which would blur them out in long exposures. (This isn't an issue with imaging the Moon and planets as the exposure time is very short.) With an equatorial mount and motor drive basically the Earth rotates one way and scope rotates back the other.

I don't know how suitable the 130M would be for imaging, a DSLR is quite a lot of weight to hang off the focuser and lightweight mount. Hopefully someone else can advise you.

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skijumptoes

skijumptoes

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Wow! It's lively here, thanks for all the replies - Will be sure to check out Stellarium!

Just called and my local shop have an offer on the Skywatcher 130M - i'm pretty sure that will be my starting scope as i've been told by 2 different stores that the longer scopes without parabolic mirrors provide a better image (i.e. 130M vs 130P) - not sure if this is true, but both promised that the 130M would not be worse.

Can't wait to go have a look tomorrow morning.  they also have a slightly marked 130P for £129, which really has me tempted at that price if the 130M looks a bit too large to store.

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. Plenty of help available here for when you need it, just pop a question in the relevant section and you'll receive an answer or two in no time.

Clear skies and hope you enjoy your stay here.

James

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ronl

ronl

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Hi and welcome to the lounge,

nice introduction, enjoy your new scope when you get it, and

post a first light report in the relevant section, to see how you

get on.

Good Luck and Clear Sky's 

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Myopicus

Myopicus

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Hi skijumpytoes!

It's basically aperture vs. motor.  Depends how set you are on imaging, but a big light-bucket type dob is a cool bit of kit. For your son you'll need to get an eyepiece (EP) with generous 'eye-relief' which makes it a bit easier to see through the EP.

Can't beat gazing into the void for a bit of perspective!!

Clear skies!

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