First light - Blurry :-(

[mrjaffa]

mrjaffa........ Hi, I have similar telescope to you with the same supplied EP's. After all I have purchased, I would suggest an 8mm BST Starguider in place of your 10mm.

You can collimate with the dust cap on your focuser tube http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro%20babys%20collimation%20guide.htm however, again, I would suggest the long version Cheshire for collimating your telescope. FLO provides your accessories but have a look here too http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/skies_unlimited/m.html

Thanks for this. So it would seem I can pay £25 at FLO and get the Cheshire collimator or if you click your eBay link, there's one with a laser for same price.

Any thoughts?

[mrjaffa]

Another question Charic. You say you have the same supplied EP's as myself. There's no branding I can see on them anyway. I've just been reading elsewhere on here where someone says they may be Plossl. They're not are they?

[Charic]

mrjaffa.........I`m assuming your 200P is a Skywatcher telescope, normally supplied with a 'Super' 10mm and a 'Super' 25mm. These are Skywatcher's Modified Achromat eyepieces. They are not Plossl and to be honest the 10mm is not 'Super' either, and most folk upgrading the 10mm to another eyepiece, often quote  improvements, no matter what the eyepiece? That said, their 25mm is not too bad, but the 18mm BST I have blows the SW MA 25mm away IMHO. The SW25 is not wide enough for my liking to view M31 Andromeda Galaxy from a clear dark site, so I invested in the Skywatcher 32mm Panaview.

If your not the owner of a Skywatcher, disregard my comments.

As for the Laser.  Folk either love them or loathe them. These Lasers are fairly cheap and as a result you pay for what you get (make sure you buy one that can be adjusted) The 2nd Gen Laser is adjustable. That said, once the Laser itself is correctly collimated, its a very easy and quick task setting up a Newtonian telescope, but can be difficult with short Newtonian's, that have a corrector lens at the base of the focuser tube. 

The advantage to me for having the laser was to adjust the primary mirror by my self with no help from other folk. You see, its not possible for me to be at the adjusting screws and looking into the focuser tube at the same time, I just can't reach! There is also a technique called 'Barlowed Laser', which is great, because it doesn't matter if the laser beam is out of collimation?  This allows for an easier sight  adjustment, which uses a reflection of the primary mirror  central spot ( so in the first case you need a mirror spot)

I went from a 35mm film cannister as my collimation cap to a  laser  then to a Cheshire, I would suggest the Cheshire is the most accurate, reliable, wont break, doesn't need batteries?

[mrjaffa]

mrjaffa.........I`m assuming your 200P is a Skywatcher telescope, normally supplied with a 'Super' 10mm and a 'Super' 25mm. These are Skywatcher's Modified Achromat eyepieces. They are not Plossl and to be honest the 10mm is not 'Super' either, and most folk upgrading the 10mm to another eyepiece, often quote improvements, no matter what the eyepiece? That said, their 25mm is not too bad, but the 18mm BST I have blows the SW MA 25mm away IMHO. The SW25 is not wide enough for my liking to view M31 Andromeda Galaxy from a clear dark site, so I invested in the Skywatcher 32mm Panaview.

If your not the owner of a Skywatcher, disregard my comments.

As for the Laser. Folk either love them or loathe them. These Lasers are fairly cheap and as a result you pay for what you get (make sure you buy one that can be adjusted) The 2nd Gen Laser is adjustable. That said, once the Laser itself is correctly collimated, its a very easy and quick task setting up a Newtonian telescope, but can be difficult with short Newtonian's, that have a corrector lens at the base of the focuser tube.

The advantage to me for having the laser was to adjust the primary mirror by my self with no help from other folk. You see, its not possible for me to be at the adjusting screws and looking into the focuser tube at the same time, I just can't reach! There is also a technique called 'Barlowed Laser', which is great, because it doesn't matter if the laser beam is out of collimation? This allows for an easier sight adjustment, which uses a reflection of the primary mirror central spot ( so in the first case you need a mirror spot)

I went from a 35mm film cannister as my collimation cap to a laser then to a Cheshire, I would suggest the Cheshire is the most accurate, reliable, wont break, doesn't need batteries?

It is indeed the Skywatcher. I don't think I realised you could get the 200p from another manufacturer :-/ I have it on the EQ5 mount.

If that collimator from the link you provided is adjustable, which it is, I guess I could go for that. It's the same price as the Cheshire. And maybe I would struggle to use the Cheshire by myself too. I need to watch some more tutorials vids I think, but do I need the cap as well as the laser?

I can see from searching a little more for the BST EP's they are highly recommended, so I think I'll definitely start with 8mm as my first purchase.

[Charic]

.......Any company can produce a 200P, I was just sitting on the fence with my words and assumption,  but we do have the same EP's.

Lasers should be adjustable, and expensive Cheshire's can be made adjustable, Its the laser that needs to be adjustable, just like a telescope, it needs aligning. The Cheshire I'm using is a Long tube (solid/fixed size) Cheshire, it fits my Skyliner(your Explorer) perfectly. If we had a poll today, most folk would suggest a Cheshire.

If you speak with Alan (details are on his site) you can have a few lenses and test them side by side. If they dont work for you, he will refund you. I started with the 8 and 18mm ( My Skyliner has a little more magnification than the Explorer) Maybe you try the 8mm & 12mm.  Like I said your SW25 is ok. (If  you 2x Barlow the 8mm & 12mm it gives you effectively a extra  4 & 6mm EP - Which BST don't actually make ) They supply a 5,8,12,15,18 & 25mm

The Explorer you have is an f/5 scope  FL-1000 / D-200 = f/5 I think the BST 8mm would be the lowest to buy if you opted for the Starguiders. The 5mm alone, may need some coma correction at f/5 if that bothers you. But if the 8mm with a Barlow gives you a satisfactory result at 4mm then the 5mm EP could still work for you. If you took the 8 & 12mm (you will like them!) you can return 1/both if their not good for your eyes? you only loose the return p&p.

I make it an issue to use all my eyepieces. I'll go through the range then end up with the eyepiece that fully frames my subject, even if that was the first eyepiece used? That said the 8mm BST, my Panaview 32mm and anyone in-between would make an ideal starter to your collection.

[dannybgoode]

If you use Stellarium to do a virtual view of Mars for various scope / eyepiece combos you will see a disappointingly small variance between the view you are likely to see.

I will be interested in seeing the actual difference between my 10x50 bins and a Skywatcher 150P with standard EP's.

The bins, whilst not resolving any detail, do show a lovely pinkish red to the (albeit small) disc.

TBH I am much more excited about the possibility of seeing a bit of surface detail on Jupiter or the rings of Saturn than I am about spending hours trying to see the Mars polar cap having read what a PITA it is to view!

[mrjaffa]

Thanks again guys. Such a shame I've had no clear skies for the 10 days I've been off work since I've had the scope.

[RichM63]

What's worse, is that since you bought a new scope, I've had nothing but cloud and drizzle!! Grrrrr

For my purposes I bought a simple Cheshire collimator. I figured that folk have been using these successfully for eons. €30 no batts required, just a bright light source. 

I can happily use it on both scopes unaided. (average height and normal length arms).

Cheers,

Rich

[Pyrodave]

I have a laser and a cheshire, I bought the cheshire first and struggled at first, so bought the laser . I have since gone back to using the cheshire

The laser is quick and easy but the cheshire is more accurate  ( for me ) Even after collimating the laser

I use the cheshire to get it spot on in the comfort of my living room and just check with the laser when outdoors 

HTH

[Toymaster]

Like many others I have not had a good view of Mars since returning to Astronomy early this year.

What I found interesting was that I felt I could see more detail when looking at Jupiter with the stock 25mm Skywatcher eyepiece than with the 10mm stock eyepiece and so I purchased a 7mm Cellestron X-Cel LX eyepiece and tried that. This was a great improvement but I suddenly realised the effect that other factors like good seeing had on the image and the much improved eyepiece was not a total solution even with my 300P DOB. I also found that retraining my eye was also important. The more I observed the more detail I saw. Higher magnification shows up more image defects like zooming in on a pixelated picture and the eye / brain cannot sort out the image data as well as if you zoom out or reduce the magnification to reduce the image defects.

Hope this makes sense....

Adrian

[Dreamweaver]

Mars for me has been improving every time I look at it, which is every opportunity I get from my front door step allowing for the weather of course. For what it's worth I have been using my 80mm SW APO with 2.5mm Nagler the magnification being 200x.  I get better resolution and detail using this set up rather than using the lager much heavier LX10, 8" SCT with a 7mm ep yielding 285x magnification!

I would rather have a slightly smaller better quality image to look at than a bigger less detailed one. However I confess to being reasonably disappointed on my very first view of Mars but now it's totally changed and I can see more and more subtle details with every visit. I observe for at least half an hour if I can. It is very rewarding and I am glad I have persevered with it. I invited an inquisitive friend to look through the eyepiece recently but they couldn't really see any detail and thought it was just a blurry, slightly reddish disc. They couldn't  see what all the fuss was about!  

[Astro Imp]

Dreamweaver I think you've summed up the feelings of many of us regarding observing Mars, the more you look the more you see.

[mrjaffa]

What's worse, is that since you bought a new scope, I've had nothing but cloud and drizzle!! Grrrrr

For my purposes I bought a simple Cheshire collimator. I figured that folk have been using these successfully for eons. €30 no batts required, just a bright light source.

I can happily use it on both scopes unaided. (average height and normal length arms).

Cheers,

Rich

Cheshire it is then. And sorry about the skies!!

I have a laser and a cheshire, I bought the cheshire first and struggled at first, so bought the laser . I have since gone back to using the cheshire

The laser is quick and easy but the cheshire is more accurate ( for me ) Even after collimating the laser

I use the cheshire to get it spot on in the comfort of my living room and just check with the laser when outdoors

HTH

Gotcha!

[Andy 5312]

I managed to see a bit of mars last week but there were too many clouds. When I did see it, it seemed rather blurry.

Tried again tonight, lovely clear sky and I'm certain the image isn't as clear as it should be. If it is, it's very disappointing.

I've had my 200p EQ5 for a couple of weeks. So does it sound like it needs collimating or could it just be bad seeing?

If it does need collimating, I've just checked FLO and it looks like over £60 for a collimator!! Surely not :-/

[mrjaffa]

Well guys. I had my first chance the other night with clear sky. But only in my back garden which is not the darkest, especially with neighbours security light coming on now and again.

Moon was rather bright too. So I wasn't expecting much. But I couldn't help thinking Saturn looked better through my 70mm refractor. I was only using the stock EP's and forgot to try it with the Barlow. So maybe that's why. And I've just ordered a BST 8mm EP to try.

One thing I'm trying to understand better is my positioning in relation to the EP and finder. I found myself the other night at one point looking through the EP and not quite able to reach the fine adjusters. And then when I moved the scope in RA from the moon to Saturn which were both in the South, but I was then standing on the different side of the scope, I had to twist the scope round so I could reach the EP which then unbalanced things. Maybe this is normal.

[RichM63]

Twisting the scope is entirely normal on an EQ mount, if you don't you'll end up on your head. Some folk even add secondary rings so that they can keep the main tube rings very loose.

Have you got controls on both sides of the axes?

Standing on the south side I used to swap my hand controls around as well. I'm not built like a gorilla. Thought about getting an extra set of control knobs before I motorized.

As for balance, I balance from the North side with my heaviest EP, tube cap off, finder etc in position and can't say that I have a real problem after flipping South.

You could of course rebalance from South but outside I don't bother.

[mrjaffa]

Ah yes. That should be option to swap the knobs around, maybe that would help. When I had to loosen the tube rings and twist the scope, the scope then slightly moved around up/down which meant I then needed to rebalance. Just need to be more careful when twisting it I guess.

Thanks!