Am I doing something wrong?

[AndyWB]

Hi, 

I got my first telescope (heritage skywatcher 130p) for christmas in 2012. From 2012 - 2013 I used the scope pretty regularly, although not as often as I should have. However, I still feel that I'm really bad at using it or something as I still cant see that many things. I look at the moon through it all the time (using the 10mm and 25mm lenses that came with the scope) and really enjoy how powerful the telescope seems to be for that. Previously Ive managed to see a double star and even jupiter, making out (vaguely) the stripe. However, through just looking through the forum etc its clear that with this telescope and same lenses, that nebulae and certain galaxies can be recognised. Am I doing something wrong? Any tips?

Thanks, 

Fran

I love my wee Heritage 130p, and I managed a fair chunk of the Messier catalogue with it before upgrading. Yes, bigger scopes will show more, but there are plenty of good things that the 130p can see.

Right, regarding finders - yes, that's one of the weak points of this scope. It comes with a red dot finder (so a red dot is projected onto a little plastic screen, rather than a laser which is usually green, and projected onto the sky/passing aircraft/inquisitive policemen), and it can get a bit fiddly aligning that with the center of the field of view. 

Assuming you have the usual finder, during the day time, taking care to avoid the Sun (or even better, at dusk) stick in a low power eyepiece. Point the scope at something on the far away or on the horizon (I use a windmill), and center it in the eyepiece. Turn on the red dot finder (the rotating knob on the right with the click when it starts turning) Now use the knobs on the right-rear and bottom of the finder to align the dot on the same far away thing. Check both still point at the same thing (it's easy to move the scope). Job done.

You may find you have to unscrew and move the Red Dot Finder about on the plastic bracket it attaches to - one of my friends had to do this to get his finder to align. Don't consider a RACI - they're too big for the Heritage 130p, and there's nowhere sensible to fit one.

I actually find that my 130p rarely needs collimating - I think it's due to the small mirror - but it doesn't hurt to check.

The biggest difference you can make to the Heritage 130p is to go somewhere properly dark - like 'if you can't see the Milky way, it isn't dark enough' dark - and then keep all lights off while you get dark adapted. Then a lot more things will pop out at you, and things like the Andromeda Galaxy will fill the eyepiece from side to side.

[Astro Imp]

You've had some great advice already but one thing that really improved my observing was sitting comfortably and taking my time to really look.

[happy-kat]

And to sit comfortably to observe with this telescope I plonk mine on an upturned bucket.

[gnomus]

I'd give another vote to "Turn Left at Orion".  Also a book called "Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe".

[Digger1895]

I agree with AndyWB, mine arrived collimated in March and I've only had to collimate it twice and one of them was only due to it taking a knock which slightly threw the secondary off.