Introduction... And newbie help

[xs2man]

Hello guys,

Lucky me, my wife bought me a telescope for Christmas.  Now I have a LOT of reading up to do to learn how to use it.  Anyway, she bought me a Celestron 31042 Astromaster 114EQ Reflector.

It seems like it is decent enough for a first telescope.  

However, I am struggling to find any stars in the sky.  I can find the moon easy enough, it is big enough afterall, but getting it fixed on a star / planet seems nigh on impossible.  For example, when locking onto the moon, I can see the light from it whilst out of focus, but it's not until it starts coming into focus that I can really start to see it.  Now obviously there is a lot less light coming from the stars / planets, so I have no idea at all if I'm on it or not.  The finderscope seems to be all but terrible.  Maybe we should have got one with a GOTO mount, lol (that'll be my next big purchase).

Anyway, I guess there is little point in investing in better eyepieces or anything until I can figure out a way to at least view a planet with the set-up I currently have.

Anyone got any tips?  Or know of any clubs or anything I could join local to the Dundee / Arbroath area so I can pop along and get tips and tricks in person?

[happy-kat]

Hi welcome

In the day time line the red dot finder to with your telescope if you have not already done it. Use a distant tree or chimney (not the sun).

Seeing conditions may not have been very good or perhaps your telescope had not cooled down yet.

Free brilliant software you can down load is stellarium.

[ronin]

You need to align the finder with the main scope.

Do it during the day and aim the main scope at something about 2 miles away, get whatever in the middle then carefully adjust the finder to get the same thing in the middle.

Reason is simply that a scope actually has a narrow field of view and getting anything in it is not easy.

So you use the wider field of view of the finder then the object should be in the main scope.

Start with the longest focal length eyepiece then if wanted move to a smaller one.

Focus on the moon and that will be correct for stars etc.

Pick something bright and so "easy" (very few are easy).

Try Jupiter - in the east and a sort of big bright star with just eyes - planet and 4 moons with a scope.

M42 Orion Nebula.

Follow the belt stars to the "right" and they direct you to a bright patch of stars called The Pleiades,

Half way between the belt and the Pleiades is a bright red star and another patch of stars- Aldebaren adn the Hyades.

[Astro Imp]

Just a quick point, when using your finder keep both eyes open, I know this sounds wrong, then move the scope until the red dot in the finder covers the object you wish to view. If you have lined your finder correctly you will now have the object in view in your scope.

Good luck and enjoy.

[bomberbaz]

wow that is an absolute bargain and appears to have good reviews although I have no experience. It would be a good eyepiece to get I think

[xs2man]

wow that is an absolute bargain and appears to have good reviews although I have no experience. It would be a good eyepiece to get I think

Sorry, what would be a good eyepiece to get?

The last couple of nights I have had a little play with it.  I can get the moon easy enough now, that's a bonus.  At some points of the night it was clearly visible from my balcony, which is North facing.

I had a go at trying to hit Jupiter I think?  It was a relatively bright object anyway, at 11pm it was pretty much to the East (I'm around Arbroath if that makes much difference).  I couldn't actually get a focus on it though with either of my eyepieces.  That was disappointing, but at least I could see it in the scope.

My wife is regretting this purchase now though.  I am a bit of a night owl anyway, so this wont help things much on that front.  I am quite sure I will be upgrading the scope at some point in the almost near future.  I would like to do some imaging eventually, and am currently looking for a cheap-ish DSLR for mounting to the scope.  In the meantime though, I am already thinking of some other upgrades.  A new finderscope and maybe some new eye-pieces.  Preferably stuff that will come into it's own with the next scope too, but further increase my enjoyment of this scope just now.  Was having a look at the Sky-Watcher Skyliner-400P, but that might be a stretch too far, lol.  Plus I understand they aren't that great for imaging.  Was really thinking more along the lines of a Sky-Watcher Explorer 250PDS or Sky-Watcher Quattro 10S, so components that would preferably be compatible with something like these.

Pretty sure some sort of GOTO mount will come eventually too, but I would like to get used to the basics first.

So any suggestions on eyepieces?  I am thinking the Sky-Watcher 9x50 Right-Angled Erect Image Finderscope would be the one to go for probably with respect to the finderscope, but I am also open to other options.

[bomberbaz]

Sorry, what would be a good eyepiece to get?

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Sorry. I had two windows open on pc and answered in the wrong thread. Please ignore my comment and accept my appology. Steve