Firts time use of a scope

[wigan1895]

Hi

Last night was the first time I have had a chance to use my Meade ETX 125PE (a birthday present from my wife)

and we got some great views of the Moon. This time round we used it as a manual system not using the Goto technology and I discovered what you all knew all along, how hard it is to point these things! There in the Southern sky was Sirius bright as a button and looking for it even with the widest eyepiece was hard work. But I did see lots of star I have never seen before. So is there a technique that helps with the Meade EXT telescopes or is just hard work and practice? But I did have great fun before the clouds came over

Kieron

[jgs001]

Kieron,

Nice one. Glad you got out to use the scope. I can't really help on the finder situation, is there no way to mount something like a Red Dot Finder on the top ?

[saturns_rings]

oh joy another wiganner! id try and sound technical but i don't have my scope yet didn't you see saturn?

[aries]

Hi Kieron,

Glad you got to the "First light" stage with your new toy, now your'e hooked!

As for the "seek and See" with the scope, it really is , for the first few outings,

a case of perseverance, and Expletives!

If there is any way of mounting a red-dot finder on the OTA, as already suggested by

jgs001, that would be a great help to you.

Secondly, if there are any local Astronomical Societies near you, perhaps it would be worth

paying them a visit, and chat with a few of the members who would be able to show you

some Techniques and Equipment add-on's, to resolve your problem, which in turn, gives you

more time at the EP admiring the view, instead of more time at the EP, threatening to stove

the scope's head in with a heavy, blunt object!!!!!!!!

HTH....... :wave:

Nick......

[Sam]

Well done Kieron! It is pretty hard finding things - like John says a red dot finder would help.

[thing]

Nice first light, the Moon's a belter isn't it. I'm suprised the 125 doesn't come with a finder, I thought they were fitted as standard. I have a Newt on a GoTo mount but often if I'm not photographing anything or not spending long on a particular object I just use it manually to try to find stuff. I find that it's OK finding the bright shiny things like doubles and clusters etc, I can find those without much problem, after all, once you've found them they aren't going to be in a different place the next night, or next century. It's the faint fuzzies that are a problem because a lot of the time you need to be looking through the viewfinder for quite some time before they suddenly 'pop' into view. I find the GoTo useful for the latter as at least you know you should be able to see it......

I've only been using a scope since last November (OK I've used binos for years and I've a pretty good idea where everything is), it's a steep learning curve but you'll soon get the hang of it and not feel a complete wet behind the ears in a very short space of time. Good luck!

[scotastro]

wigan1895

Have a rummage in the boxes because the ETX definitely comes with a red dot finder. If it's not there chase the supplier. Without a finder you will have great diffculty in locating objects as these scope have a long focal length and so high magnification.

Before using the GOTO it helps to go through the drive training proceedure. It wll make it much more accurate.

Trying to decipher the manual can be a pain - so use this link to get Meade's own insuctional videos which are so much better.

http://www.meade.com/educational/etx%20videos/index.html

Hope you get good weather soon to enjoy your new scope

Scotastro

[The Warthog]

Yeah, both flavours of 125PE that I looked up come with a red dot smartfinder. You will have to align this in daylight, by getting something like a distant church spire in the scope, and lining up the red dot to the target. Then you can point the smartfinder at stuff in the sky and the scope will be looking at the same thing. Once you figure out the goto feature, you'll only have to line up a couple of things, and after that the scope will find stuff for you. My kind of viewing, I'll have to get goto someday.

If there isn't a smartfinder in the box, it's probably an oversight.

[wigan1895]

Thanks Folks found the red dot finder, I will have a play aligning it

[algol]

gotta get a red dot finder mate.

it's awesome, i cna zip from sirius to saturn to pleiades to orion neb. and i have sausagefingers mate.