First Telescope help

[Steve55]

I to be honest have not much experience , bought a little 6" reflector, came with the same 10 and 25mm EP's.  What i did do however was to spend a little more on a very usefull EP The Htperion Clickstop Zoom 8-24mm am also looking at a barlow 2.5 . The clickstop is a superb ep and saves buying lots of differing ones with the barlow expands it by a very decent amount. Although not cheap for a beginner ,it does make things much simpler no changing ep's to experiment , just need a 32mm to complete for me ,a beginner all i need for the forseeable future.  Do enjoy your scope does take a little practice to see , but you will be blown away when you first start seeing things through your scope.

[-Aldebaran-]

M13 in Hercules should be best viewed at around 2am now when it's nice and high, I had a gorgeous view of it a couple of nights ago with my newly purchased Explore Scientific 6.7mm, the contrast was excellent, resolving hundreds of stars in a tiny spot. Once you've got yourself a decent enough dark site, try again with your high power ep, your small hazy patch will show some good structure!

[twofatslugs]

M13 in Hercules should be best viewed at around 2am now when it's nice and high, I had a gorgeous view of it a couple of nights ago with my newly purchased Explore Scientific 6.7mm, the contrast was excellent, resolving hundreds of stars in a tiny spot. Once you've got yourself a decent enough dark site, try again with your high power ep, your small hazy patch will show some good structure!

Ohhh okay, why would it be better in higher than lower? Is it something to do with light? I assume it looks hazy at the moment simply because of my area, the high powered sights still produce a hazy image, but again, this is going to happen with the light pollution, it never is truly pitch black here.

But yeah, is the higher the better?

[-Aldebaran-]

I was viewing m13 from my garden and had a neighbours spot light to contend with, but at that time of the night I think it was at its darkest and I was able to get alot of detail even at the core.

Viewing near straight up helps the contrast I think as the sky is darker, you have less light pollution. Also there's less atmospherics to deal with with which is more important for planetary observing I think but may also aid DSO's.

[twofatslugs]

I was viewing m13 from my garden and had a neighbours spot light to contend with, but at that time of the night I think it was at its darkest and I was able to get alot of detail even at the core.

Viewing near straight up helps the contrast I think as the sky is darker, you have less light pollution. Also there's less atmospherics to deal with with which is more important for planetary observing I think but may also aid DSO's.

Aah okay, thanks very much for the response, yeah when I do look at it it's quite low, nowhere near the top of the sky