Looking for opinions and advice ! :)

[sabraman]

Hey all,  this website seems pretty sweet so far. I'm pretty new to astronomy so it's all exciting (please assume i know nothing when talking to me because i don't know much). 

It took me a while to decide on a telescope but in the end i decided to go big or go home (within my budget lol). I bought an 8 inch dobsonian from skywatcher also i got a moon map and a 2x barlow lens, also the telescope came with a 25 mm eyepiece and a 10 mm one.

I live on the outskirts of a small town of about 20 000 but even then there is a lot of light pollution, so I'm just waiting for a chance to get out to a national park or any other dark sky zone. 

I've looked at the moon, and it is pretty amazing. I've looked at venus but yeah it's all blurry (i realize that the surface can't be seen and the luminosity distorts my view of it). Jupiter and it's four moon's is pretty amazing but i can't seem to magnify it enough, the extent to which i can view it is just enough to see the two main horizontal red bands. Is that normal with my array of eyepieces and my scope? Haven't been able to find saturn yet. The orion Nebula is the only other real noteworthy thing to mention that I've seen, it was faint but thats understandable with my conditions.

Should i get a star atlas? Should i invest in better eyepieces? 

- Sabraman

[damnut]

Hi Sabraman,

Warm welcome to SGL, whereabouts are you in Ontario?? Is a trip to the Algonquin too far. Dark out there but the midges are a pest!!!

[Dave In Vermont]

Greetings and welcome! I would suggest that you find your way around the sky, and find out what you would like to see, before you start throwing money for gear. You'll get there - believe me!

A good star-atlas is a great resourse. And a good software-planetarium program is great, too! These can help you find what's available to you at any time - tailored to your location. Stellarium is one of the best. And you can download it and use it for free from here:

http://www.stellarium.org/

One of the developers is a member here.

Clear Nights,

Dave

[Dinosour23]

Top advice by dave.

I started not long ago and bought 2 eyepieces and a binocular I never used.

The eyepieces I bashed with a sledgehammer, true story.

The binocular sits in the car on the floor....

Sold off some other eyepieces, now I use just 3 Eyepieces.

Nothing more annoying than messing with caps and filters in the dark...

Learn what you like to see so you can be accurate with any future additions!

[sabraman]

thanks for all the advice and infer guys,

I'm a couple hours north of toronto damian, so algonquin isn't too far but I still haven't got my own car so I'm limited in that aspect...

Dave in vermont, do you have any suggestions of some "must see" objects for beginners with mediocre viewing conditions?

Dinosour23,i've seen a little bit of everything from nebulas to planets and galaxy's... i love it all how do you recommend i narrow down what i like... and do i really have to ?

[sabraman]

oh and do you guys think i made a good decision with the telescope i got ?

[SpaceWalker]

Hey all,  this website seems pretty sweet so far. I'm pretty new to astronomy so it's all exciting (please assume i know nothing when talking to me because i don't know much). 

It took me a while to decide on a telescope but in the end i decided to go big or go home (within my budget lol). I bought an 8 inch dobsonian from skywatcher also i got a moon map and a 2x barlow lens, also the telescope came with a 25 mm eyepiece and a 10 mm one.

I live on the outskirts of a small town of about 20 000 but even then there is a lot of light pollution, so I'm just waiting for a chance to get out to a national park or any other dark sky zone. 

I've looked at the moon, and it is pretty amazing. I've looked at venus but yeah it's all blurry (i realize that the surface can't be seen and the luminosity distorts my view of it). Jupiter and it's four moon's is pretty amazing but i can't seem to magnify it enough, the extent to which i can view it is just enough to see the two main horizontal red bands. Is that normal with my array of eyepieces and my scope? Haven't been able to find saturn yet. The orion Nebula is the only other real noteworthy thing to mention that I've seen, it was faint but thats understandable with my conditions.

Should i get a star atlas? Should i invest in better eyepieces? 

- Sabraman

Hi Sabraman, congrats on your new scope and welcome!

Yes, you've got a good scope, it'll show you a lot.

First. For good high power views, e.g. planetary, you need in order of importance

1) good seeing; unless you did that, check out Cleardarksky, find observatory closest to you, bookmark it and keep tracking the seeing conditions;

2) good collimation;

3) enough cooling time (30-60min minimum);

4) the object elevation above 30* over horizon.

Your 10mm stock eyepiece+2x Barlow will give you ~240x magnification which is close to max for Jupiter under above average to good seeing conditions. Although, when the atmosphere doesn't support this magnification you'll need lower power eyepieces, for example the 6.5mm Meade HD-60 or 7mm Celestron X-Cel LX should work fine. So, you definitely will need more eyepieces.

You can observe most of the Messier objects in the light polluted skies except maybe galaxies and some faint nebulae. For nebulae you'll need filters like UHC or OIII. You can get the UHC first and later will buy the OIII. You can read about the Messier objects here and get the finder charts here.   I'd also recommend to buy this Pocket Sky Atlas. You can visit Deepskywatch and download detailed printable (PDF) Star Atlas or use this online Celestial Atlas.  As suggested by Dave above download Stellarium, it's a freeware, really excellent, I use it all the time.

As for the new eyepieces everything depends on your budget, you scope and some other conditions, for example if you wear glasses when observing so you'll require eye relief 16mm+. I guess, it's 8' f/6 Dob. If you are on budget, I'd suggest you to get the 12mm Agena Starguider ED or BST Explorer, Celestron X-Cel LX or Meade HD-60 first. It'll work for DSOs and combined with your 2x Barlow will be good for planets and the Moon providing ~200x magnification. So the three eyepieces with the 2x Barlow will give you 25mm, 12mm, 10mm, 6mm, 5mm. For higher quality, wider angle (at a higher price, of course) look into the 11mm ES82. Later you may want to replace your 25mm plossl with wide angle eyepiece like the 25mm Agena Starguider ED, Celestron X-Cel LX or 24mm ES68. For Venus you may need a Neutral Density (25%) filter or Polarizer.

Plan you observing sessions carefully. I always use Tonight's Sky to make my observing list for tonight, very useful resource.

Hope, that helps.

Clear Skies.

[Dave Lloyd]

Consensus seems to be the stock Skywatcher 10 mm isn't too hot so if you're pushing it with a Barlow you won't get the best views.