Disappointed, feel like giving up!

[ShrimpBoatSteve]

Don't buy anything!

There is nothing wrong with the scope and mount, you just need to learn how to use it. Throwing money at it and not getting better results will leave you even more frustrated and annoyed that you spent money.

[YKSE]

You had a quite ambitious plan with 4 Messiers, it took me some nights before I got M57 in my first scope 130P on EQ2.

My suggestions to your:

1. Calm down, you're doing very wel, finding M13 in first night out is a geat achievment.

2. About the moving moving the scope, when you have the scope properly balanced, pointing at a bright star, you can loosen both clutches, and moving the scope gently with your hands while looking through the finder, you'll quickly get the feel how the scope moves on a EQ-mount.

3. M57 was my exercise target for 130P, pointing the scope at Vega, then just movling slowly in the contellation to follow the main stars there, you'll get the feel the movement of a EQ mount, and find M57 too.

[Thom]

You saw a meteor. Awesome!

[Astro Imp]

First congratulations on the new addition to the family.

Next well done star hopping to M13 many of us don't find this and many other easy? objects first time.

There is a very good guide to star hopping by Shane which uses M57 as an example, have a go and see how you get on. Here's the link:- http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/197640-collimation-and-star-hopping/

Good luck and enjoy.

[toftm]

Hullo!

You'll soon figure out that EQ mount, they can be a bit of a pain but a little perseverance will see you right

[NGC 1502]

Can I just replace the mount and use the same tripod and scope? Or does this involve purchasing the whole setup?

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You can easily convert your EQ mount to Alt-az, just set the latitude adjustment to 90 degrees ( pointing straight "up" ).   You can  unclamp the two lock screws to manually slew to your target, lock 'em up, then use both the slow motion controls to track.  It may seem odd at first, but quickly becomes second nature.  All my scopes are alt-az, brill for visual observing.

And if you decide alt-az is not for you (doesn't suit everyone) it's cost you nowt  and you just reset to your latitude for EQ operation.

Regards, Ed.

[spaceboy]

For what it's worth I think it's a summer thing. The late night starts are demanding and the skies never really get all that dark. Keep your chin up Craig and just use the summer to figure out what's going on with the mount and get more familiar with your kit then come winter you will be all set for observing at 17:00 in the evenings when your feeling more up to the challenges of finding those fainter DSO's. 

[staffop]

I think you can just buy a new mount if you really wanted to, don't need to replace the rest. I've an alr-az which i find very easy, but tried an EQ and was bamboozled. As it was a reflector too and all was upside down i was baffled even further. Equally, i couldn't get my head around the whole reverse east-west thing either. I haven't started long and was becoming dispirited too, but the advice above is very motivating - onwards and upwards! 

[Dom1961]

What I do is, if I ever get bored whilst outside. Get a camping chair or a deck chair and just relax and have a break. Using a planisphere and star charts I try to learn the constellations as a sort of mini game. Also I plan roughly what I will be looking for, and how to star hop to them. This way, you will not get frustrated as easily as you're just sitting back and relaxing:D

[sparticles]

keep at it... it does get easier... we all go through what you're going through..

clear skies

[jimbo747]

I've got a couple of young kids, and even with a goto alt az mount I never seem to get chance to go outside. The rare nights where it isn't cloudy in derbyshire are usually the ones where the kids don't sleep. Decided i will wait for the clocks to change, I used it a lot in the winter, probably been out twice since march at night. Solar and lunar imaging have kept me going in the meantime.

[Jimtheslim]

I very much feel your frustrations, I am in the same boat. Had a baby 3 months ago and we've had nothing but cloudy skies and short nights ever since. Decided to take the scope out last night for the first time as well as watching the meteor shower. I must say I am getting frustrated with my equatorial mount, it hates looking at anything overhead (where the darkest skies are and the best chance of seeing any DSO's) and it also won't swing round to the West without the slow-mo controls bending all over the place, flicking me in the face and having to rotate the whole tube round along with the diagonal, at which point you find the tube won't point where you want because it won't go past the legs of the tripod. A lot of hassle for zero results. I still can't get used to the flipped axis of the finderscope and have no idea if I'm looking in the right place when going from the naked eye as all the reference points get drowned out among all the other stars now visible. It's been good when there were some planets and the moon to observe, but for DSO's it's ridiculous. 

[Charic]

Jimtheslim.......see if you can source a Dobsonian, just to get the feel for the scope. You will find it much easier. You say " ......A lot of hassle for zero results..." 

I had the results, although very basic on my 127EQ, but agree, a lot of hassle!

Take a look at a club/friend before you do anything else. Give the Dobsonian method a go 

[Dom1961]

If you want a go at a dob, come along next month to the north lincs astro meeting, at far ings (Barton side of the bridge). Weather permitting I will bring my scope and another member may have his scope an 8" and a 10" I think

[craigfoot]

Do you have to join these clubs? Not sure I use my scope enough or have enough experience to join an Astro club.

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[craigfoot]

I very much feel your frustrations, I am in the same boat. Had a baby 3 months ago and we've had nothing but cloudy skies and short nights ever since. Decided to take the scope out last night for the first time as well as watching the meteor shower. I must say I am getting frustrated with my equatorial mount, it hates looking at anything overhead (where the darkest skies are and the best chance of seeing any DSO's) and it also won't swing round to the West without the slow-mo controls bending all over the place, flicking me in the face and having to rotate the whole tube round along with the diagonal, at which point you find the tube won't point where you want because it won't go past the legs of the tripod. A lot of hassle for zero results. I still can't get used to the flipped axis of the finderscope and have no idea if I'm looking in the right place when going from the naked eye as all the reference points get drowned out among all the other stars now visible. It's been good when there were some planets and the moon to observe, but for DSO's it's ridiculous.

Not just me then! :-) congratulations on the baby. .

I've not had the tri pod legs getting in the way, but getting everything else!

Before I considered polar alignment I just used to move the tripod around to point were I wanted and that seemed easier!

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[Dom1961]

That's what they're there for, to teach you First time is free but there is a membership fee to cover venue costs.

[craigfoot]

That's what they're there for, to teach you First time is free but there is a membership fee to cover venue costs.

Where do I get more info?

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[mickshere]

keep your chin up mate  :-)  Congratulations on your baby. Fortunately you have many opportunities in the next few months to look at the stars courtesy  of your newborns sleeping habits

[Dom1961]

http://www.northlincsastro.org/, I don't think it has been updated yet about the talk at the next session, but it will be on the 1st Monday of September.

[Stub Mandrel]

I flailed around hopelessly trying to find even the Orion nebula with my first scope. I had to learn the various directions things went in by starting on the moon, then moving onto Jupiter - a bright 'hard to miss' target when it was in view.

My suggestion is just get a rough polar alignment and wander through the stars being amazed at the stars and finding constellations for a week or so until you have a new Moon to practice on. Once you can look at the moon's crescent and confidently move the scope to different parts of it star hopping will become less terrible.

Also, you can probably switch one or other of your control stalks to the other side of the mount. I worried I couldn't get mine positioned like the ones in teh manual, but eventually realised you just fit them where they are most convenient.

Congrats on the bab! At least you have a good excuse to wake up in the middle of the night ;-)

[bish]

Sorry, I haven't had time to read all of the replies, so may be repeating what's already said. I would say that when you first use a telescope there's no such thing as an 'easy target'. But after a few nights you will slowly start to tick things off. After a while longer you will be hunting down tricky DSOs and finding M51 etc without having to think about it. Makes it all the more rewarding.

[jacob5800]

Hi all

Been a while since I've been on here, and since I've used my equipment due to my girlfriend having a baby 3 months ago :-)

So tonight for the first time I got outside with my skywatcher explorer 130 on the standard eq2 mount.

Fitted with a rigel quick finder and a 9x50 raci.

My eyepiece collection consists of bst star guider 8, 15 and 25mm along with a tmb planetary 5mm.

Armed with my copy of Turn Left At Orion and a print out from the sky maps web site I headed out with some idea of what I wanted to see.

I got the scope set up level and balanced and think I managed to get close enough to polar alignment.

Now for the disappointment which lasted around 3 hours. .

Struggled to find what I thought were easy targets in m51, 57, 81 and 82.

Turning the scope to face south seemed difficult and the slow control handles seemed to get trapped and in the way, in fact pointing any direction other than north felt very cumbersome.

I struggled again with east and west. . Though thinking it through now I think I may have worked out where I was getting confused, moving the scope east is different to looking east? Is that right? As I stand facing north, looking to my left is west where I could see arcturus and to my right is east where I could see pegasus. . I was thinking moving the scope east ment move to the right, but now sat here I'm realising moving it east would actually be moving it to the left.

I think I also struggled with what I was seeing. . I understand my finders orientation is the same as what I see with my eye, and the scope is flipped on both axis. But as the tube is moved through various axis my eye is left at different angles to the eye piece meaning north isn't always directly at the top or bottom of the ep?

One plus was that I managed to locate m13 in hercules which appeared as a circular white cloud? And I also saw a meteor fly through bootes which was impressive.

But overall tonight's experience wasn't very good and left me feeling deflated and like giving up. .

Not sure if anyone has any tips with any of this?

Thanks

Craig

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sorry but I cannot post or say hello on the welcome page somebody cant help me I m registered jacob5800  somebody can help me here

[craigfoot]

I've been having a bit more of a play around earlier.

To make things easier I stuck some labels on the slow mo controls so I could quickly see which was which and use just ra for tracking. I also marked the ra one to indicate which way to turn to move east / west.

Arcturus was out nice and early so lined up my scope, finder and rigel on this. Then spotted polaris so checked my polar alignment and adjusted to get better alignment.

Decided back to basics, so aimed back at arcturus, came across the issue of the legs getting in the way but recognised this is to do with which side of the mount the scope is on so flipped over and all good.

As I was in and out for a bit, and I wanted to check my alignment I just used the ra control every 10 mins or so and arcturus popped straight back into view :-)

Managed to get an understanding of the finder scope showing same as the eye, i.e. star moved from left to right, east to west in the view. . And that the scope worked opposite, the star moved from the right to left.

Decided to pop over to vega, thinking I'd try m57 again later, and armed with more info from the excellent pdf linked in an earlier post.

Again recognised some problems pointing more or less straight up, but again think I understand this to be due to stars passing over the meridian and think ill have to flip the scope over when I go back out later.

I managed to recognise in my finder what I was expecting. Bright blue vega forming a triangle with epsilon and zeta. Also noted the double of epsilon.

Small steps but pleased. Saw 2 more meteors too. . . Back inside with the little one now but hoping to pop back out later and see what else I can manage.

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[ShrimpBoatSteve]

Sounds like great progress, I'm off to bed for a short sleep before work at 6am! Saw a few good meteorites and a real slow burner of about 3 seconds. Wish I could have stayed out longer.

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