Sky watcher. Need to get my head around this all.

[Jimmyj]

Hi, i got a sky-watcher sk 607az2 telescope, its a refractor telescope. I do understand refractors collect light from a glass lens while the reflectors use a mirror which is better? Is this a good brand of telescope or is there better in terms of quality? Or can i just buy better eye pieces which will fit it?

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[Paul2015]

Stick to the stock lenses for now,

It's not the best telescope.....FACT, was it a complete waste of money?.....NO

I'm fairly new so can't advise you on much but what I can say is this,

I've got a celestron 70az refractor,

Your best eye piece is the 20mm, the 10mm is OK but not great and just forgot about the barlow,

Most people will tell you that you won't see anything but fact is you will be able to see double stars and deep space objects and planets. Just not all of them and definitely not many right now. Your skill will limit you before the scope at the moment.

So to start off with how much of the sky do you know? Can you pick out constellations unaided? How about vega? The summer triangle?

Knowing hercules, andromeda and pegasus will really help right now. Then learn some more later.

I'm going to assume that you know North, South, East and West from where you observe from so tonight around 22:00 pegasus will be to the east, hercules will be SE-S almost overhead as will the summer triangle.

And make sure you've aligned your finder scope with the main telescope,

And my challenge for you is to find these two objects,

There's only one planet about early right now, not for very long mind and its to the horizon so not great pbserving and that's Saturn. Rising SE and setting SW you'll want to look for the brightest 'star' in this region fairly low on the horizon. Find it with the finder and then view with the 20mm. Center the planet in the scope and switch to the 10mm and if you haven't already you should see the rings.

The easiest of the dso's is Andromeda, keep your 20mm EP in.

Look for the 4 stars that make the great square of pegasus,

Find the upper North-Western star, move to the next brightest star left and then again. Move straight up one star then up one more very slightly to the right. Line your finder scope up with this star and then pan the scope to the right until you find a hazy cloud.

This is the Andromeda Galaxy. M32.

Hopefully this will get you started. The longer you view something the better it will look.

Let us know how you get on!

[happy-kat]

Sometimes using averted vision shows the object. Look at it then look just off it and the side of your eye can show more.

[brantuk]

At the risk of sounding picky - M32 is actually a satellite galaxy of the Andromeda galaxy - The Andromeda galaxy is actually M31. Whilst M31 is relatively easy - imho by far the easiest dso to locate is M42 which is brighter and is just coming into season now. Andromeda however is the only naked eye galaxy visible from Earth.

[Jimmyj]

U sound like a pro. Ive been reading up on my constellations tonight, so am going to test myself, i know north south east and west and my scope is aligned at least. Sky is cloudy at the mo tho so cant see alot. Luckily it was a present just to start me out need to get on to the big boys once i have mastered this. Thing is i live in quite a light polluted area. And i duno if its normal to just go out to somewhere dark and get out my telescope. I dont see anyone else doing this.

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[Paul2015]

At the risk of sounding picky - M32 is actually a satellite galaxy of the Andromeda galaxy - The Andromeda galaxy is actually M31. Whilst M31 is relatively easy - imho by far the easiest dso to locate is M42 which is brighter and is just coming into season now. Andromeda however is the only naked eye galaxy visible from Earth.

Oops my bad always getting the two confused as their not really separate on my star map,

The orion nebs good but wrong side of my house

[John]

The orion nebs good but wrong side of my house

The good thing about small scopes is that they can be moved easily

The Orion Nebula (M42) is not just good, it's the brightest and most detailed nebula that we can easily observe with small scopes by a long way.

I started with a 60mm refractor and it showed me enough to get me hooked on the hobby for the past 30+ years. One of the nicest and easiest deep sky objects for a small scope is the double cluster in the constellation Perseus. it's a bit below the left hand side of the "W" of Cassiopeia. Two lovely tightish patches of stars that can be seen side by side at low magnification - thats the eyepiece with the highest number of mm, ie: 20mm or 25mm.

The first galaxies I ever saw through a scope were actually Messier (thats where the M comes from) 81 and 82 which are in Ursa Major.

The freeware "Stellarium" will show you what is in the sky from your location at a particular time. It's well worth downloading

Have fun !

[niallk]

Hi, i got a sky-watcher sk 607az2 telescope, its a refractor telescope. I do understand refractors collect light from a glass lens while the reflectors use a mirror which is better? Is this a good brand of telescope or is there better in terms of quality? Or can i just buy better eye pieces which will fit it?

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Hi,

Skywatcher offer a wide range of scopes, and are a very good brand. I've a 10" Dobsonian from Skywatcher, and it is just great.

Being mirror based, it means it was very cost effective for the aperture, and doesn't require expensive lenses to correct for colour fringing. Perhaps look up Newtonian telescopes on Wikipedia.

Regarding eyepieces, one can always invest in additional/better ones after gaining some experience with the ones that come with the scope.

Best of luck

-Niall

PS It took me a few nights to find M31 for the first time - but when I did, Wow! My 1st galaxy Enjoy

[ronin]

Going to ask which constellations do you know and can identify?

Start with The Plough (Asterism not actually a constellation)

The middle "star" in the handle of the Plough is a double, your scope should easily seperate them.

Can you find Lyra.

Close to the bright star Vega is again a double star and each is also a double (the double double) you should see 2 and might get them split again into 4.

Close to Lyra is Cygnus (sort of left a bit) - looks like a cross initially. At one end is Deneb going "down" from Deneb at the other end is Albireo, a coloured double.

Going Left to right (sort of) you have Cygnus, then Lyra, then Hercules (faintish).

Part of Hercules forms a square, along one of the sides of the square is M13, a globular cluster.

M31 is usually easier to find in binoculars although your scope and the 20mm may be wide enough to observe it all in one.

Concerning "Is there better?" Well yes, a 6" APM refractor will be better but they cost sort of £6,000 to £8,000 :eek: .

They had better be better. :grin:

Don't worry about better, just get the best out of yours for now.

[Jimmyj]

When i master this one is there an attachment that i can get that does it all electronically? Maybe im just lazy? Lol

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[John]

When i master this one is there an attachment that i can get that does it all electronically? Maybe im just lazy? Lol

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You can get scopes on what are called "GOTO" mounts. Once they are set up properly (which takes a little practice !) they can find objects in the night sky and point the scope at them. The motors in the mount will also then track the object while you view it.

Such scopes start at around £260 and go upwards in price.

Your scope will show you some nice views of some objects though so it's worth persevering to see if your interest in the hobby is there before investing more, perhaps ?

[Jimmyj]

Ive always been interested in it just never had a scope, ive always wanted to get a closer look to the magnificent wonders of space and whats out there and its quite relaxing.

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[John]

Ive always been interested in it just never had a scope, ive always wanted to get a closer look to the magnificent wonders of space and whats out there and its quite relaxing.

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Good for you - thats pretty much what has kept me going in the hobby for many years

Sometimes the actual view is not that spectacular but it's knowing a little about what you are looking at that makes those little points or smudges of light so special