My new dirty telescope and I

[Charic]

.......remember, in space there is no up/down, the telescope is not corrected for terrestrial views, but its possible to insert a corrected view eyepiece, as my Celestron had one. 

[cjdawson]

Guys! I just went out and pointed it at the sun, I thought it would look awesome! I got a brail keyboard now and I learn real quick but I'm not best happy! It does work tho.

I can't really tell how much of this is you joking about.  So, seriously, NEVER use a telescope to look at the sun, and if you did go and get an eyetest, and tell them that you looked at the sun with a telescope.  Even if you think you got away with it, you might have damaged your eyesight.  If everything appears ok at the moment, you still might have done damage that will not show up for a few years.

There are ways to look at the sun safely.

1. projection.  (I'd not recommend this with a reflector, or large refractor)

This technique is where you point the scope at the sun (use the shadow of the scope to light it up - make the shadow small and it will help to guide you in on the sun) then with an eyepiece, project the image of the sun onto a piece of card.  if you have the card in shade it will help increase the contrast.

Pro's

you don't need anything extra.

you won't risk damaging your eyesight.

Con's

Heat build up in the scope might cause damage if it's allowed to build up enough.

2. Solar filter.

This is a filter that goes over the front of the scope, the filter will cut out most of the light from the sun and allow you to look through the eyepiece just like normal.

Pro's

Can look at the sun just as though you are observing the moon.

Con

Need to get hold of a solar filter.

Need to make sure that the filter is not damaged before each use.

3. Make a pinhole camera.

This technique is a variation on the projection method.  You take a box, larger the better.  Then make a hole in one end so that you can see in (offset the hold to towards the side of the box)  make sure that you can cover your head with a blanket, so that sunlight doesn't go into the hole.  Next make a small hold on the same side of the box that will be pointed at the sun.  So, to put this another way, you'll have a box that's large, on one end, you'll make a small hole (pin hole) and a larger hole so that you can look through.  The larger hole will have a shroud.

The idea of this is that you can look into the box and an image of the sun will be projected onto the back of the box.  The larger the box, the larger the image.

Pro's

Doesn't require a telescope.

Can be made from stuff laying around the house.

con's

Hard to line up on the sun as it'll be behind you.

[John]

I can't really tell how much of this is you joking about.  So, seriously, NEVER use a telescope to look at the sun, and if you did go and get an eyetest, and tell them that you looked at the sun with a telescope.  Even if you think you got away with it, you might have damaged your eyesight.  If everything appears ok at the moment, you still might have done damage that will not show up for a few years.....

I have to agree with cjdawson on this. It's not something we joke about on the forum.

It's good to experiment with distant objects such as trees, church spires and that sort of thing to get a feel for the scope. I'm glad you got some sort of view though it. Now for the night sky !

But don't ever look at the Sun with any optical equipment, even binoculars or finder scopes.

[Charic]

Reading that text I think  it was a joke,  a play on words,  from thread  #18, but if someone skips a  thread or  misses that text, then it could be dangerous if read the wrong way...... but  caution is due, even placing the Suns image  onto  a paper sheet can destroy bits of the scope as it over heats ?

[mcolbert]

......50 posts before you can edit your own texts. You can use an  editor, spell check and paste into SGL , which takes a little longer, or ask a MOD to correct if something is glaringly not right. 

thanks Charic! 

michael

[happy-kat]

Just had a thought you are so north you must get to see the aurora.

[MrCat]

Ahh yes sorry guys, bad joke! My apologies! ...I'd edit my post, but......

Some interesting tips on looking at the sun tho! But I don't think I'll be trying it just yet. I did watch a documentary/lecture on telescopes last night tho as I fell to sleep and the guy made some interesting points such as Gallileo and his telescope being about 3X magnification and that you could buy better ones at for a just a few pounds these days, and he was the first to discover sun spots! I did wonder how he managed to do that. I guess he used a piece of card method.

I've seen some very cool live images of the sun at the observatory in LA, highly recommended if you've never been. But indeed I'd say the dangers outweigh anything else unless you really know what you're up to. And that sort of risk really doesn't appeal to me at the moment

Yes we do get the aurora sometimes. There was a good one a week or two ago I think which I sadly missed but I've seen a couple of cool moments in the sky since I've been here.

How easy is it to take pictures through your telescope? I guess you need a special attachment? And for camera I only have my phone just now apart from also my camcorder but I'd love to get some shots through it once I can see some stuff.

[Charic]

......happy-kat. Myself, I have seen numerous 'displays' some fleeting, some totally mesmerizing!

I used to work night shifts and the possibility to go dark side? was always present. 

[Charic]

MrCat...... HTC Android, just held to the eyepiece with my hand. My eyepieces have a fairly wide eye lens on them, which affords me some leeway, It would be very difficult to align up with your supplied eyepieces due to the small nature of the eye lens.

[MrCat]

Wow! What an awesome picture! Well I'll just be happyif I can see something like that let alone photograph it, but yes I'll have to give it a go

[cjdawson]

Reading that text I think  it was a joke,  a play on words,  from thread  #18, but if someone skips a  thread or  misses that text, then it could be dangerous if read the wrong way...... but  caution is due, even placing the Suns image  onto  a paper sheet can destroy bits of the scope as it over heats ?

I read it as a joke too, but figured that someone would not.  And yes of you allow the heat to build up in the telescope is will easily melt plastic parts.  Might even cause damage to the mirror surface if it delaminates etc.  normally not an issue with small scopes like MrCat's Helios.  I'd still recomment a full apeture filter (no.2 from my last post)

I've pointed my 8" scope at the sun, and as a demonstration have shown people why you don't look at the sun, but having them place their hand behind the eyepiece holder (with eyepiece removed) then removed the filter from the front, they get a really bright light appear on their hand, and it starts to get hot quickly - not quick enough to burn, but it does get very uncomfortable. I only have the filter removed for a few seconds, then I replace it and screw it back into place before reattaching the eyepiece.    It's a really powerful demo of why you never look at the sun with a scope.   Even nake eye is bad as it can cause damage.

Ahh yes sorry guys, bad joke! My apologies! ...I'd edit my post, but......

Some interesting tips on looking at the sun tho! But I don't think I'll be trying it just yet. I did watch a documentary/lecture on telescopes last night tho as I fell to sleep and the guy made some interesting points such as Gallileo and his telescope being about 3X magnification and that you could buy better ones at for a just a few pounds these days, and he was the first to discover sun spots! I did wonder how he managed to do that. I guess he used a piece of card method.

I've seen some very cool live images of the sun at the observatory in LA, highly recommended if you've never been. But indeed I'd say the dangers outweigh anything else unless you really know what you're up to. And that sort of risk really doesn't appeal to me at the moment

Yes we do get the aurora sometimes. There was a good one a week or two ago I think which I sadly missed but I've seen a couple of cool moments in the sky since I've been here.

How easy is it to take pictures through your telescope? I guess you need a special attachment? And for camera I only have my phone just now apart from also my camcorder but I'd love to get some shots through it once I can see some stuff.

I'm glad you can't edit it, the thread would have lost context. ;-)

Not only was Galileo's scope small the optics were also inferior to todays scopes.  To offset that, he not have to contend with anywhere near as much light pollution.   He also had the advantage of being one of the first.

[cjdawson]

Wow! What an awesome picture! Well I'll just be happyif I can see something like that let alone photograph it, but yes I'll have to give it a go

Whilst you don't need a bracket as seen from the photo above, you can get them

This will hold you smartphone

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Revelation-Smartphone-holder-with-tripod-threaded-bush-1.html

and it plugs into either of these, which then clamps to the scope - most likely the eyepiece or eyepiece holder.

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Revelation-P195-A-Universal-Digiscoping-Adaptor-28mm-45mm.html

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Revelation-P200-A-Universal-Digiscoping-Adapter-43mm-65mm.html

I've not used a bracket like this myself, hence why I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it's good to know it exists ;-)

[MrCat]

Ahh true, It's very annoying when an edited thread of this length turns to nonsense!

Indeed it did also occur just now that collecting all the suns light into a small point is inherently dangerous in its self like burning stuff with a magnifying glass! I'll definitely not be doing that... I only just got the thing, would be a shame to melt it already

Charic - What's "the possibility to go dark side"?

[Charic]

MrCat....the image looks good, but in fact is just basic. My telescope has a larger aperture, and larger eyepiece eye lens, which makes it possible. At the magnification I chose that night, the Moon does not stay still as Planet Earth with its spin rotation of just over 1000 mph magnifies the movement of the Moon through any eyepiece. But the Moon being such a large and bright target allows me to snap away. I have some closer shots, and some more natural shots, all hand held, and a few taken with a DSLR camera. My system cannot track or follow the target without me pushing it along. If I'm careful I could try and just keep any target central, fire off several shots, then stack the images in software to provide the final image. The image above is just a single shot form my mobile.

As for the Darkside?

It was local talk? we  had some forestry access within my work place, totally  accessible and secure?  We just drove through,  pulled up at a bay?  and observed the night sky.

[MrCat]

Well I'm learning something new every day, I just nipped home for lunch hour and got the scope out and pointed at the islands. This time managed to find and focus in on them. So I got out the Barlow 2x and put it bank in and was able to focus in with that too! Still totally cloudy here tho

I also discovered that whilst focusing, the image moves about quite alot! Which makes it a bit more tricky getting nice sharp focus, more just trial and error with little tweaks of the focus nob. Not sure if I need to make some kind of anchor points in the ground for the tripod or something? Does anyone else do that? Unfortunately one of the locks on one leg is bust so requires clever use of a pair of mole-grips to keep it extended

Ahh forestry, yea I think generally you have the right to roam don't you? Or just go on a sunday

[happy-kat]

A wobbly tripod is more stable not fully extended, so rather then extents it sit in a garden chair.

If the tripod can take it could hang something down the middle to add weight stability.

If the legs are hollow could fill them with sand.

[cjdawson]

Yep. I've seen one of these scopes before, and it was very wobbly.  I'd second everything that happy-kay said.

Sounds like you are moving rapidly up the learning curve

1. get the scope to focus of anything

2. get the scope to focus on the moon

3. get the scope to focus on a star

4. find jupiter

5. find saturn

6. find the Great orion nebula.

7. enter heaven.

[happy-kat]

has anyone mentioned stellarium yet to download and install

[jambouk]

6x30 posted today - allegedly will be with you by 1pm tomorrow.

James

[rockystar]

has anyone mentioned stellarium yet to download and install

 Don't worry, Dave will be along in a minute  

[MrCat]

Ahhh Awesome, thank you so much James Post is pretty good round here.

Yes some folk mentioned Stellarium at the beginning I think, I haven't got hold of it yet but I'll look it up!

Thanks for the tripod tips, I discovered whilst trying to tighten everything up and make sure it was all good that the telescope mount that sits aloft the tripod is attached to the tripod with some kind of captive mechanism that I can't undo or tighten. As far as I can see there may be some kind of rubber washer thing in it that has seen better days and consequently just wobbles in a way that I can't think how to fix apart from some good old trusty duck tape! The only trouble then being I'd loose my horizontal plane rotation. Not a biggy as I could just move the tripod round a bit but not ideal for precision movement. Again not a major problem as I've yet to fit the viewfinder scope and wait for the clouds to disappear again so I can see the moon. That shouldn't be too hard to find when it comes out, wobbly tripod or not

[jambouk]

If the image shifts when you focus, it might be that the focus unit needs to be looked at, and the barrel flops. These are generally pretty straight forward devices. I think the whole lot will need collimating so if you have some basic skills you could take the focus unit off, strip it down, clean and grease (very lightly) and rebuild and tighten up and refit to the scope. As i said in the private message, when doing any work on the scope have the scope laying flat on a table, so any screws that drop off don't fall down the tube and hit the mirror - countless people have done this, some with no harm, others with devastating effects.

James

[Astro_Baby]

I am a bit late to this but here are a few guides which may help you off my own website....

For tuning the focuser take a look here

http://www.astro-baby.com/Skywatcher%20Focuser%20Tune%20up/Skywatcher%20Focuser%20Tune-up.htm

For cleaning the mirror take a look here (this was for an old ill used TAL 1 scope but the basics are the same)

http://www.astro-baby.com/TAL%20Telescope%20Rebuild/Telescope%20Mirror%20Cleaning.htm

Hope thats of some help.

[happy-kat]

That mechanism that sticks off to the side of the tripod might be a form of pan and tilt device that you losen to then hold and reposition the head and then tighten to hold it.

Could we have some more images of that part of the tripod?

Could perhaps spray carefully some penetrating oil there to see if that starts to loosen it. Might need to make sure if it gives and the telescope might swing down that it doesn't hit anything.

[gurey]

I have pretty much the exact same 'scope