Last night's first observation session

[miafey]

Last night I got back from London around 8pm and was excited that the sky was not that cloudy. 

So I took my 150PDS out for his first night!

It was a very quick session as my front garden is nowhere near ideal for a scope (grassy, slopping, blocked south by the house and north by other buildings). Still, it was a memorable session. 

I took my mount out unpowered (main to 12V adapter not arrived yet), unaligned but I familiarized myself with the movement of the mount head both in Dec and RA directions. It is different from AZ and it took me a while to get used to it. I mounted my scope and as an absolute newbie who could not see very well in the dark on my first attempt I mounted my scope upside down....

As I had no GOTO I looked at stars but had no idea what I was looking at. I have to admit I found the 6*30 finder scope supplied with my 150PDS not that easy to use. The view through it was rather dark (maybe because I'm used to the bright view from my 15*70 binos). Of course my eyes were not properly dark adapted but still, it was not easy to see dimmer objects through it. I know Telrad is highly recommended but is Telrad magnified? If not then will it be even more difficult to see through Telrad than through a standard finder? It was also noticed that with the movement of the scope the finder may at times be at a position difficult to get my eyes to. Do people rotate their scopes regularly during a session?

In the end I pointed my scope to the moon which is an easy object to find and to observe. 

I tried the EPs and barlows I have. The reduction in FOV with increased magnification was more significant than I thought. I tried my 32mm meade 400 super plossyl, 16mm WA and the EP comes with the scope, which is a 2'' 28mm EP (requires an extension tube). All of them are rather good, very impressed with the view I get from the 32mm EP, especially the details on the edge of the moon, sharp contrast, very clear. I also tried the 2.5X and 5X barlows, 2.5X was alright, 5X was too powerful for observing. 

With my most powerful EP, which is a 6mm, I could not really see anything clearly. It was either the focus or the eyepiece. I'll need to test again next time. The focuser was otherwise smooth and easy to use though. 

Overall very happy that almost everything worked fine. As I'm not that familiar with the sky I'll need GOTO next time to help finding objects. It has become very clear to me that there is no point of having a lot of EPs. It is better to have several that are just useful and high quality than having loads. 

Question: is there anything I could do to improve the finder scope, or I'll just have to get used to it?

Thanks for reading my not very exciting report anyway

Mia

[Pig]

Mia,

I remember my first night out with a similar set up, a 200P Newtonian scope and a manual EQ5 mount. I was totally overwhelmed if I am honest and proceeding had a very Norman Wisdom / Frank Spencer  feel to them. (I hope you know these two comedy icons) 

However, as time passed I familiarised myself with the workings of the mount, the magnifications required by targets and what magnifications where achievable between scope and eyepiece. 

All of these changes resulted in a much improved experience and set me on my way to a very enjoyable hobby indeed.

I have since travelled many miles in pursuit of dark skies, bought and sold many different eyepieces and changed scopes quite a few times, I am still enjoying myself immensely. So please be patient and I am sure you will reap the rewards  it is very much worth it.

[rockystar]

I'd echo similar to Pig. I've had an EQ for about 4 months and had a similar experience on my first go, getting used to it now and really enjoying my time at the scope. I still don't have GOTO, I think I will upgrade in the future, but I'm enjoying trying to my way around.

Download stellarium and spend some time setting it up at your scope for your sky conditions.

I tend to pick a couple objects in the same direction before moving to another area of sky, that way reducing the number of tune rotations. You can get some very awkward angles with a straight through finder scope; I'm considering change to an angled one. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/skywatcher-9x50-right-angled-erecting-finderscope.html

Keep at it, it will start to become more natural and bring lots of enjoyment.

[laudropb]

We all have had a similar start to our observing careers. As they say, practice makes perfect and the more you try the easier it will become. As for your finder scope I suspect that it is the fact that when you use it it is often at a very awkward angle and very difficult to view through. If you do not want an unmagnified view as given by a Rigel or Telrad, then a RACI finder might suit better.

[miafey]

Thanks. I thought it might be the angle. I sometimes felt I had to "climb over" to reach the finder scope 

I'll power up my mount this weekend and pretty much look forward to the next session!

[Floater]

Mia,

I remember my first night out with a similar set up ... I was totally overwhelmed ...

I am still enjoying myself immensely. So please be patient ...

And there you have it, Mia. Just enjoy yourself.

Eyepiece + patience = peace.

[Seraph_69]

Hi Mia,

I had a similar first light experience 2 nights ago with my 8" GSO reflector and straight-through finder.

I had to do A LOT of scope rotations to try to strike a balance between focuser/finder scope position & acceptable balancing of the scope.

- I found without half decent balancing, locking the RA/DEC clutches up would send the object moving out of the centre of the field of view quite significantly -

...also I am quite a bit taller than my gf, so there was a lot of rotation being done to help her see through the focuser [emoji14]

My solution, if you wish to keep doing visual work rather than using a webcam type setup (where focuser position is irrelevant as you won't be physically looking through the focuser yourself), would be to watch Dion's astronomy shed YouTube channel video on scope balancing, where he shows how he's added a 3rd scope ring at the top of his scope, which acts as a stop and allows him to keep the other 2 loosened off. This allows him to rotate at will - very simple but ingenious!

My struggle was more about focus, I couldn't get the moon in focus with my 9mm plossl, but my 20mm was fine. Also struggled with getting anything in focus with my Barlow, regardless of eyepiece. Tried everything with and without 35mm extension tube. Not sure what's wrong :/

...In other words, you are not alone in your mixture of joy and frustrations, but as everyone else has said, practise and 1st hand experience will get you to a more enjoyable point in your hobby!

Clear skies.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[miafey]

Thanks everyone! 

I had my second date with my scope last night, at BAS's public viewing session

With some help of other members, I managed to see more amazon objects of the sky. 

Still unpowered with no GOTO, I found the double cluster in Perseus, and another cluster in that area as well. Did not know what I was looking at then, but had a look at Stellarium when I got back home and I think it might well be the owl cluster (NGC457). 

Also looked at M2, the moon, from my scope, and Neptune, the ring nebular from other members' scope. 

Ah and I saw a very bright shooting star!!!

It was an exciting session, I tried more EPs, knew more about the movement of the mount and found something on my own for the first time (by pure luck though ) And also I lost one of the screws on my 2'' to 1.25'' adaptor (nothing disastrous, but I realised how important it is to have a groundsheet under the tripod so that when something small dropped it won't just get dissapeared in the grass). 

We packed up around 9:30pm when it started dewing up. Really looking forward to next week's session

[Pig]

Excellent  its getting easier for you already, its quite surprising how much of a handful some of the scopes and mounts can be

[des anderson]

Great to read your reviews.It will get better....,and welcome to SGL.Des