FIRST TIME USING MY STARTRAVEL-120 (AZ4)

[menacegtr]

Hi to you all, I no this sounds trivial to most of you who have been using telescopes for a long time. I have just had my Startravel 120mm over 3 weeks and last night was the first time I took it out doors to view the night sky. I have been using mostly indoors until now looking way into the distance. I have a nice view going down into a valley so can see quiet far into the distance. I acquired the ST 120 mainly for terrestrial viewing and also wanted to look closely at the moon. So last night 13/3/ 2016 I took it outside and mainly focused on the moon as I have been bursting to see what the moon looks like through a telescope. And I must say my very first view was exciting for me. I started with the Celestron X-Cel LX 25mm  and was quiet surprised how much of the moon surface I could see from a distance then I went with the X-Cel LX 9mm and was blown away how close I could get the moon in my Skywatcher 2" Di-Electric Star Diagonal and all the craters and shadows from the dark to light part of the moon were all the light was casting shadows over mountains and craters, I am not sure what you call that. I could not believe how close the moon was and how clear and crisp and detailed it was. My girlfriend was stunned how beautiful the moon looked at that magnification. I Barlowed the 9mm with my Revelation Astro 2.5x Barlow Lens 1.25" at 166.67x and again was blown away how much closer and detailed the moon looked, I could see down the walls of big craters I was just stunned. Then I swapped the 9mm for my SkyWatcher 5mm UWA Planetary Eyepiece 1.25" and again blown away how clear and crisp the moon looked. I would say looked slightly better than the 9mm Barlowed. I am guessing it was a tad brighter with out using a Barlow. I must say I was amazed how quickly the moon moved out of view through the eye piece, just amazing. I was also surprised how it looked with and without my Baader Semi Apo filter 1.25" it took all of the blue edging away from around the moons edge. I am now just wandering if I could go slightly smaller than a 5mm without the aid of a Barlow. I will see if I can borrow a 4mm and give that a try, I think that would give me 150x. I will try to look at some star clusters and see how that goes next time with the wider 25mm eyepiece. Not yet clued up on all the stars and nebula and so on. I can see how this hobby can take hold and consume you. All I can say is I am vey pleased at my first views of the sky without looking through a window. I have been stuck indoors with a back problem so could not set it up outside until now, it was blumming cold though around 10.30pm. No more binoculars for a while I think. Regard's.

                                                            Dave:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave Lloyd]

Glad you enjoyed it. It's a bit of a blast the first time isn't it.

[Knighty2112]

Glad you enjoyed the new scope Dave. I've got the same one too, and get some great views through it too. Got to see Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) last night for the first time. Also, viewed the moon too and observed the Cauchy fault in the Mare Tranquillitatis. Keep on enjoying the views!  

[iaio80]

I was out light night as well. It was the first time I observed the moon with my new Skywatcher Explorer 130P. It was breathtaking. 

I cannot only imagine how stunning the full moon will look, in a week or so. I am looking forward to it. 
Just ordered a moon filter for that!

Getting hooked already!

[ronl]

Hi Dave, nice to hear you had a good session with your new kit, the Moon is quite spectacular to observe and is very impressive especially for your first light,

next time you should try Jupiter, that is quite impressive too, it's easy to find, as it looks like it's the brightest star in the eastern part of the sky, Jupiter is best

observed when it's quite high in the sky, so leave it till after 10 o'clock if you can, hope the weather is kind for you soon.

By the way were the light and dark part of the Moon meet is called the "Terminator".  

Clear Sky's 

[rockystar]

Always good to see new enthusiasm. Check out the Luna 100: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_100 if you want a list to tick off :-)

@iaio80 - Full moon isn't actually the best time to observer, as the sun is directly behind the earth, there are no shadows cast, so it makes it quite difficult to see any detail. Lots to see though and plenty of time to see it.

[menacegtr]

@ronl  Thanks for that heads up about Jupiter and the "terminator". I wandered what that bright star was way over to the left. I will try and see if I can view it when next the sky's are clear

[brantuk]

So glad to hear you finally got the scope outside Dave and had a great first session.

I remember being blown away the first time I saw the moon moving so quickly out of the eyepiece - and then realising it's moving cos I'm standing on a small rock in space which is spinning - it suddenly makes you realise how tiny and insignificant Earth is in the great scheme of things.

 

 

[iaio80]

@ rockystar  - thank you. So much to learn!

 

 

[Bobby1970]

Glad you enjoyed it. I told you the ST120 would be ok ;-)

 

 

[Astro Imp]

Great report Dave, the moon is a stunning object with so much detail to enjoy and looks different every time we view as the shadows shift across the surface.

You have already been pointed towards the Lunar 100 as a fun challenge which makes you really look at the moon, to help with this the Virtual Moon Atlas is a great free tool:- https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualmoon/

HTH an enjoy.

[menacegtr]

@Bobby1970 . Yes you did, I remember you showing me Astronomy tools. You did say it would be good for looking at the moon. Well you were right. I just need to find the absolute max I can go to without using a Barlow. I will try a 4mm eye piece at some point what do you think

@brantuk High Kim hope you are doing ok. Loving the scope, If you remember last time I was up I was having car trouble, last to weeks I have had no car but got it back now, would love another visit and talk eyepiece's with you at some point

                              Dave:

                                                   

[brantuk]

Sure Dave - smashing idea - just give us a bell when you're ready and we'll arrange something - maybe on a clear night and I'll get a scope out too.

[menacegtr]

Thanks for all the great feed back, its reassuring to no if I need help its right here. I have a question about the cover that goes over the front of the scope, it has a smaller ring in the middle that you can take off. I was using the scope in the daytime after my first night outside (still cant get over that) as the nights a cloudy again, and I noticed while using my SkyWatcher 5mm UWA Planetary Eyepiece on a very distant object, it was slightly foggy mind you, i could not get it to focus very clearly, it was close but not quiet. But when I took out the smaller cover off, still kept the main cover on I could get the object bang on focus but with a little less light. What is the reason for that? and can I use it with the small cover off

                                                                                  Dave:

[brantuk]

The smaller hole in the scope cap is to reduce the amount of light entering the scope and stop the aperture down slightly raising the focal ratio. There are a couple of uses for this one of which is to reduce the brightness/glare when viewing the moon so your eye doesn't start to ache with prolonged viewing. Another use is to cover the smaller hole with Baader solar film and view sunspots in white light.

But never view the sun with a scope unless you're 100% sure you have the right filters - or you can damage your eye irreversibly.

 

[baggywrinkle]

The ST120 is a good 'scope. Glad you are enjoying it.

You might find if you use too much magnification that the image goes soft. Theoretically with a 120mm objective you should get 240x magnification.......but that is on a good night with excellent seeing.

You would notice more chromatic aberration on bright objects like the planets and the Moon but on DSO the ST120 is excellent.

[menacegtr]

Thanks Kim I will test it out on the moon and see the effect when weather allows.

                                                                     Dave;

 

[spaceboy]

I think we often forget how amazing it is to see the moon for the first time through a telescope and it is nice to be reminded every once in a while. You have made me remember the first time I gazed on the moon through a cheap toys r us Newtonian scope. Never had a clue what collimation was and the Huygen eye pieces and az mount were total tat but it never took away the amazement of seeing the surface of the moon dotted with craters. Oddly it wasn't till a while later that I found out that views of the moon through binoculars also reveal a wealth of surface detail. Never felt the need to use binoculars for anything other than terrestrial and plane spotting. 

Just wait until you get a look at Saturn and Jupiter. They don't tend to allow the magnifications you can get on the moon but there is still plenty of surface detail to be differentiated.

[menacegtr]

@spaceboy Thanks for that, I managed to get a look at Jupiter lastnight, 16/3/ but it was bright silver with 2 faint lines running through the middle, not sure what I was doing wrong or maybe which of my eyepiece's I should be using. Should I be able to see more detail with my scope. I noticed after awhile my eyes started watering up slightly, maybe that didn't help

                                                        Dave:

[menacegtr]

Hi again, I just had to report back on my second night session Thursday 17/3/. I started at 6pm when still light looking at the moon and was surprised how it looked, still very close and loads of detail using the stock eyepiece's that came with the scope (10mm-25mm) I was impressed how the views looked up against my Celestron X-Cel LX  10mm-25mm. I used my revelation 2x Barlow to ramp the mag up and was well happy with the results. I went back in for a break then came out at 9pm. The moon looked a tad brighter tonight and the views with the 5mm UWA Planetary Eyepiece just knocked me over. very very clear. I remember one comment I got on this forum when I was asking about the ST 120mm and was it going to be a good scope to start me of and I got this one comment saying that scope  "quote" will exhibit oodles and gobs of false colour on every bright object you observe. Well how wrong was that guy. Using my Baader Semi Apo filter I have had very clean and hardly any CA around Jupiter and the moon, the only 2 views I have had at this time. He either has not had a ST 120mm or just wanted to rubbish it, anyway I am very happy with my scope, the views I get in the day are fantastic and night time is now proving just as good. Jupiter tonight looked very clear, I could see the banding through the middle and a brown and grey colour above and below the banding, Also 2 moons either side and what looked like one very close to it. The first time I viewed Jupiter it looked silver with 2 black lines so I have improved that viewing. The only one negative about the scope from what I have learned is the rubbish focuser. It seems very tight and clumsy to use, it moves up and down when I try to focus and that is off-putting to say the least even slacked right off and also it is not very precise at focusing with any kind of precision. I want to keep this scope so I am thinking on upgrading to a 10:1 dual-speed Crayford focuser, I think they are about £120. Are they any good?. I see that they are a direct replacement for the ST 120mm so I at least know it is compatible and will fit. After playing with my friends scope he has one fitted on his scope, I said I would like one of those, the precision is way better than the stock item, I just hate it, it has to go. Thanks Kim for letting me use yours, I was impressed. So please any advise on the new focuser would be appreciated, this one has to go. Thanks again to all and future advise

                                                                      Dave:

[Dave In Vermont]

On 3/14/2016 at 08:48, iaio80 said:

I was out light night as well. It was the first time I observed the moon with my new Skywatcher Explorer 130P. It was breathtaking. 

I cannot only imagine how stunning the full moon will look, in a week or so. I am looking forward to it. 
Just ordered a moon filter for that!

Getting hooked already!

I just wish to repeat Astro Imp and his suggestion of getting the Virtual Moon Atlas - which is FREE - and is a wonderful piece of software for any viewer of our nearest neighbor in space:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualmoon/

And also a fun-fact: As the phase of the Moon is constantly changing, the 'terminator' is always changing too. This results in new areas being visible in stark relief of light & shadow. The Moon never disappoints those who enjoy seeing a new view every night. Or even every hour!

Enjoy!

Dave

[brantuk]

"please any advise on the new focuser would be appreciated, this one has to go"

Yup replacing the focuser with a dual speed one is a great idea and will give you extra focusing control way better than the supplied one. I would only add one caution - because you had to shorten the adaptor on the current focuser in order to get the scope to focus with your 2" diagonal, you need to be sure the new focuser doesn't add any length to the focus range undoing the effects of the modification. So do get the dimensions of the new one and compare, before buying it.

(Oh and I'd also advise get it from FLO for best pre and post sales service - they really will look after you in the event of any problems)

[brantuk]

You might find this thread an interesting read Dave:

 

[menacegtr]

As per usual thanks for the link Kim. It looks like they are all for the upgrade in a big way. I know its £120 or so to add to my bill but I only want the best for my ST 120mm. After using your telescope I new I was going to get one for mine. After last nights views especially trying to focus on Jupiter I found it very clumsy and clunky, I found I had to tap the focuser to get that last minute fraction more focus and that's just not the way I want to do it. I have looked at the specs on the new focuser and there is around 80mm of outward focus travel when its drawn right in and that's without a diagonal fitted, very close to the stock item. I will try and see if I can order one and if its not doing the job I can return it, i hope so anyway. I am not sure as to were I should mount the RDF on the scope and what length of bolt to leave protruding into the body of the telescope, I suppose its best to get bolts that after that final nip up leaves just a few mm sticking out, will it make any difference to the views having 2 bolts going through the main part of the scope before I do any drilling. Thanks Kim for all your advise.

                                                                        Dave:

[brantuk]

I've never drilled or tapped into a refractor before Dave - so I'm not the best one to advise on that. But I imagine "just enough" is more than enough, and to avoid any areas with functional bits on the inside (eg focus tube, baffles, etc). And make sure the objective lens is well protected - but if you remove it then be very careful - it will need collimating when put back in. Not a job I'd take lightly.