Is my scope any good

[Degz]

Hi guys I have bought a Thomas-Oliver 700/76 reflector scope. I am new to star gazing and while I have had good images of the moon, tonight I had Jupiter but struggled to get a very good focus. Is my scope decent enough or is my he person using it?

[barkis]

Does it look like this one?
700 refers to it's focal length, and 76 the mirror diameter, both numbers  in millimetres.
That gives you a focal ratio of f 9.2.
If the tripod looks like the one in the picture, then you may have difficulty keeping an object in the field of view.
The eyepieces may be 4mm, 12,5mm and a 20mm , plus a Barlow lens.
The Barlow doubles the magnification of whichever eyepiece you use, but I wouldn't use it with the higher power eyepieces
Please bear in mind the mirror is a small one, and won't collect much light, so using high power magnification 
will render poor images. Don't get too carried away with high magnification.
A friend of mine had a 3" scope, and he seemed happy with it, for a while, then he upgraded to a 6", which he still has.
I wish you luck.

 

 

 

 

 

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. I have never seen this scope before so can not pass judgement on it.

[Starwiz]

Hi Degz,

Welcome to the SGL.

My first scope (if you discount the toy I had as a child) was a department store Tasco 76mm reflector back in the 80's Haley's comet period.  The biggest problem was keeping it steady, but I was able to see great views of the moon, the two bands of cloud on Jupiter and its four Galilean moons, rings of Saturn (I'll never forget the first time I saw that), the phases of Venus and as luck would have it that year, Mercury.  Back in those days, a decent 6-inch reflector would set you back several hundred pounds or more (a lot in today's money).

Do what you can to keep the mount steady and keep the powers low and you should be able to get similar results with it.

John

 

 

[Mak the Night]

I'm guessing it's similar to this 67/700 TS Optics:http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p683_TS-Newtonian-76-700mm-telescope-with-mount--tripod-and-much-accessories.html

There seem to be a lot of very similar scopes all under different brand names. I don't know who originally manufactures them, possibly Synta. 67mm is approximately two and a half inches. They all seem to be equipped with 12.5mm and 20mm eyepieces. With a 700mm focal length these would give you 56x and 35x magnifications respectively. Jupiter can often be difficult to observe compared to other objects and can appear 'woolly' or fuzzy if the conditions aren't very clear. To see the equatorial cloud bands you will need at least 50x magnification.

 

[Degz]

On 5 April 2016 at 22:26, barkis said:

Does it look like this one?
700 refers to it's focal length, and 76 the mirror diameter, both numbers  in millimetres.
That gives you a focal ratio of f 9.2.
If the tripod looks like the one in the picture, then you may have difficulty keeping an object in the field of view.
The eyepieces may be 4mm, 12,5mm and a 20mm , plus a Barlow lens.
The Barlow doubles the magnification of whichever eyepiece you use, but I wouldn't use it with the higher power eyepieces
Please bear in mind the mirror is a small one, and won't collect much light, so using high power magnification 
will render poor images. Don't get too carried away with high magnification.
A friend of mine had a 3" scope, and he seemed happy with it, for a while, then he upgraded to a 6", which he still has.
I wish you luck.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes it is exactly the same that one it's decent for now as I'm new 

[Degz]

23 hours ago, Starwiz said:

Hi Degz,

Welcome to the SGL.

My first scope (if you discount the toy I had as a child) was a department store Tasco 76mm reflector back in the 80's Haley's comet period.  The biggest problem was keeping it steady, but I was able to see great views of the moon, the two bands of cloud on Jupiter and its four Galilean moons, rings of Saturn (I'll never forget the first time I saw that), the phases of Venus and as luck would have it that year, Mercury.  Back in those days, a decent 6-inch reflector would set you back several hundred pounds or more (a lot in today's money).

Do what you can to keep the mount steady and keep the powers low and you should be able to get similar results with it.

John

 

 

Tonight I did manage to get a decent view of Jupiter all be it a little small. Which today's is the best I have got. When buying me it I was told I would be able to see some of the closer nebulas just need to learn where to find them. But thank you for your help 

[Starwiz]

13 hours ago, Degz said:

Tonight I did manage to get a decent view of Jupiter all be it a little small. Which today's is the best I have got. When buying me it I was told I would be able to see some of the closer nebulas just need to learn where to find them. But thank you for your help 

Good to see you're getting better results.  For nebula, a dark sky away from light pollution will help a lot.

Have a look at the forum post 'What can I expect to see....?' under, 'Beginners' - 'Getting Started with Observing', if you haven't already done so.  It should help calibrate your expectations.

[Degz]

1 minute ago, Starwiz said:

Good to see you're getting better results.  For nebula, a dark sky away from light pollution will help a lot.

Have a look at the forum post 'What can I expect to see....?' under, 'Beginners' - 'Getting Started with Observing', if you haven't already done so.  It should help calibrate your expectations.

Thanks for info, i have just been reading the post which has been very helpful. i now realise i wasnt that far off last night when viewing jupiter when i thought i was doing it all wrong, i was actually seeing what most people will for the first time