Advice for best upgrades, plz!! 70mm Trvlscope

[T562]

Waddup my sky people.

Name is T, I'm 33 and I just got my first evar telescope about a month ago!! I read tons of reviews and ended up with the 70mm Celestron TravelScope, came with two 1.25" EyePieces... 10mm and 20mm, also comes with a tripod that isn't the greatest of quality when fully extended but works well when not extended, as a tabletop-ish scope. Side purchases include an Orion Variable Polarized lens (1%-40%) which works great with the moon. I live in the south side of the LBC (alamitos beach for you locals) so I get lots of light pollution. Considering that Celestron LPR filter but it'll ha e to go to the Wishlist for now.

Moon: sick detail at 20mm, even sicker detail at 10mm. Knowing I'd more than likely always have a moon to look at, I'm glad I got the variable filter. That strawberry moon the other day looked amazing!! Yeah. Its gonna look even sicker in a few days when I get my 15mm plossl (I read plossl's are worth the extra feria) and a 2x Shorty from GSO.

Mars: looks nice and red. Havent been able to see much detail but maybe this 2x will help.

Jupiter: looks awesome. 4 of its many moons stay right around it. Jupiter is bright. Haven't been able to see cloud bands but again, can't wait for this double shot of mag a la barlow.

Saturn:  WOW. blew me the -expletive- away. Had to see this one at 10mm... omg. You can actually see a lil yellow globe with RINGS!!! Easily the sickest object to cross my FOV. Wanting to see Saturn in greater detail is what tipped the scale to purchase the barlow.

Pleaiedeaioues: I grew up thinking this was the lil dipper... broke my heart to know it wasn't... then in recent days I learned what it IS... star clustery madness. Las siete hermanas. Its summer in my neck of the woods so I gotta stay up too late to see it. Still havent seen this one

But right outside my front door is the aforementioned and they'll do nicely for now. Brother gave me that round Star Map. Has lots of interesting info on it. Looking forward to Andromeda, Venus and all my favorite Winter constellations.

I love this scope. I've loved the sky forever and its one of the best things I ever did for ME. I got a chance to learn (and I'm still learning) all the lingo about EP's and filters and whatnot. I learned that with my 70mm travelscope @ 10mm with a 2x barlow, I'll be at 80x... not bad, kid.

Suggestions on a top shelf refractor?

Looking for a new mount, also... I read about EQ mounts and I'm very interested. Moves with the earths axis rather straight up and down. Obviously I'm not teyng to break the bank but any suggestions will be appreciated.

Finally, my question to all of you who dare reply...

What are your favorite sights to look an why???

Thanks for reading and Clear Skies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    

[Ricochet]

When you say top end refractor and a mount that doesn't break the bank what sort of budget are you thinking of? Also what sort of targets do you plan on observing with it and is this purely for visual observations? 

[T562]

I wouldn't want to spend over $100 on a mount and the range I had in mind for a refractor would be from $250-500... 

Thanks in advance!!!

[Linda]

Hi T,

Nice that you enjoy your telescope so much. You are not the only one thinking that cassiopeia is the small dipper. My husband also thinks that often, although he is learning by now.

Travel scopes usually have a wide field of view. You could use your scope for viewing open star clusters. To my scope they are too wide and I need to scroll, but for your scope they should be good.

Favourites? The objects I have looked at for the longest time are Jupiter, Saturn and The Orion nebula. Although M13 under a really dark sky also is worth a good look.

 

P.S. Top shelf refractors always break the bank. Most people can afford only an 80mm ED refractor and that doesn't add so much to your current 70mm scope. If I were you, my second scope would be one with a much bigger opening. To keep that affordable for a refractor, it would be a cheap refractor. Otherwise you should look at a reflector.

 

[Ricochet]

$100 for a mount is unrealistic I think. You probably want at least an AZ4 or EQ3 (maybe EQ5) depending on which type of mount you want. A Skywatcher Evostar 102/120 on an EQ3 might be in your budget if they are available locally. They are still achromatic so will show some chroma on bright objects but it should be quite well controlled as they have a large focal ratio. Otherwise, as Linda has suggested, a bigger Dobsonian will be within your budget and almost all of your money will go on the optics rather than the mount.

[Putaendo Patrick]

There are two types of optics used in astronomical refractor telescopes, apochromatic and achromatic. Basically the lens is a sandwich of different types of glass which together cancel out the errors in each type of glass. Apo refractors often use a sandwich of three types of special glass (triplet) and are very expensive (a 120mm Takahashi will cost over US$4,500!). Achro refractors which use a doublet of two types of more common glass are comparatively much cheaper.

The main difference with Achros is they show chromatic aberration (CA) - the different colours of light don't quite come to focus together and will appear as a colour fringe around bright objects. CA is less visible in telescopes with longer focal lengths, and can be corrected to an extent with special filters.

Celestron do two Achros which may interest you, and both come with reasonably solid CG4 equatorial mounts:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/485284-REG/Celestron_21088_Omni_XLT_102.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/485285-REG/Celestron_21090_Omni_XLT_120_4_7_120mm.html

The 102mm costs about US$400 and the 120mm about US$550. Both have 1000mm focal lengths which will allow you to achieve higher magnifications more easily - for example, your 10mm eyepiece with the x2 Barlow will give x200 power.

Both these telescope come up secondhand quite regularly, so with patience you may be able to pick up a good bargain.

This said, refractors are excellent for lunar and planetary observation and for objects such as double stars. If you want to observe fainter deep-sky objects, you will benefit from the light gathering capacity of more aperture and here reflector telescopes come into their own. For US$355, for example, you could buy an 8" Dobsonian reflector with 200mm of aperture! http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1141702-REG/sky_watcher_s11610_8_traditional_dobsonian.html

[LukeSkywatcher]

You wont get much of a refractor (maybe 90mm-120mm) and/or decent tripod on your budget. Your budget is very healthy if you consider buying a Dob (150-200mm).  

[BritAngler]

+1 for the Newtonian telescope on a Dobsonian mount (despite all the advertising, there's no such thing as a Dobsonian telescope). It will have a lot more light-gathering capability than a refractor plus you don't get the problem of chromatic aberration. The downside of buying a Newt is you will need to collimate (align) the mirrors regularly, but that is a fairly easy operation that will soon become second nature to you

Regarding the tripod that came with your travelscope, ditch it and buy a decent camera tripod

 

[Timebandit]

Hello T562 and welcome to stargazers lounge. I see you took this hobby up for some ME time , well done

As for a top class refractor Obviously the one that immediately springs to mind is Takahashi, but these are really big bucks 

If you are looking for a quality top draw refractor on a budget (but still not cheap) then there is the skywatcher equinox Ed 120 apo. Great scope 

If you are looking for a good refractor on a budget then lots of people like the TAL100rs . 

As for mounts ,a AZ4 would be a great solid mount and these can be picked up used for reasonable money.

As for my favourite planet , it must be Saturn☺(the first planet I ever saw through a telescope)'this planets structure make up, makes it a magical planet to look at IMO.                                              I do also like looking at the moon as you can really push up the magnifications on the moon to almost walk on it(? with your eyes anyway) and all the craters on it makes me wonder about all the times it has been struck by asteroid,meteor makes you think how easy it would be for an asteroid,meteor to strike us and wipe out life(better stop now incase kids are reading) you get the picture anyway we are just so minute in the big picture of the universe.

Hope I have not gone off on one with planets/moon comments?

 

   

[T562]

Sup yall and mad thanks for all the info and input!! First time posting on a forum and I'm loving all this interactiveness. 

So, I got my GSO 2x Barlow and my generic branded Plossl 15mm EP.

I busted the thing out and immediately went for my Celestron 10mm EP and the barlow... pointed this compact beast at saturn and couldn't get it focused as the focusing knob was at its limit. It felt like I needed another turn of the knob to get Saturn into focus. I took out the barlow lens and left the barlow cell on the EP for 1.5x and I was able to focus it better but not quite as sharp as I expected... or as sharp as with no barlow.

Is this just how it is? Considering returning the barlow if I cant use it at the full 2x. Again, any thought and input would be great.

Side question... does it impact the quality of image or magnification if I don't stick the barlow all the way inside before locking it in place? I believe the EP will be slightly further from the lens this way but not sure if thats what may be causing the issues addressed above.

Calm and Dark skies to all!!

[Ricochet]

The magnification a barlow provides us related to the distance from the eyepiece. The further away the eyepiece the larger the magnification. Thats why you get 2x normally and only 1.5x if you screw the barlow lens onto the eyepiece. You will also find that if the eyepiece won't focus when fully seated it will be even further away if you only partially insert it into the barlow. 

How is the barlow when used with your 15mm plossl? Does it focus and if it does is the image sharp? If it is just the 10mm that won't focus you might have better luck with a different eyepiece but I imagine you will probably find you need to send the barlow back.