Brand new first ever Telescope

[Louise Hicks]

Hi everyone. I would love some help please! I just unpacked my first ever Telescope, so excited to use it! I apologise if my questions are a bit silly! The small scope, on top of the Telescope shows everything upside down, is this right?! Also any tips on getting started would be very much appreciated, I am completely new to it! Thank you so much for reading.

[Cornelius Varley]

2 minutes ago, Louise Hicks said:

Hi everyone. I would love some help please! I just unpacked my first ever Telescope, so excited to use it! I apologise if my questions are a bit silly! The small scope, on top of the Telescope shows everything upside down, is this right?! Also any tips on getting started would be very much appreciated, I am completely new to it! Thank you so much for reading.

Hello and welcome to SGL. The finderscope on the top of your main scope is a refractor and the inverted image is normal for this type of telescope.

[Louise Hicks]

Ah! Ok! Thank you so much! I am slowly finding my way with it! Never have I been more excited for it to get dark!

 

[Floater]

What scope is it, Louise? Tell us more ... ??

[Louise Hicks]

My next newbies question, How do you take photos of the stars you see?!! I see them all the time and would love to take some of my own but have no clue where to start. Xxx

[Louise Hicks]

It is a Skylux 70/700. Does that help?!

[Floater]

1 minute ago, Louise Hicks said:

My next newbies question, How do you take photos of the stars you see?!! I see them all the time and would love to take some of my own but have no clue where to start. Xxx

Ah! Already lured towards the arcane Dark Art of astrophotograpy.

Oh my, are you gonna have fun!

[Floater]

2 minutes ago, Louise Hicks said:

It is a Skylux 70/700. Does that help?!

Yep. Now we know the animal we're dealing with. 

Hope you get clear skies and that you enjoy first light with it. Just don't expect to see what you see in magazines. You won't see those images through the eyepiece of any telescope.

[Louise Hicks]

Thankyou. I am excited! I live in rural cornwall so we have great skies.. I think I am going to like this hobby! You are all so helpful, you will be reading lots of questions from me this evening! Thank you again!

[brantuk]

Welcome to SGL Louise.

Congrats on your first scope. My first bit of advice is to set it up in daylight to ensure it all works, then point it at a distant small object like a weather vane, pylon tip, or tip of a church spire a mile or two away - get it as close to the middle of the view as possible. Then make sure the finder scope points at exactly the thing with the object bang on the cross hairs. Most experienced folks can do this on a star or planet at night, but we all remember how impossible it was first time at night, and resorted to daytime finder alignment.

You'll need to know how to find stuff - so your first step ought to be to download "Stellarium" and set it for your location. It's free planetarium software and will show you the night sky exactly as it is over your house. Familiarise yourself with the pole star, the meridian, and the ecliptic, and make sure you know where the cardinal points are.

As for imaging - there's a lot to it - you're asking how a watch works when you need to concentrate on just telling the time lol. £20 will get you a copy of Making Every Photon Count - the imagers bible available at FLO (forum sponsor see link at top of any page). Meantime there's nothing to stop you holding your phone camera up to the eyepiece once you have a well focused view of the moon and see what you get just for fun.

Hope that helps and have fun tonight.

 

[ronin]

As mentioned set the finder and main scope up to each other. During the day aim the main scope at something distant, say 2 miles. Then carefully adjust the finder until it is centered on the same thing, then recheck the main is still on the object and if not repeat. You can expect to go round the cycle 2 or 3 times getting things a bit better each time round. Take your time, no point is rushing in as it does not help, coffee does.

I would leave the acquisition of pictures out of it for now, Astrophotography is often (as already) referred to as "The Dark Side". Better to get a foot or two into the visual side first. There is in realistic terms a certain level of equipment needed but more relevantly a level of knowledge also. Simpest way to say it is you do not take a photo. You take say 20 and stack one on the other then you start processing. As said not quite the same as photography. So I suggest getting familiar with the visual, picking up bits of information on the AP side then further down the line deciding how you will approach AP.

Not sure if any are accessable: http://www.astronomyclubs.co.uk/

Also not sure if all are still active.

[noeliam]

Welcome from another relative New Person(Hate the term Newbie lol) I hope you get the thrill i got when looking for the 1st time, Saturn and it's rings Boom!!! loved it, I was looking every night for a week lol. Still cannot believe how many stars there are up there that u can't see with your eyes, It is a great hobby and don't let the jargon confuse you M31 this M35 that, a bit of internet searching and you soon find a way, or your way of piecing it all together. And finally anything you want to know just ask these guys on SGL, No one will take the pee and claim your stupid, no one will slate your efforts at taking pics, Ask as many questions as you like advice is Free, and best of all there is always someone willing to help you no matter how big or small the issue.

Enjoy the clear skies

Steve

 

[Louise Hicks]

Wow! Loving it! Now, next question, please don't spit your tea laughing at my use of descriptive words....I have put the 'L' shaped bit on with the H20MM lense in, I have a crisp, beautiful view of the moon.... upside down......!!!! Am I missing something?! 

[Louise Hicks]

This site is so so helpful already! I love it!

[brantuk]

The "L" shaped piece that you refer to is a 90 degree diagonal - you'll need that installed - and then you put the eyepiece in the top of the diagonal. It'll make observing a lot less strain on your neck and it does affect the focal length of the scope if you don't have it in.

Then you can change eyepieces to change magnification and get a closer look at interesting features on the moon. Also - in space there is no upside down. Any way up is good - you'll soon get to know which way to turn the controls - just go slowly till it comes naturally.

[carastro]

Refractors will reverse the image, but I thought the L shaped bit (diagonal) reversed it yet again.  Sorry, been a while since I used a diagonal. You'll get a lot of reversing of things with telescopes, generally this doesn't matter except for things like the Moon that you can see with your own eyes.  Some scopes also turn the image upside down.  

As stated above.  Get used to your scope, get used to the sky.  If you can manage a shot of the Moon through the eye piece by all means try, but anything else requires complicated routines, equipment and processing.   

Carole 

[noeliam]

BrantUK beat me too it, My fave new statement " In space there is no upside down" Got me as well until i thought about it hehe

[Timebandit]

5 hours ago, Louise Hicks said:

Hi everyone. I would love some help please! I just unpacked my first ever Telescope, so excited to use it! I apologise if my questions are a bit silly! The small scope, on top of the Telescope shows everything upside down, is this right?! Also any tips on getting started would be very much appreciated, I am completely new to it! Thank you so much for reading.

 

24 minutes ago, carastro said:

Refractors will reverse the image, but I thought the L shaped bit (diagonal) reversed it yet again.  Sorry, been a while since I used a diagonal. You'll get a lot of reversing of things with telescopes, generally this doesn't matter except for things like the Moon that you can see with your own eyes.  Some scopes also turn the image upside down.  

As stated above.  Get used to your scope, get used to the sky.  If you can manage a shot of the Moon through the eye piece by all means try, but anything else requires complicated routines, equipment and processing.   

Carole 

 

Hi. My understanding is that to get it upright and left to right the correct orientation is that you need to have a diagonal with a erecting prism design . That is if you want it technical the correct orientation as "in space there is no upside down"?

I hope this helps 

[Ben the Ignorant]

1 hour ago, Louise Hicks said:

I have put the 'L' shaped bit on with the H20MM lense in, I have a crisp, beautiful view of the moon.... upside down......!!!! Am I missing something?! 

Actually left and right are inverted while the up and down are correct. But it doesn't really matter because telescopes need to be sharp above all else, orientation is not a big concern. When I use a prism diagonal instead of the mirror diagonal in my 80mm achromat (same kind of optics as your Skylux) there is a loss of sharpness and contrast. Some older refractors were meant to work with a prism, almost as if the prism was one more lens, but today's refractors are designed for mirror diagonals.

Prisms are ok for low power but when you magnify more you also magnify the imperfections in the image. So, unless your scope is also for landscapes, stick to the mirror diagonal.

[Astro Imp]

15 hours ago, Louise Hicks said:

Wow! Loving it! Now, next question, please don't spit your tea laughing at my use of descriptive words....I have put the 'L' shaped bit on with the H20MM lense in, I have a crisp, beautiful view of the moon.... upside down......!!!! Am I missing something?! 

Hi Louise, the first sight of the moon through our own scope is something that has got many of us hooked on this wonderful hobby. 

The moon is a much unappreciated object, if you want to really enjoy the experience I strongly suggest you down load the free Virtual Moon Atlas:- https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualmoon/

Good luck.

[Ben the Ignorant]

It's off-topic but I've been wondering for long: what does your pic represent, Alan?

[Astro Imp]

3 hours ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

It's off-topic but I've been wondering for long: what does your pic represent, Alan?

Hi Ben, 

I live close to Lincoln and a famous gargoyle in the cathedral is the Lincoln Imp, hence by user name and avatar.

BTW Lincoln City FC are known as the Imps.

[Ben the Ignorant]

It is strange to adorn a church with a little devil, but thanks for the clarification. To get back on topic, enjoy your scope as is, Louise, but for very little cash your can own basic wide-angle eyepieces that will frame star clusters very well. Your H20 is narrow and so-so in quality, and that's not bad: later you can rediscover what you have seen, but through better eyepieces. It will be like having a new, better telescope. Shop around, wait for promos maybe, and you can get yourself a nice set of optics for a price not disproportionate to that of the telescope.

[Charic]

On 10/10/2016 at 21:38, Louise Hicks said:

 I have a crisp, beautiful view of the moon.... upside down......!!!! Am I missing something?! 

This is quite normal, its the design of the telescope, takes a little while to get used to it, especially if you try to use the scope during the day, but at night looking up its not important, but as you have found,  images are upside down?

As for photography, its a special art to be honest, those images you see in books,  are not naked eye images, they require the needs of camera sensors that eek out the details, that the human eyes just can't do at night time, but if your seeing a crisp Moon,  there's nothing wrong with holding your mobile phones camera up to the eyepiece and taking a snap!

Welcome to the SGL.

[Louise Hicks]

Hi all. Tonight is the first clear night for a while so trying to look at some stars but I am struggling to see them, can anyone help with which lens may work best? I have the following : Barlow lens 3X, H20mm, 1.5 Erectibg eyepiece and 44mm. Thank you very much