hello from a new scope owner

[westmarch]

Hi Darren and Darcy,

welcome to the forum. Hope you both have fun with your new hobby. 

John

[barkis]

Welcome to Dad and Daughter West. You have  signed up to a pleasant journey through SGL.
No problems that cannot be  solved here, just pen your questions at will.
The 8" Dob. is a very useful telescope for a beginner. Nothing complicated about it at all.
Don't get too keen on Magnification, it's OK on the Moon, where detail is plentiful, and double Stars are an Interesting targets, especially
when they reveal their colours, the pair such as Albireo In Cygnus the Swan Constellation. Very pretty pair.
The big drawback to high magnification with your Dob. is the fact that it has no auto drive, and has to be nudged around to track the
object you are looking at.
That is not easy at magnification, because the field of view gets smaller, and you might. lose it in the eyepiece.
Also,  your telescope mount can only move upwards, and sideways, whereas the stars and other bodies move a cross the sky in an Arc, which makes thing a little difficult to hold in view.
They arc across the sky, because you are standing on a curved surface, the earth itself .
 Having said that though, practice makes perfect, and you will both come to terms with that in time.  I don't want you to get demoralised if
if the tracking at higher magnifications do affect your enjoyment. There is much to see and enjoy without going up to high power  views.
Enjoy your stay, and your telescope both.

 

 

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire

[Dave In Vermont]

8 hours ago, darren west said:

so when do i get my explanation ?

thanks

Hi Darren & Darcy -

Stellarium is a large 'Planetarium-Program' that shows you the nighttime sky from your location - including just about anything you want such as stars, nebulae, galaxies, even artificial-satellites. Quite easy to operate. Similar star-charting software can cost over £200 - but Stellarium is FREE. You read that right - free.

It's as detailed as you wish, or as simple as you wish - it's all up to you. So here's a 'cut & paste' to walk you through downloading and instructions. Plus 2 screenshots to see what it looks like when you first turn it on (almost), and my own, which is rather advanced. So here we go!

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On this link is the main page for downloading Stellarium. Choose which version is correct for your computer. Here you go:

http://www.stellarium.org/
 
As for instructions, a full copy of them is bundled with the program that you download. But if you need another copy for some reason, these can be downloaded here:
 
https://sourceforge.net/projects/stellarium/files/Stellarium-user-guide/0.15.0-1/stellarium_user_guide-0.15.0-1.pdf/download

This program is quite large, so download when you have a few minutes. I'll leave you with a screenshot of mine, and also one of the screen approximating - roughly - of how it looks when you begin. Please know that I am an experienced user. I do this to help you understand the immense range & versatility of this amazing software-program.

 

 

And mine -

Click on images for full size.

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I hope you enjoy it!

Dave

[Nathan UK]

Welcome and enjoy 

[Stormbringer]

Hi and welcome 

There is also a pay for version for mobiles and tablets from the Google play store i think it is about £4 or so and it has most if not all the features of the PC version 

[Tommohawk]

Hi and welcome from darkest (because of all the clouds) Somerset. Your choice of scope is sound as others have said.

A couple of rough guiders - as Dave has said Stellarium is great because it gives you a good idea of what field of view you can expect to see - use tools (top right) to set your telescope and eyepiece.

The main challenge is that astro stuff comes in roughly 4 flavours:

1. Nebulae which can be very faint, although often quite large. For this you need a large aperture, but not necessarily much magnification. Orion nebula is an obvious exception - its big and bright.

2. Planets which can be very bright, but very small. For this you need lots of magnification, but not a huge aperture (although a bigger aperture will give better resolution)

3. Galaxies, which are usually quite faint and often quite small so need a big aperture and higher magnification. Andromeda galaxy is an exception - its big and bright. Triangulum comes next I think.

4. The moon. Its big, bright, and wonderful to look at in detail!

The above guide is a very rough, but Stellarium will guide you through the possibilities in more detail. You can get more magnification from a shorter focal length eyepiece, but dont get too carried away with this - you'll lose resolution with too much mag. A barlow or Powermate will also get you more magnification. Bear in mind also that with lots of mag your subject will move out of view very quickly!

Good luck and have fun.

 

[sloz1664]

Hi Darren & Darcy, welcome to the Lounge.

Steve