Expectation from a telescope

[Aston Weise]

Hello,

I wanted to know what can one expect from a 114/500 reflector telescope?

Clear Skies!

[Woolnut]

Hey, i haven't ever used one before so i am unable to comment however you should consider purchasing a book called "Turn Left at Orion" as this should give you a good idea as to what to expect and has lots of helpful pointers! (if you already have the book good work )

[cloudsweeper]

Plenty of bright objects - Moon, planets, doubles, clusters - plenty to keep you busy.  The smallish aperture will limit brightness and resolution/detail, and the short focal length will limit magnification.  But the widefield views with that FL will be very pleasing, and make target location easier.

Have fun!

Doug.

[alanjgreen]

Aston,

Can you link to the model you have in mind? so we can see the quality of the mount (tripod!)

Can you state where you will be viewing from? city, town, village etc

Can you state your spending budget so we can advise some alternatives?

Beware cheap wobbly mounts, these will ruin your nights viewing as the view is never stable and you will not be happy!

For a reflector 130mm (30% more light gathered than a 114mm)  or 150mm (33% more light gathered than a 130mm!!) will show you more. I started with a 130mm goto scope and it took me 6 weeks to outgrow it and want more aperture. 114mm aperture is a bit weedy especially if you live out in the country where slightly bigger can show much more. It would be okay for looking at the milky way through the summer months though.

more aperture equals a brighter image and ability to use more magnification (make it bigger in the eyepiece).

maximum magnification for a scope is roughly x30 per 25mm (this is over stated) so you will be lucky to get anything over x125 with that scope and the more magnification you use then the more you need a stable tripod. At x125 most objects will be tiny.

HTH,

Alan

[Mr Spock]

Here's a good thread which goes into some detail about what you can see and expectations https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/196278-what-can-i-expect-to-see/

[ronin]

Need to know the actual scope and model. Just 114/500 is either a design that has an additional barlow built into the focuser or it is a fast scope. Neither of which is a great idea.

The expectations generally far outweigh the reality. If the scope is really 114mm dia and has a 500mm focal length then in planet terms you should get to see a small Jupiter as the scope will/should deliver 60x to 80x. However I doubt that you will get a good Saturn. You need around 120x or more for Saturn and that means a short focal length eyepiece which is in conjunction with a fast scope. The two do not combine well.

Open clusters and Globular clusters should be fine, galaxies are more questionable. Nebula tend to be dim and the best M42 is not around until sometime like October. There will be a reasonable selection of double stars to observe and split, Albireo, Almaak etc.

One aspect is that you will need to sit down and make a selection of what to look at. They do not appear in the eypiece.

Besides "expectations" what is it you expect, what do you want to observe (do not do the standard of every possibility), where are you (makes a difference)., what do you already know - can you find Leo (plough, casseiopia are too easy). If you have not already purchased the scope what is the budget, including or excluding additional eyepieces.

[Cosmic Geoff]

1 hour ago, Aston Weise said:

Hello,

I wanted to know what can one expect from a 114/500 reflector telescope?

Clear Skies!

There is a thread elsewhere in the forum that should cover this. Reflectors of this aperture are looked down on these days. However, my first ever astronomical telescope was a 4" Newtonian reflector on an alt-azimuth table top mount. It was a poor quality instrument, and I  later rebuilt it, but I had a lot of fun with it.  An 114/500 is a f4 focal ratio, which will make choice of eyepieces critical for sharp images.

[Aston Weise]

36 minutes ago, alanjgreen said:

Aston,

Can you link to the model you have in mind? so we can see the quality of the mount (tripod!)

Can you state where you will be viewing from? city, town, village etc

Can you state your spending budget so we can advise some alternatives?

Beware cheap wobbly mounts, these will ruin your nights viewing as the view is never stable and you will not be happy!

For a reflector 130mm (30% more light gathered than a 114mm)  or 150mm (33% more light gathered than a 130mm!!) will show you more. I started with a 130mm goto scope and it took me 6 weeks to outgrow it and want more aperture. 114mm aperture is a bit weedy especially if you live out in the country where slightly bigger can show much more. It would be okay for looking at the milky way through the summer months though.

more aperture equals a brighter image and ability to use more magnification (make it bigger in the eyepiece).

maximum magnification for a scope is roughly x30 per 25mm (this is over stated) so you will be lucky to get anything over x125 with that scope and the more magnification you use then the more you need a stable tripod. At x125 most objects will be tiny.

HTH,

Alan

It has an EQ2 mount and I'll be observing from city and sadly I'm on a low budget at the moment.

[billyharris72]

I would think an EQ2, while not massively sturdy, would be plenty capable for a small reflector of that size. As noted earlier, a lot of your viewing is likely to be at quite low magnifications for wide fields (which will show you plenty). Do you have the scope currently or are you looking to buy? If the latter let us know how much you have to spend (or how much the proposed scope costs) and we may be able to advise on other options. But potentially (provided the scope is decent - at that focal ration you will need a parabolic rather than spherical mirror, for example, to get good views) it might be a decent buy.

The one thought that does come to mind immediately is that an EQ mount of any sort tends to add to the price, and on a low budget you want to be ploughing all your money into the optics. It might be worth considering the 130mm mini Dobsonians (like the Heritage 130p or the Orion equivalent) if budget permits. They will show quite a bit more and have excellent optics.

Billy.

[Ben the Ignorant]

A 115/500 on EQ-2 costs 209€, a 90/900 refractor on EQ-2 costs 219€ (from Teleskop Service). The refractor has no coma defect to speak of, the shorty reflector has so much coma it will make all eyepieces perform so-so. Contrast will definitely be stronger in the lens telescope, and brightness will be at least equal, but probably stronger.

Chromatic aberration at f/10 for such a moderate diameter is barely there, and collimation is fixed, nothing to adjust. Plus the refractor has better resale value, or better "keeper" value if you never sell it. I would not hesitate a second between the two. Look for info on loss of light and contrast in reflectors, and you'll see lens telescopes are much preferable in that kind of aperture.

Visit the largest telescope stores to look for promos, too. The main ones are Robtics in the Netherlands, Astroshop in Germany, Teleskop Austria, Astromarket in Belgium, First Light Optics (UK), 365 Astronomy (UK), Telescope House (UK), Rother Valley Optics (UK), Unterlinden (France), and Teleskop Service (Germany). When you check enough stores you are sure to find a scope and accessories for less money than you expected.

[Ricochet]

If it is a Skywatcher Skyhawk 1145p (or rebranded version of it) that you are looking at then I think it is a great starter scope. I know someone with one and it comes out every night that there is a gap in the clouds. You get a good quality parabolic mirror and despite the fast focal ratio BST Starguiders are perfectly happy in it. The 8mm will do you nicely for your views of DSOs and the same 8mm in a 2x Barlow works for the moon and planets. Sure, the magnification isn't going to be as high as with a larger scope but all types of ~100mm scopes will have the same constraints.

You'll get good views of the moon, see the phases of Venus, be able to make out two dark bands across Jupiter with four moons orbiting around it and see a ring around Saturn. Mars will just be a small disk so not that exciting and Uranus and Neptune are probably too far away to be seen as anything other than points of light. 

The bigger/brighter open star clusters can be observed and globular clusters can be found although I would say they are more of a faint fuzzy in this size scope than a mass of individually resolved stars. You should also be able to see some of the brighter nebulae: Orion for sure, dumbbell I would think and the ring if you've got enough magnification (that 8mm) to make it stand out. 

The only thing against it is the equatorial mount. I'm not a fan of them for Newtonian scopes and much prefer alt/az. If you can stretch to a dob that would be better but if it is one of the table top ones you will probably want to get a tripod (Astro boot is a good source) and bolt the mount to it. 

[Astro Imp]

20 hours ago, Ricochet said:

The only thing against it is the equatorial mount. I'm not a fan of them for Newtonian scopes and much prefer alt/az. If you can stretch to a dob that would be better but if it is one of the table top ones you will probably want to get a tripod (Astro boot is a good source) and bolt the mount to it. 

Couldn't agree more, IMO equatorial mounts are only required for AP and need to be much sturdier than the one under discussion.