First light with forum bought 200p

[tallstevef]

Hi All,

Well, just a few months after getting the 150pl off the forum and struggling a bit with general setup, and after trying a Dob at a local astronomy club I got another forum bought 200p with hand built Dob mount.  Took it out in the back garden last night, and within 5 mins I was pointing at the moon and marvelling at the views with both the 25mm and 10mm eyepieces - the clarity and level of detail through the 10mm was amazing - even if the "fuller picture" through the 25mm was v.special too.

Am definitely going to stick with the Dob, I like the fact I can use it with very little or no setup - and I've been looking at eyepiece options as the next upgrade.

Not sure if I'll keep the 150pl - it's a pretty decent scope, and if I wanted to venture (tentatively!) into imaging then it's a fairly good place to start (mine has the RA motors ready to go).  However I feel that the Dob is a great tool to learn with and "if" I outgrow it I might want to get something a little more fancy to try imaging with.

Am toying with putting up a swap ad - the 150pl for a eyepiece or two...

Can't wait for some other targets to appear - 7 sisters maybe?

Steven

[knobby]

Jupiter is still visible but gradually sinking in the west with the sun, also Saturn is around due south at about 11:30 but pretty low.

[John]

Hercules is well up when the sky gets dark. The famous globular cluster Messier 13 is a fine sight with an 8" scope at both low and medium magnification. There is another fine globular cluster in Hercules as well - Messier 92. Well worth looking out for

Lyra will also be well placed. In this constellation you will find the famous "double double" Epsilon Lyrae quite close to the bright star Vega. You should see that as 2 close pairs of stars with your 10mm eyepiece. A little lower in the constellation is the famed Ring Nebula, Messier 57. You can use the 25mm eyepiece as a "finder" for this (looks like a small bloated / fuzzy star) and then use the 10mm to see the ring like form.

Wiat for the skies to be dark to make finding and viewing these objects much, much easier.

[Space Beagle]

Steve!

Glad you like the 200p and the Dob mount, I miss it !!

You are now in the 'Dob Mob'!!

Also, listen to John, above, he kind of knows his stuff..!!

Regards,

Doc

[tallstevef]

Hi Doc,

Yes, the Dob suits me much better - and thanks for the extended PM on things to consider (Telrads / EPs etc) - I'm still very much a novice and will have to have a look at how the Telrads "work" (so to speak!).

Will indeed listen to John (and indeed everyone else!) - Thanks for the advice on the objects to look for but I have two main issues: 1.  A limited viewable sky from the back garden and 2. Very little knowledge of constellations and "target" stars or Messier objects.  Will see what I can find out though!

Regards,

Steven

[Piero]

Congratulations for the new scope! It will serve you well!

[Chefgage]

Now you have got your Dob its time to start modifying it as so many have done

I would suggest the lazy susan bearing mod unless of course its already got one.

I am just going through the process of making my Dob 'push to' as the light pollution in my area can be pretty bad making star hopping very difficult seeing as though many stars are not visable.

I have a wixey level gauge and a digital rotary encoder ready to be fitted.

[Astro Imp]

Congratulations on your scope, you will see loads with this.

You mention finding objects, do you have Stellarium a great free planetarium program:- http://www.stellarium.org/

Good luck and enjoy.

BTW a Telrad is a great piece of kit.

[Space Beagle]

Oh yes! Srellarium  !! Good shout Alan!

Very good for planning a session and just getting to know your way round the night sky.

Telrad's not difficult to use at all, but, I find mine very helpful indeed!

If you can get hold of an eyepiece with a cross hair in it, that can really help aligning the finder to the scope too !

I was lucky and one came with my Tal 100rs.

Sorry about all the exclamation marks, I must stop doing that ! Sorry.

Doc

[tallstevef]

Hi guys,

Stellarium installed and it is rather good - even if I was a bit overwhelmed by all the options (still don't know what half of them do!). Was trying to work out what "fuzzy" I saw when just touring around the sky last night - given I don't really know any constellations yet all I know is that is was pretty high in the sky (with me facing W/SW) at around 11.30/12 midnight.

Last night was quite successful, I managed to get partial allignment of the finderscope to the main tube - I did keep knocking the main tube when adjusting the finderscope which was a little frustrating.  I was trying to get another view of Jupiter, but the clouds rolling in scuppered that.  I did however get a very basic pic (via the mobile) of the moon using the 25mm eyepiece.  It actually came out quite well

Question for Doc - on the OTA, there appears to be a mounting point of some description next to the finderscope - is this a telrad mounting point? It's a longish black plastic (looking) rectangle.

Also, what eyepiece would come with a cross hair in it? Any particular make or type?

Steven   

[Space Beagle]

Hi Steve,

The crosshair eyepiece adaptor I have is the one that came with my Tal 100rs, it is the one in the pictures in this thread:

I'm not sure where you'd get them to be honest, apart from somewhere like Astroboot. There are some ideas on that thread about how to make one if you should want to!

You can get some illuminated crosshair eyepieces, which would probably work to align things, but they seem to be more expensive. Ther's one on the FLO site for £51.00!

Yes, the long black thing on the OTA is indeed a Teltad mounting plate. I didn't want to go to the hassle of pulling it off and leaving marks on the OTA, as I have another one on my Tal already.

Regards,

Doc

PS: Here's another thread, which might be of interest to you steve:

 

[Charic]

On 03/07/2017 at 23:25, tallstevef said:

A limited viewable sky from the back garden

...me too, just makes you want to go out and find a darker site?

I'm sizing up the nearest tree, and anything over hanging will soon come down! but I can see the North celestrial Pole. literally overhead, best observed laying on my back with binoculars, and I can see  items within a  circle that encompasses Ursa Major and Cassiopeia, when their not behind the tree!

[tallstevef]

Managed to get Jupiter with the 10mm last night - Using the finderscope now actually works (still needs fine tuning) so I was able to get set up and locked on within 5 mins - gotta love the Dob simplicity.  The actual image seemed a bit fuzzy - not out of focus but perhaps the atmosphere as it was / is quite low to the horizon.  Could just about make out the coloured bands.  Definitely planning an eyepiece upgrade as most comments say the 10mm is a bit pants.  From a few searches it would appear that 6mm-4mm would be the max usable eyepiece magnification on the 200p.

Good point about darker sites - am actually quite close to one in Surrey - near Box Hill, so would be good to see what the skies are like there - haven't really seen the Milky Way yet (maybe once when in Spain - but I can't be sure).

[Space Beagle]

Yes, 4mm - 6mm is about right for max usable magnification for the scope. Of course there are big varriables like the seeing conditions and what you are actually looking at etc etc!

I have used the scope to look at the Moon on a nice clear night with very good seeing conditions at silly magnifications like 400x plus and it's given pretty good views at times.. Good fun!

You will find what suits you best after a while on varrious different targets and magnifications, of course and that's part of the fun!

One other thing I use to help me find targets and just general observing was mentioned by Charic above and that's a decent pair of binoculars. I do find my 10x50's very helpful indeed.

Doc

[Charic]

On 06/07/2017 at 21:51, tallstevef said:

..........gotta love the Dob simplicity...........

+1