Help with optics in new equipment

[Troady]

Hi there guys, i see a ton of knowledge in this forum (after been observing others forums too) and good tips, nobody shy of helping a newbie and that`s what i need.

i am a over the road interstate trucker, meaning being for months at a time away from home (don`t matter, got wife and dog with me).

Have been interested in the sky for a long time, but just recently decided that its the right time to begin watching the sky by myself and not only watching hubble`s pictures on the net.

Alone the road in places like Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and others places in the west of the USA, i have observed very nice spots with very little or none light pollution, observing the skies from there at night should be a stargazer dream.

I have been considering a 8" dobsonian, but seeing that it have to go in the truck (space and weight matters, the tube it`s almost 3ft in length and the total weight is close to 50 pounds), i have choose to go down a little and go with a 6", my election is the one you see in my signature, a  Orion StarBlast 6i IntelliScope Reflector Telescope.

Being a novice , i assume it will make my life easier having some help finding objects in the sky. The similar model w/o intelliscope it`s $130 cheaper, what do you think about the intelliscope? Any experiences with it?, it`s worth it?

It does have a tabletop mount, making it smaller than the ones on a tripod and a lot less heavier too, just 23.5 lbs. Will have to go in and out of the truck (lorry) every time i will want to watch the sky.

For the reviews that i have seen in Amazon and other places, it`s looks like a good telescope, but i have noticed some complaints about the optics, what kind of optics do you recommend to go with it?

it come with a 1.25 10 and a 25 mm Sirius Plossl, are they any good?

It will need to have a Barlow too, which one do you guys recommend? 2X or 3x? brand?

Filters, other that the moon filter, what are the useful ones to watch planets and deep space? any filter collection you know off with everything included?

How can i take pictures with my phone from it?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Any useful tips, are welcome and really appreciated, thanks.

 

[Ben the Ignorant]

Hi.

The basic eyepiece for an f/5 scope is around 25mm. Explore Scientific's 24mm/68° is excellent and currently on sale in several european dealers, 98€ instead of 159€.

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p5597_Explore-Scientific-24mm-1-25--Okular---68----wasserdicht.html

I don't know a better 24mm in 1.25" format, I use it on all my scopes, from f/5 to f/10, and it never disappoints. It has it all, across-the-field sharpness, stark contrast, brightness, moderate weight, and moderate price if it's also on sale in US stores.

Barlow: the least expensive clone of this one:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces/bst-starguider-2x-short-barlow-lens.html

Ignore the brands, just go for the least costly, they're all built the same, but some magical tags make them more expensive. All three-lenses barlows are very good, the two-lenses items don't focus all the colors from one spot at the same corresponding spot.

Phone adapter:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p7048_SteadyPix-Universal-Spartphone-Telescope-Photo-Adapter.html

I'm showing only one, but several others are on the market, you'll have to compare them and read their reviews, I've never owned one (but I should, I'm late on this).

And yes, the Intelliscope is a great idea. I've not used it but I did use the club's push-to mount with varying tubes mounted on it, its' very convenient. The 9V energy source is so small and long-lasting it renders the setup unobtrusive. Just push. Duh! The control box is compact, drains little current, nothing to make usage troublesome or complicated. I'll never own a go-to dob, however a push-to dob would be very much welcome because of the box's vast memory and petite size.

Filters: a broadband anti-pollution filter and/or a narrowband might be handy, but from your desert spots you might not need them at all.

Seeing that you ask the right questions, and have access to very good skies, you'll have an easy time exploring the skies.

Edit. Planet filters: only the pale ones, your scope is not huge, it can't afford heavy filtering.

[Troady]

Thank you Ben, it seems after all that you have choose the wrong name, i don`t see any ignorance in your tips, on the contrary, maybe you just are very modest.

Anyway i`ll do appreciate your tips and will follow them, for what i have learn in these last months of studying the forums, the best scope in the world isn`t any good w/o good optics, so optics are very very important to have a nice view of the sky with any scope.

Thanks for your advice.

[Sunshine]

the most important thing is that you use your scope every chance you get, learn the constellations and objects within them, your 6 inch scope is a great size for both light gathering capability vs portability, you'll have a lot of fun with it.

make sure you download an astronomy APP like pocket universe which will help you locate objects within constellations, it makes it easier for you to locate them in the sky, you'll enjoy that and it can save an awful lot of time especially if you're working and don't have hours at a time to stop.

[Waldemar]

You are one lucky man, Troady...
Being on the road with your wife, dog and telescope... to boldly go where no man has gone before... a real Star Trucker if you ask me!

There will be a learning curve of course, that is part of the fun, but you made a well thought over guess it seems. As mentioned before: the ES eyepieces will give you great value for the money. If choosing a barlow, choose it wisely also in combination with your eyepieces. In my experience the TeleVue's PowerMates are the best, they just disappear in your viewing train, but they are expensive, The 2hand market may be an option. Skyview is a nice app for learning the skies, but more are available. You can even use it to point your telescope, when using the camera option, so you can see realtime combined with the starmap.

Most important of all...:  have fun together! Shared fun is double fun!

Wishing you safe travels and clear skies.

 

[happy-kat]

If you have a pc then Stellarium is excellent and if using a phone or tablet Skysafari is great, the plus version is plenty I find.

[Astro Imp]

Hi Troady you've made some good decisions already. The scope you've selected is very capable and although I've not used it myself the Intelliscope system is well thought of, also you've joined the best forum in cyberspace.

IMO you should use your scope a few times to see what interests you and what you want to achieve, then you are in a better position to decide on upgrades.

Have fun and keep in touch, I for one look forward to reading your reports from those amazing skies.

[Ben the Ignorant]

By the way, Troady, I bought a clone of your optical tube two years ago, a bargain from First Light Optics. It bears the Celestron name, that's the only difference; I built a dobsonian mount for it, and gave the whole thing to my brother. Of course I star-tested the mirrors, that's when I found they were smooth, and free of astigmatism or zones (circular depressions or humps in the surfaces). Just a little spherical aberration, the most common imperfection.

We looked at the sunlit roof of an artistic building with sculptures, and the detail was sharp as well as plentiful. The intensity of star colors is memorable, too.

[Cosmic Geoff]

I'm not entirely clear whether you have already ordered the telescope or not. If you have, I can reassure you that it's a sound choice.  If not, don't drop the Intelliscope feature, otherwise everytime you struggle to find anything you will be wishing you had spent the extra $$.  I have the equivalent powered feature (GoTo) on two of my scopes and would not wish to be without it.

Eyepieces - start with what you get with the kit and buy one or two as you sense what's lacking. The higher power eyepieces in these kits are often not very good. Filters - personally I don't use any, not even a Moon filter.

If you have not ordered yet, consider a 6" SCT on a GoTo mount. This would be more expensive (I expect) but has the practical advantage of being smaller and lighter than a Newtonian Dob and probably less likely to go out of collimation when driven around for hours in a truck. SCTs have a long focal ratio, hence inherently smaller maximum field of view which may not be what you have in mind. Bigger galaxies, star clusters and nebulae may not fit in the field of view.

[Troady]

18 hours ago, Sunshine said:

the most important thing is that you use your scope every chance you get, learn the constellations and objects within them, your 6 inch scope is a great size for both light gathering capability vs portability, you'll have a lot of fun with it.

make sure you download an astronomy APP like pocket universe which will help you locate objects within constellations, it makes it easier for you to locate them in the sky, you'll enjoy that and it can save an awful lot of time especially if you're working and don't have hours at a time to stop.

Thanks for the info Sunshine, i am using already Sky Map and Star Chart both in my android phone, at home i got Stellarium and a nice book, "Turn left at Orion".

[Troady]

15 hours ago, Waldemar said:

You are one lucky man, Troady...
Being on the road with your wife, dog and telescope... to boldly go where no man has gone before... a real Star Trucker if you ask me!

There will be a learning curve of course, that is part of the fun, but you made a well thought over guess it seems. As mentioned before: the ES eyepieces will give you great value for the money. If choosing a barlow, choose it wisely also in combination with your eyepieces. In my experience the TeleVue's PowerMates are the best, they just disappear in your viewing train, but they are expensive, The 2hand market may be an option. Skyview is a nice app for learning the skies, but more are available. You can even use it to point your telescope, when using the camera option, so you can see realtime combined with the starmap.

Most important of all...:  have fun together! Shared fun is double fun!

Wishing you safe travels and clear skies.

 

Hartelijk bedankt voor de informatie Waldemar,  there is a big difference between West USA skies, and the skies in Nederland, i have myself live 14 years in Utrecht, got to know the skies over there and they are not so pretty for stargazing, don`t know how you guys living in England and The Netherlands do to see the sky, anyway, suppose that with a lot of patience and traveling to other places.

i am learning indeed, its not so easy at the beginning but with time and try and error method will work, got not so much money available right now, will have to do with the 10 and 25mm Plossl that came with the telescope and will buy a cheap barlow for the moment, good optics will come pretty soon, just have to know which one they are to begin to see places and second hand markets to look for them.

Thanks for the tip, i miss a lot boerenkool and zuurkool, just to bring them around in my truck when traveling all over Europe in cans from Struik, no way to find them here in America, will have to travel to NL some day to bring back 200 pounds of them, groetjes, Luis.

[Troady]

12 hours ago, happy-kat said:

If you have a pc then Stellarium is excellent and if using a phone or tablet Skysafari is great, the plus version is plenty I find.

Thanks Happy Kat, i am using Stellarium here at home and in my android i got Sky Map and Star Chart, both complements each other i think, very useful both of them to find objects in the sky.

[Troady]

10 hours ago, Astro Imp said:

Hi Troady you've made some good decisions already. The scope you've selected is very capable and although I've not used it myself the Intelliscope system is well thought of, also you've joined the best forum in cyberspace.

IMO you should use your scope a few times to see what interests you and what you want to achieve, then you are in a better position to decide on upgrades.

Have fun and keep in touch, I for one look forward to reading your reports from those amazing skies.

Thanks Alan, i will let you know (with images when possible) about my stargazing adventures, where i do live (Naples, SW Florida) we got a little bit of light pollution from the city, even living 6 miles outside of it in a rural area, you can escape them, South and East are ok, North and West got to much light around to see properly, i am very impatient to get in my truck and go to the West where i expect clear skies and a lot of fun watching the skies.

Got to learn first how to hook up my phone to the scope, will see how that goes.

[Troady]

9 hours ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

By the way, Troady, I bought a clone of your optical tube two years ago, a bargain from First Light Optics. It bears the Celestron name, that's the only difference; I built a dobsonian mount for it, and gave the whole thing to my brother. Of course I star-tested the mirrors, that's when I found they were smooth, and free of astigmatism or zones (circular depressions or humps in the surfaces). Just a little spherical aberration, the most common imperfection.

We looked at the sunlit roof of an artistic building with sculptures, and the detail was sharp as well as plentiful. The intensity of star colors is memorable, too.

Thanks Ben for letting me know what i already what expecting, to have a good scope.

i did some research for few weeks until i settled with the Orion, qua price is not the cheapest around but it got a lot of nice reviews, that, the size and the weight, make finally my mind to go with this one, nice to hear that i did a good buy, thanks.

[Troady]

9 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I'm not entirely clear whether you have already ordered the telescope or not. If you have, I can reassure you that it's a sound choice.  If not, don't drop the Intelliscope feature, otherwise everytime you struggle to find anything you will be wishing you had spent the extra $$.  I have the equivalent powered feature (GoTo) on two of my scopes and would not wish to be without it.

Eyepieces - start with what you get with the kit and buy one or two as you sense what's lacking. The higher power eyepieces in these kits are often not very good. Filters - personally I don't use any, not even a Moon filter.

If you have not ordered yet, consider a 6" SCT on a GoTo mount. This would be more expensive (I expect) but has the practical advantage of being smaller and lighter than a Newtonian Dob and probably less likely to go out of collimation when driven around for hours in a truck. SCTs have a long focal ratio, hence inherently smaller maximum field of view which may not be what you have in mind. Bigger galaxies, star clusters and nebulae may not fit in the field of view.

Thanks Cosmic Geoff for your info, the scope is pay for and already on his way to my place, hope it gets here in time before i leave for the road, one of the things i like from this scope is the wide field of view it does have, have to sacrifice  some deep views but i do prefer at least for the moment, one with a wide field of view.

  I have been planning already when everything is ok and wife don`t kill me first, buying a 10" or 12" (or bigger, money will tell) in the future to have it at home, will have to be a Dob of course, for the price and quality they are hard to beat, and they are more narrow field of view than the one i bought, also with this aperture they are more fine to go for the deep sky and some very distant objects, i already know that the 6" Orion will not satisfied me completely, but got no other way to go as long the scope have to be portable to go in and out of the truck frequently.

Money is another factor to consider, all the 6" SCT i did look at, were close to $1000 or above that, that`s a lot of money for a first scope, buying one just like that, get me the chance to get killed by wife, specially now that i got life insurance, can`t take this chance.

i am already under a warning to go to sleep with "Rocky" to the dog house if i spend some more money in "unnecessary things" according to her, so let it be for the moment.

Will have to learn to collimate the scope from time to time, no other way around.

[FLO]

22 hours ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces/bst-starguider-2x-short-barlow-lens.html

Ignore the brands, just go for the least costly, they're all built the same, but some magical tags make them more expensive. 

The BST Starguider barlow is particularly good for it’s price. But I don’t agree all barlows are built the same. If you compare a well designed Barlow manufactured to a high standard using quality glass, properly applied optical coatings, edge blackening and blackened interior, with one that isn’t... You will definitely notice a difference. 

If however you were referring to the BST Starguider being available wearing other brand names, at higher prices. Then I think you do make a good point  

HTH, 

Steve 

[Ben the Ignorant]

1 hour ago, FLO said:

If however you were referring to the BST Starguider being available wearing other brand names, at higher prices. Then I think you do make a good point  

HTH, 

Steve 

That was obviously the point.

[Troady]

A friend of mine now is offering me a Meade LX70  OTA Telescope, 150mm (6”) f/12 Maksutov-Cassegrain-1800mm Focal Length.

No tripod, but the OTA is in good condition and is asking not so much for it, is this a good scope? How difficult will be finding a tripod for it?  Comparing with the Orion 6I intelliscope, which one is better

 

[Ben the Ignorant]

46 minutes ago, Troady said:

A friend of mine now is offering me a Meade LX70  6-inch Maksutov OTA Telescope, no tripod, but the OTA is in good condition and is asking not so much for it, is this a good scope? How dificult will be finding a tripod for it?  Comparing with the Orions 6I intelliscope, which one is better?

Tripods and dovetails are standard, there's no difficulty finding them, but you would lose the convenience of the tripodless dob. Plus the mak is f/12 (not f/15, right?) when the Orion is f/5. 2.4x longer, so the viewing field is 2.4x narrower. Optical quality is sure to be good, but the Orion has less obstruction, and is easier to adjust.

Maks are kinda specialized for high resolution, planets and double stars, but they don't compete with an f/5 scope for scanning large swaths of sky at lower power. The f/5 tube does compete in high power views, though.

(I don't usually answer questions at 4:30 in the morning but for some reason I couldn't sleep).

[Troady]

10 minutes ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

Tripods and dovetails are standard, there's no difficulty finding them, but you would lose the convenience of the tripodless dob. Plus the mak is f/12 (not f/15, right?) when the Orion is f/5. 2.4x longer, so the viewing field is 2.4x narrower. Optical quality is sure to be good, but the Orion has less obstruction, and is easier to adjust.

Maks are kinda specialized for high resolution, planets and double stars, but they don't compete with an f/5 scope for scanning large swaths of sky at lower power. The f/5 tube does compete in high power views, though.

(I don't usually answer questions at 4:30 in the morning but for some reason I couldn't sleep).

Thanks Ben for helping me make my mind, sorry to hear you can`t sleep, i din`t last night, when for a colonoscopy today at hospital and just for thinking of it din`t sleep much.

It`s just 22:39 here at my place, not time to go to bed yet.

Thanks for your help.

[Cosmic Geoff]

The Meade sounds like a nice scope, but you have already ordered a Dob of the same aperture. As other posters have said, it is optimal for different objects. 

You will need a mount costing several hundred dollars, and with the attachment being a standard dovetail, you just have to choose one that  is up to the job. It could be a manual alt-azimuth, GoTo alt-azimuth, manual or driven equatorial, or GoTo equatorial (the last bothersome to set up and not recommended unless you want to get into astrophotography). Entirely your choice.  If you want to look at mounts, first check the weight of the Meade and round it up to the next whole number.

I think the answer is 15lbs, which rules out a number of the cheaper mounts.

[Ben the Ignorant]

By the way, the Meade scope has a 2" (50.8mm) connection but the inside diameter of its baffle is only 30mm. A 2" 24mm/82° eyepiece has a 36mm front lens, a 34mm/68° has a 38mm front lens, and a 40mm/68° must contain an even larger lens; some light would be lost.

[Troady]

Hi there everyone, unfortunately had to leave home in a hurry w/o having receiving the scope, will have to wait until my trip return to pick it up (it already arrive two days after me leaving home).

Anyway, talking to a old friend about my new hobby before leaving, he came out of the shed with some 15 x 70 Celestron binoculars he had not used in years, handle it to me (free of charge) and only have to let him look thru my telescope when it will be ready to compensate him for the binoculars. So i will be watching the skies for the time being with the Celestron binoculars, good enough to get familiarize with the stars and other celestial bodies i think.

Will let you all know about my experiences with the scope when i return home, wish you all a lot of good luck and happy skies watching.

[Waldemar]

2 hours ago, Troady said:

Hi there everyone, unfortunately had to leave home in a hurry w/o having receiving the scope, will have to wait until my trip return to pick it up (it already arrive two days after me leaving home).

Anyway, talking to a old friend about my new hobby before leaving, he came out of the shed with some 15 x 70 Celestron binoculars he had not used in years, handle it to me (free of charge) and only have to let him look thru my telescope when it will be ready to compensate him for the binoculars. So i will be watching the skies for the time being with the Celestron binoculars, good enough to get familiarize with the stars and other celestial bodies i think.

Will let you all know about my experiences with the scope when i return home, wish you all a lot of good luck and happy skies watching.

You must be a very nice guy, having friends like that ... birds of a feather...

[Troady]

Hi Waldemar, thanks for your reply, i am of the opinion, that if what you only have is money, you are a very poor people.

You can`t extend life (more than the logical way) with money or dodge dead no matter how much money you have. Therefore, the most important part (imho) is having fun while you are alive and doing as much good as you can w/o expecting anything in return.

It has serve me well in my 59 years and i don`t expect to change anytime soon. Yes, it has permitted me to adquire a lot of friends in several parts of the world, and although they are not many, they return to me what i give to anyone for free, friendship, experiences and good times (and sometimes binoculars).