New guy from Norway!

[Pryce]

Hey yall! 

I recently bought a Sky-Watcher Mercurt 705(70/500mm) and I was able to observe the moon and some other objects in our solar system, but unfortunately I was disappointed.

 

Of course, I am new to this, so viewing conditions were probably horrible the first few days. Tonight I drove as far out into the woods as I could without leaving the county, and although conditions were better(light and heat) I was still disappointed.  I wasnt able to observe any DSOs and the planets in our solar system were just some small dots, even with a 10mm eye piece and a 2x barlow.

Of course, I understand that these standard eye pieces and the barlow are most likely super low grade and a experienced stargazer probably wouldn't touch them with a 10foot pole. 

However, observing the moon was spectacular. Absolutely amazing! Even got a few decent photos! Not to bad for my first go if I do say so myself!

So, when I got home I ordered myself a Sky-Watcher Explorer 150P (150mm/750mm). I also threw in a decent quality 2.5mm eye piece to avoid using the barlow at all. Hopefully thats going to increase my viewing pleasure considerably.

On that note, just a quick question.  Should I spring for 2" eye pieces instead of the 1,25" versions?

I'll spring for a motor and high grade eye peieces in the future, but for now, this will have to do.

But anyways, just wanted to introduce myself and to say that I'm here to stay!

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Pryce

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome.

Peter

[Starwatcher2001]

Hi and a warm welcome aboard SGL.

Practice and experience play a good part in astronomy, so don't let a disappointing start put you off.  Observing DSOs is a practiced art. They usually don't spring out in the eyepiece, especially in a small instrument, and certainly don't look anything like as grand as in the pictures.

This is a great thread, that explains what you're likely to see through the eyepiece. I wish I'd read this when I first got into astronomy.

All the best,

Mark
 

Edit: Sorry forgot to mention, that's a pretty good image of the moon!

 

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Starwatcher2001

[banjaxed]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

[masjstovel]

Hei og velkommen til forumet!

I also had my first WOW-experience with the moon, through a 28mm on the 150PDS explorer. Even if i've seen that thing daily (or maybe not daily since i live in Bergen) i was still mesmerized by the detail through the telescope.

I'm still a newbie, about 1,5 years into the hobby, and the whole purpose was astrophotography so haven't been gazing alot through the eyepieces, but i think i've picked up a couple of tips along the short way ive travelled so far. Not a rule of thumbs, but my personal experience:

 

1. Its going to cost more than you think - and then some - if you're in for the long run (Especially for astrophotography)
"I want to take pictures of those cool pink'ish fogs ive seen on Google. Can i do that with my phone in the binoculars in livingroom?" i though.
6000-7000 USD later i still sit here waiting for new equipment in the mail. And remember:
 

2. Get the right equipment the first time, or you end up with the above again
Especially the more expensive equipment (i.e mount). I bought an EQ5 despite everyone told me to get the EQ6 or simular for my use, and voila - 6 months later i sold my EQ5 for 2/3 of the price and bought the EQ6. 
Also take your time, dont rush, and remember the sollution is not always buying new equipment. 
 

3. Its all worth it!


 

[Floater]

Welcome. I’m sure you’ll start having more fun soon. 🙂

[Waddensky]

Hey, and welcome! The link to another topic that Mark shared contains some very good information on what to expect when doing visual astronomy. The Explorer 150P is a step up from your current scope, but the planets will still be very small and most deep-sky objects will still be very, very faint grey smudges, sometimes only visible using averted vision. But don't let this put you off: when you gain experience, you will be able to see incredible amount of detail on the planets and see faint deep-sky objects you never dreamt of.

The 2.5 mm eyepiece will most likely give you too much magnification for the scope. Best to keep it under 150x, beef it up to 200x on a really good night. Not familiar with the Norwegian skies, but here in The Netherlands the atmosphere usually limits the magnification to around 200x anyway.

A 2" eyepiece has the advantage of giving you a wider field of view. This is nice for some large deep-sky objects or just cruising around the skies.

Have fun and let uw know about your experiences with the new telescope!

[Pryce]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Though I understand that the 150P is still a very small telescope, I hope that the optical quality and increased light gathering will increase the viewing pleasure considerably as there was a lot of optical issues with the smaller refractor that I inisitally bought. Plus, the only DSO I could even attempt to see was M31 and even that was barely equal to a grease stain on my glasses.  And I do understand that I'll never(at least with scopes in this price range) see those colorful clouds I've seen in pictures. As far as I understand those have been post-processed to oblivion and beyond.

And I realize that beefy magnification isn't the way to go for a new astronomer so the 2,5mm might be overkill, but I figured, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it 😆



 

[Pryce]

That said, I did jump blindfolded into this thing with my first purchase. Not really knowing what I could realistically expect with a refractor of that size(They really oversold it) but after hours of research I think I have a clearer picture of what I can expect to see with a 150P

[Waddensky]

As said, the 150P really is a great improvement over your current telescope. Much higher resolution and ability to magnify quite a bit higher. Try it on some bright globular clusters (M13, M92), you'll be amazed. Just don't expect field of view filling planets, swirling nebulae and bright spiralling galaxies 🙂

[CraigT82]

Welcome to the Forum! The 150p is a capable and versatile scope and will be much much better than the Mercury 70... not only is it significantly larger in terms of the objective, but it's all mirrors and so you wont get any chromatic aberration that you do with the little frac.

With the 150p you will be able to see the cloud belts of Jupiter and the Great Red Spot, you will see the cassini division easily and equatorial belts on Saturn, and you will see the dark 'seas' on Mars along with it's polar ice caps.  The 6" aperture will start to reveal real detail in DSOs, especially if you can get it out under good dark skies.

The 2.5mm eyepice will give you x300 magnification which is a lot, and you'll probably only get to use it on the moon when seeing is good. But like you say worth having for when the skies are steady

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[sloz1664]

Hi Pryce and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Steve

[Alan White]

Welcome SGL and to that sinkhole hobby of Astronomy.

 

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi there and welcome. 

[westmarch]

Hi there,

welcome to the forum. 

John

[Mr Spock]

Hi, welcome to SGL

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Peter in Bedfordshire 🙂