Skywatcher 200p

[SCOOBIE]

Hi I'm a real newbie to telescopes, astronomy, I have the skywatcher 200p and I'm wondering should I be using a barlow 2.5 lens, struggled to see the moon through the telescope last night, just not sure what I'm doing wrong. I had a intey 70m not long ago and the moon was amazing in that, Ive read reviews on the 200p and can't believe I haven't seen anything brilliant yet, so I must be doing something wrong. 

 

[banjaxed]

I have the same scope and the views of the moon are great, what size eyepiece are you using ?

7 minutes ago, SCOOBIE said:

Hi I'm a real newbie to telescopes, astronomy, I have the skywatcher 200p and I'm wondering should I be using a barlow 2.5 lens, struggled to see the moon through the telescope last night, just not sure what I'm doing wrong. I had a intey 70m not long ago and the moon was amazing in that, Ive read reviews on the 200p and can't believe I haven't seen anything brilliant yet, so I must be doing something wrong. 

 

 

[John]

I would leave the Barlow Lens out for now - it's going to create very high magnifications which makes finding anything much harder !

Is your 200P the equatorially mounted version or the dobsonian ?

Most important thing (what ever scope you use) is to make sure that the finder scope is very closely aligned with the view through the main scope. This makes finding things so much easier.

Use low power eyepieces to start with as you get used to finding and observing, eg: the 25mm.

 

[SCOOBIE]

4 minutes ago, John said:

I would leave the Barlow Lens out for now - it's going to create very high magnifications which makes finding anything much harder !

Is your 200P the equatorially mounted version or the dobsonian ?

Most important thing (what ever scope you use) is to make sure that the finder scope is very closely aligned with the view through the main scope. This makes finding things so much easier.

Use low power eyepieces to start with as you get used to finding and observing, eg: the 25mm.

 

I was using the barlow lens 2.5 with the super 10 and then I tried the super 25 these were the eye pieces that came with the dob, I have the 200p classic

[John]

The 2.5 barlow is just generating too much magnification to be any use with the 10mm and with the 25mm you get a 10mm effective eyepiece which is pointless as you already have one !

Get the finder precisely aligned with the view through the main scope and stick to the 25mm and 10mm eyepieces while you get used to the scope. While finding things, keep the 25mm eyepiece in the scope and only swap to the 10mm once you have found your target and if it would benefit from more magnification.

 

[SCOOBIE]

Great, will do this, many thanks for help, will be in touch again soon. 

[Jm1973]

I am also a beginner, with the same telescope. I was also looking at the moon last night... first clear night in ages.

 

As the previous poster said: get view finder aligned. Get moon dead centre. Use super 25. Very slowly focus. When in focus use the screw to lock the focuser. Then if you want to whack in a Barlow or use the 10mm, it should already be pretty much in focus.

 

If you've polar aligned it's easier as you only have to worry about 1 axis when tracking.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Jm1973

[SCOOBIE]

Thank you, yes it was fairly clear here, the only problem apart from weather that I have is trees. Will take advice and try again. 

[Jm1973]

15 hours ago, SCOOBIE said:

Thank you, yes it was fairly clear here, the only problem apart from weather that I have is trees. Will take advice and try again. 

Same here with the trees. Plus chimneys.

[Louis D]

17 hours ago, SCOOBIE said:

Thank you, yes it was fairly clear here, the only problem apart from weather that I have is trees. Will take advice and try again. 

Definitely keep your rig light and learn the skies so you can move the scope around to dodge trees and other obstructions.  That's what I've had to do since the trees I planted 26 years ago in my backyard have since matured.  I didn't really consider the consequences related to astro observing when I planted them.  I was just thinking in terms of having shade from the intense Texas sun for my kids.