First telescope

[Tiny Clanger]

OK, this (to save typing it again) is my step by step align your red dot finder instructions.

If (as it appears from that PDF manual) your dob comes with an optical finder, it's the same process, you just don't have anything to switch on, and need to think 'cross hairs in the mini telescope thingy ' instead when I say 'red dot' 

Heather

[Andy350]

13 hours ago, Tiny Clanger said:

OK, this (to save typing it again) is my step by step align your red dot finder instructions.

If (as it appears from that PDF manual) your dob comes with an optical finder, it's the same process, you just don't have anything to switch on, and need to think 'cross hairs in the mini telescope thingy ' instead when I say 'red dot' 

Heather

Thanks again Heather.  It all turned up this morning, looks larger in real life.  I've taken your comments onboard and will setup later today, I bit cloudy at the moment to do any moon gazing.

[Andy350]

15 hours ago, Spile said:

I would also recommend setting it up in the daytime by focusing on distant trees and antennas. Use one of these to align your finderscope and see the difference between the 25 and 10mm eyepieces. Usual warning about not pointing at the sun here.

Thanks, I have some trees in the distance that I can use for this exercise.  

[Tiny Clanger]

1 hour ago, Andy350 said:

Thanks again Heather.  It all turned up this morning, looks larger in real life.  I've taken your comments onboard and will setup later today, I bit cloudy at the moment to do any moon gazing.

Excellent that it has arrived safely, but if your area's weather forecast  is anything like mine, you have plenty of time to set it up at leisure and read up on targets before you can get outside and use it .

The size is quite impressive isn't it ? And that's a small dob ! With only a small modern house with little spare storage space I had to go for the heritage 150 , same mirrors but smaller base and tube half the length when closed up.

Heather

[andyman]

As others have said go for the dob ..250 PX flextube easy to store easy to transport and biggest bang for your buck ..simples

[Andy350]

Managed to site the finder today, that took a while as I had forgotten that all images would be upside down.  I picked a building on a hill a few miles away it came out really well, changing the eyepiece increased the size of the image but made it darker which makes sense.  It was fascinating being able to read a road "give way" sign.

[M40]

2 hours ago, Andy350 said:

  It was fascinating being able to read a road "give way" sign.

Wait till you have a good look at the moon 👍 enjoy your new telescope 

[Andy350]

3 hours ago, M40 said:

Wait till you have a good look at the moon 👍 enjoy your new telescope 

I really cannot wait.  Over the past few months there have been a few clear skies, which would have been perfect.  I use the Android phone app called "StarTracker" and the amount of times it shows me that Jupiter, Saturn and the moon are in alignment and all I have is the naked eye.

[Tiny Clanger]

7 hours ago, Andy350 said:

Managed to site the finder today, that took a while as I had forgotten that all images would be upside down.  I picked a building on a hill a few miles away it came out really well, changing the eyepiece increased the size of the image but made it darker which makes sense.  It was fascinating being able to read a road "give way" sign.

Upside down, left and right, your brain will soon adjust to whatever your 'scope does to the view, and once what you see has no ground reference points, it will all be fine.

I didn't realise just how much the brain adapts until I bought a small maksutov to supplement the dob : dob view is flipped N/S and E/W , mak view N=N , right way up but flipped E/W.

After spending the last 6 weeks or so of 2020 using only the mak (for what it is particularly good at , planets & the Moon) I went back to the dob (better for many other targets) and was constantly nudging it the wrong way !

Heather