Advice to a total beginner

[DPF]

My wife bought me a Celestron Travel Scope 70, as a Christmas present. I know that this may not be the best scope for observing the skies, but she meant well.

Being new to all of this and having an interest in astronomy, is anyone out there willing to help me to get the best out of the equipment.

Its been great for looking at the moon, but I’m keen to explore a bit more.

Thanks in advance 👍

[Ricochet]

2 minutes ago, DPF said:

is anyone out there willing to help me to get the best out of the equipment

What is it that you're looking for help with? The question is a bit vague really. 

If you're looking for help finding targets to observe them the book Turn Left at Orion is a good place to start. Given the size of the telescope, the binocularsky newsletter is probably also a useful resource. 

[DPF]

I’d like to be able to look at planets, as well as the stars and what’s around them. Is that possible with this scope and should I be investing in any additional equipment to help get better results? 

[malc-c]

To be honest, you won't see much with that scope IMO. 

40x being the max theoretical magnification, will give a dark image.  You should still be able to resolve the inner moons of Jupiter,  Mars will be on orange dot, but you might struggle with any but the brighter wider spaced binary stars.  On a  good night in a dark location, with the 10x magnification, you should be able to pick out the Orion nebula as a greenish fuzzy blob... but at around £80 including a small tripod, it is what it is...  There is nothing that will improve the scopes performance.  

[fifeskies]

If you have not already done so , download the free Stellarium software as it will give you some idea of what is in the sky from your location , and what direction to look in.

While it is a smaller telescope the Pleiades should be worth a look, in the night sky just now to the south.

Andromeda M31 is also well placed but in this smaller scope will just be a fuzzy patch , but hey , you are seeing another galaxy.

[dweller25]

Hello @DPF and welcome to SGL.

Lets get you going.....

Take the scope out and let it cool down for 15 minutes - point it down and take all the end caps off.

Jupiter and Saturn are in the southwest sky at sunset - look as soon as you can as they are disappearing soon. Use the 10mm eyepiece to give x40 - a bit low for the planets but you should see the moons around Jupiter and Saturns rings. It will all be a bit of a wobbly image due to the low altitude.

Mars is in the south and both bright and high - you may make out the red colour and you may just see a phase - like a 3/4 Moon.

Orion is in the southeast sky around 8:30pm -  using your 20mm eyepiece look below the three stars that form the belt - you should find the orion nebula

Download “Stellarium” - a very good and free planetarium program

Good luck and clear skies.

Edited December 29, 2020 by dweller25

[StevieDvd]

Agree with that mentioned already. 

So you don't feel that you are using it wrong and not getting the best from it, download one of the free star chart/guides such as Stellarium  or K-Stars to get an idea of what would be in view from your best viewpoint and  compass direction.

You can get then an idea of what you want to see and if worth looking at using a site such as http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fovcalc.php  you can set your telescope, eyepiece and the target to look at. It will give you a rough idea if the view will be a pinpoint one or a decent image.

And best of all it's all free.

 

 

[malc-c]

The key factor here is don't expect too much from the scope.  Looking at pictures on the net or books can often lead to disappointment when you view them for the first time, even through a larger much more capable scope.  Having a dark site might help a bit more with resolution, but you are still going to be limited.

However it will be a fine scope for observing the Moon, which IMO is often overlooked.  You could possibly attach a small webcam in place or to the eyepiece and use free software such as Sharpcap to record a short clip and then use free software that stacks the individual frames to give a detailed image.  Or if you are good at drawing, use the  scope to look at the mountains or craters and keep notes and sketches in a book.

 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @DPF & wife and welcome to SGL. 

If you have an unlimited data plan, some internet sites you can down load star charts, Lunar/Moon atlas, Messier, Caldwell, Herschel objects, etc.

Though I do not own a copy 'Turn Left at Orion' (a.k.a 'TLAO') is a good reference book for 'newbies'. I have a .PDF preview on a laptop.

[jonathan]

I have this exact same scope and I have to disagree a little with some of the comments here, for what it is it's a very capable small refractor, on a good clear night you'll get sharp crisp views of plenty of objects in the night sky.  Think of it as a large mounted monocular, or one half of a large binocular pair (it's probably slightly better than my 15x70 binoculars).

A few things could improve the views and usefulness of the scope - first is the tripod.  Mine was supplied with what is probably the flimsiest tripod I've ever used, so invest in or use a heavier duty camera tripod, preferably one with a panning head so that you can pan and tilt smoothly. 

Second thing to consider is the eyepiece.  The scope was probably supplied with two very basic and cheap eyepieces, while they work they probably won't get the best out of the telescope so consider investing in something around the 15mm such as this BST StarGuider.  I don't own this particular eyepiece but I hear good things about the BST range.

If you're using the 45 degree erecting prism and you have the 90 degree diagonal, use the latter for night viewing - that's what it's designed for.  It will help to brighten the image, you'll just have to get used to the image being back-to-front and possibly upside-down as the correcting prism has effectively been removed from the light path (thus reducing the loss of ancient photons from distant stars).

As for what to look at, there's plenty!  Being a small telescope you could look at binocular guides to the night sky, it'll be at the small end of any 'small telescope' guide but you could still get plenty of viewing out of such a guide.  Check out this excellent guide which has been kept up to date by some dedicated astronomers, there's a downloadable PDF which I'd recommend printing out and taking outside with you (leave your iPad / phone in the house, it'll ruin your dark-adapted eyes).

When looking at the moon only remove the small cap, keep the large cap on.  This will reduce the amount of light entering the scope and make the view less dazzling.  This trick can also be used on Jupiter, Mars, and Venus if the brightness is too much.  When the brightness is right it should be possible to make out phases on Mars and Venus.  It should also be possible to just about discern the rings on Saturn, though it's been a while since I viewed Saturn through my 70 Travel Scope so can't quite remember what it looked like.  Best time to view Jupiter and Saturn at the moment is shortly after the sun disappears below the horizon.

Edited December 29, 2020 by jonathan

[Tiny Clanger]

Don't feel you need to apologize for your telescope, Galileo saw the 4 biggest moons of Jupiter with a telescope he made which had  20x magnification and yours does 20x and 45 x ...

A simple cost free upgrade for what I'm sure is quite a flimsy tripod that wobbles a bit is to try to find a way to use it without extending all of the sections, certainly not the thinnest, lowest one. Maybe you have a wall, a good solid table or something similar in a handy place you can stand a less extended tripod on and keep the eyepiece at a convenient height ? Or maybe you could sit down while using it . Old photographer's trick to steady a lightweight tripod is to hang something from the centre . A bit of string, a carrier bag and a few tins of tomatoes (other tinned foods are available 😀 )  will help, just take care not to tie on to a flimsy part of the tripod and risk breaking it.

Your lower magnification of 20x is about double that of the hand held binoculars most often suggested for astronomy use, so it might be useful to look at sky watching suggestions targeted at binocular users . I've suggested the Moore Winter Marathon a few times before http://astrog80.astro.cf.ac.uk/mwm/

as a useful downloadable couple of PDFs which can be printed out and give a set of accessible targets with notes on what each object is, and helpful diagrams to find them. It's an old list, so the planet location info is out of date, but the rest is good. I'd suggest you download the pdf from the tab labelled 'Observing Guide PDF' under the 'naked eye and binocular' map and give them a go with your telescope. There's a thread here where a fellow newbie posted his experience of trying to see some of the objects , and I added a few links of more free stuff. I like free stuff !

Speaking of free stuff, Stellarium is a good program to download, or there is a slightly simplified online version

Good luck, enjoy your Christmas present

Heather

 

 

[Tiny Clanger]

8 minutes ago, jonathan said:

As for what to look at, there's plenty!  Being a small telescope you could look at binocular guides to the night sky, it'll be at the small end of any 'small telescope' guide but you could still get plenty of viewing out of such a guide.  Check out this excellent guide which has been kept up to date by some dedicated astronomers, there's a downloadable PDF which I'd recommend printing out and taking outside with you (leave your iPad / phone in the house, it'll ruin your dark-adapted eyes).

 Well now, that's two votes for the MWW !  😀

Heather

[Ricochet]

The diagonal in these types of telescopes are often mentioned as a weak link so replacing the supplied one with a decent 1.25" star diagonal would be a good upgrade. Similarly, the eyepieces could possibly be upgraded, particularly the 10mm and for planets I suspect you could use a 5mm with that scope, so a new 5mm or a 2x barlow and the 10mm/its replacement would give higher magnification. 

The telescope looks like it probably has a 1/4" photo tripod hole in the dovetail so either a more stable photo tripod (that you might already have) or an astronomical mount with a vixen dovetail would reduce vibrations. 

[Tiny Clanger]

Sorry, somehow I managed to not include a link to Jasonb's thread about his MWM observing session , here it is:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/368237-the-moore-winter-marathon/

Edited December 29, 2020 by Tiny Clanger
stupid spelling !

[DPF]

Firstly, thank you all for your kind and helpful advice - this is a great forum. I’d feel guilty telling the wife that it’s not a great scope and as she’s just tested positive for coronavirus today, I’m now hoping that the sky’s are clearer for the next 10 days 😀.

In terms of upgrades, does anyone have any suggestions for the following:

- Tripod

- 2 x Barlow 

- Star diagonal (would I need a 90 degree)

Once again thank you all. 

[Peter Drew]

14 minutes ago, DPF said:

Firstly, thank you all for your kind and helpful advice - this is a great forum. I’d feel guilty telling the wife that it’s not a great scope and as she’s just tested positive for coronavirus today, I’m now hoping that the sky’s are clearer for the next 10 days 😀.

In terms of upgrades, does anyone have any suggestions for the following:

- Tripod

- 2 x Barlow 

- Star diagonal (would I need a 90 degree)

Once again thank you all. 

Don't forget that Galileo would have been green with envy if you showed him your scope.  Using any modern scope is good practice for later upgrades.  Hope your wife recovers soon.     🙂

[jonathan]

1 hour ago, DPF said:

Firstly, thank you all for your kind and helpful advice - this is a great forum. I’d feel guilty telling the wife that it’s not a great scope and as she’s just tested positive for coronavirus today, I’m now hoping that the sky’s are clearer for the next 10 days 😀.

In terms of upgrades, does anyone have any suggestions for the following:

- Tripod

- 2 x Barlow 

- Star diagonal (would I need a 90 degree)

Once again thank you all. 

Keeping in mind that this is a small budget refractor, we don't want to get carried away buying exotic carbon bodied accessories so I'd probably start by looking at the following:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/astro-essentials-90-erecting-prism-diagonal.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/tripods/horizon-8115-2-way-heavy-duty-tripod.html

I'm aware that these two items together cost about the same as the scope itself, but any telescope lives or dies by how steady the mount is so this part at least shouldn't be overlooked.  Other photo tripods would undoubtedly be an upgrade over the supplied one but that Horizon tripod is superb for all sorts of applications, I use mine for binoculars, the travel scope, camera, basically anything that has a standard photography thread hole in the bottom (the travel scope should have one already).

Double check that your travel scope didn't come with a 90 degree star diagonal in the kit, there seems to be two versions - I have the one that came with both 45 and 90 degree diagonals, if yours only came with 45 degree then you should ideally buy a 90 degree one to make observing easier at night but it isn't a deal-breaker if funds don't allow.

I've never been that impressed with budget barlows so can't recommend anything there.

[Andy0306]

The SVbony diagonal isn't too bad and pretty cheap. I took a punt on one from the Banggood website https://www.banggood.com/search/svbony-diagonal.html as you can at least pay by PayPal. Took a couple of weeks, but it did arrive without issue.

[dweller25]

On 29/12/2020 at 19:58, DPF said:

Firstly, thank you all for your kind and helpful advice - this is a great forum. I’d feel guilty telling the wife that it’s not a great scope and as she’s just tested positive for coronavirus today, I’m now hoping that the sky’s are clearer for the next 10 days 😀.

In terms of upgrades, does anyone have any suggestions for the following:

- Tripod

- 2 x Barlow 

- Star diagonal (would I need a 90 degree)

Once again thank you all. 

My advice would be to use the scope as is, as much as possible, then if you find Astronomy is for you perhaps buy a Dobsonian at some point.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-150p-dobsonian.html

More importantly - Hope your wife gets better soon 👍

Edited December 31, 2020 by dweller25