telescope help

[jinkywinky]

Firstly , I only got my telescope yesterday for my birthday (lol had to wait til i was 37 sheesh) I know little to nil about astronomy and even less about the equipment involved . Was bought an astrolon 262.5 power telescope , which I know is probably a very basic one but what can I expect to see with it as far as planets etc (if at all!!) and what kind of detail ? The scope came with a 4mm , 9mm , 12.5mm and a 20mm eyepiece and a barlow (1.5x erecting eyepiece)..Any tips advice or information on how to get the most from it would be really appreciated

In advance ..thanks

Ade

[TheThing]

Tip: - Change 'astrology' in your post for 'astronomy' otherwise people will get upset!!

Welcome to the forum. Don't know much about your scope, but someone will be along to help shortly...

[Astro_Baby]

I couldn't find any specs on the one you mentioned but I am guessing it has about a 60mm objective lens ( thats the big one at the front ).

Even a very small telescope will pick out the planets, Jupter, Venus and Saturn should all appear easy enough. Venus would show as a small crescent right now, Jupiter - you would see as a small disk with possibly 4 small pinpricks of light - these are the Galilean Moons of Io, Gannymede, Callisto and Europa.

Saturn isnt in a good aspect right now as the rings are nearly edge on to us and I just dont know if your scope would be able to pick them out.

Obviously even a very meager scope will show craters on the moon.

Much would depend on the quality of the optics and the mount. The scopes probably on a simple Alt-Az mount ( ie it goes up and down ) - the eyepieces will give you a good range if the quality is ok but the low cost mount will probably limit you to the larger eyepieces. ( the smaller the eyepiece number the more it magnifies by the way ). The Barlow you have increases magnification by 1.5x times for any eyepiece.

Thats about as much as I could tell you. Oh you may want to download a package called 'Stellarium' onto your PC - it will help you find where things are - well sort of after a bit of mucking about. Its a good package anyway and completely free.

[AWR]

Ade,

I'm a newcomer here myself, welcome!

Have a look at "Turn Left at Orion" by Consolmagno. It's a great book listing 100 things which you can see using a small telescope, along with a good expalination of all the basics. It's written with small telescopes in mind.

I've hardly put my copy down - just waiting for my new scope to arrive!

Andrew

[Jarndyce]

Ade,

Have a look at "Turn Left at Orion" by Consolmagno. It's a great book ...

I'm with Andrew on this. Very good, unpretentious and informative book.

I'm sure you'll find it useful, explains what you can expect to see and doesn't assume we all have a 20" dob....