PowerSeeker or PowerShaker 114

[SzabiB]

Hello all, 

 

This is my first post.

I am new ( 3 days old) in astronomy observation, so please don't judge me.

 

I was toying with the idea to buy a telescope for long time now, but always something else came up.

 

Few days ago I found something interesting (at least I though it is interesting) for sale. After a fair bit of bargaining, I managed to buy a Celestron PowerSheeker 114 + some eye pieces with it for £50. The telescope is technically brand new (some old chap got it as a present and he didn't have a clue about it)  and as added bonus came with a BST StarGuider 2X Barlow and BST StarGuider 8, 12 and 25mm eye pieces.  Looking the current prices, I just managed to make a bargain because the eye pieces. 

So where I am now and this is the point, where I need your help.

I managed to take some good look at the moon so far (living in Scotland...pretty challenging to have cloud free sky) and I was impressed. The quality of the view is amazing, but at this point..... I would recommend for Celestron to rename the scope to PowerShaker. Holy father, the mount and tripod are absolutely shockingly bad.  I need to improve this bit, otherwise I will set the whole lot on fire and throw it down from Ben Nevis.

So my goals:

- next 12-18 months I want to explore and observe some of the planets in our lovely solar system

- just look the moon in close details, impress Misses

- take some photos (no high expectations, just some simple nice shots with my phone... I ordered already a phone holder for the scope)

- if it is going well, I would like to invest in a proper telescope in roughly 18 months time (I have a few expensive hobby, so according my excel sheet, 18 months is a realistic period to splash out max £2k)

 

What I want to improve:

- I try to find solution for the tripod - mount situation

- upgrade the finder scope..... the current has an equal quality of a pirate costume accessory from the fancy dress shop

 

My budget:

- oh well, here comes the usual. I am happy to invest max £200 at the moment  

 

Is anyone can come up with a genius idea about the tripod/mount situation?

Also, could you recommend some red dot finder, which one is straight fits on the scope so I don't have to be McGyver?

 

Many thanks in advance...

A crazy Hungarian from Scotland

[Cosmic Geoff]

These topics have mostly been extensively aired on this forum. Just read the previous posts.

The choice of alternative and less wobbly mounts for your scope is huge. The choice at £200 is rather more limited...

The Baader Skysurfer III is a good red-dot finder which IIRC comes with a collection of alternative mounting parts for fixing it to a scope.

[vlaiv]

2 hours ago, SzabiB said:

I try to find solution for the tripod - mount situation

Probably this in that price range:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-az4-alt-az-mount.html

It is rock stable for shorter scopes. Not sure how it will fare with 900mm long tube - but it can't be worse than eq1/eq2 class mount.

Only drawback is that this mount is not ideal for watching things near zenith (tube can hit tripod legs) with longer scopes, but if you are interested in planets and the moon mostly - this won't be an issue.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @SzabiB and welocmo to SGL. 

As per what @vlaiv suggested. Anything would be better than the supplied tripod and EQ/GEM mount. One of the reasons I 'dislike' them. That said, I did own a Vixen GP and that was super! 

As for the price you paid... the BST e/p's and Barlow lens are about £50.00 GBP each... bargain! 

Edited September 15, 2022 by Philip R

[SzabiB]

2 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

These topics have mostly been extensively aired on this forum. Just read the previous posts.

The choice of alternative and less wobbly mounts for your scope is huge. The choice at £200 is rather more limited...

The Baader Skysurfer III is a good red-dot finder which IIRC comes with a collection of alternative mounting parts for fixing it to a scope.

Thanks Geoff, 

I went through on the forum and while I found lots of different suggestion, I haven't find anyone, who actually came back and reported on specific upgrade. Maybe everyone ended up buying a new scope. 

[SzabiB]

42 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Probably this in that price range:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-az4-alt-az-mount.html

It is rock stable for shorter scopes. Not sure how it will fare with 900mm long tube - but it can't be worse than eq1/eq2 class mount.

Only drawback is that this mount is not ideal for watching things near zenith (tube can hit tripod legs) with longer scopes, but if you are interested in planets and the moon mostly - this won't be an issue.

Hey Vlaiv, 

Thank you for your input. 
Funny enough, I had my eyes on a second hand one yesterday, but I wasn't sure about it... I think my tube is over 7kg and is exceeds the load limit (but, I can't imagine, that anything can be worse than the original Celestron one).

[SzabiB]

14 minutes ago, Philip R said:

As per what @vlaiv suggested. Anything would be better than the supplied tripod and EQ/GEM mount.

I would say, even a cheap Ikea chair would do better stand for the scope.

 

18 minutes ago, Philip R said:

Hi @SzabiB and welocmo to SGL. 

Thank you. 

[Cosmic Geoff]

18 minutes ago, SzabiB said:

I think my tube is over 7kg

I seriously doubt that a 114mm Newtonian can weigh that much.  Perhaps the figure you have seen is the overall package weight. For reference, my much bigger 203mm Newtonian was about 10 Kg.  

[vlaiv]

26 minutes ago, SzabiB said:

I think my tube is over 7kg and is exceeds the load limit (but, I can't imagine, that anything can be worse than the original Celestron one).

That is very unlikely.

TS in Germany lists this scope to be around 4kg (total weight being 11Kg and something like Eq2 mount has 7Kg so that makes sense).

Also SW 130/900 newtoninan is listed at 4.2Kg - so it makes sense that 114mm version is going to be lighter than that.

[SzabiB]

After spending my whole worktime on different articles and forum topics, came to the conclusion, maybe better if I set the 114 on fire ( I will leave out the "throwing down from Ben Nevis" due my leave no trace policy) and start to look for some better set up (now I seen a moon so close, no way back...).

According my updated excel sheet, if I sell some of my camping stoves (has around 16 different...), I can get one of this

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html

 

[SzabiB]

5 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

That is very unlikely.

TS in Germany lists this scope to be around 4kg (total weight being 11Kg and something like Eq2 mount has 7Kg so that makes sense).

Also SW 130/900 newtoninan is listed at 4.2Kg - so it makes sense that 114mm version is going to be lighter than that.

you were correct, 4.3kg on the scale 

 

[vlaiv]

4 minutes ago, SzabiB said:

maybe better if I set the 114 on fire

I would not dismiss that scope so easily. It is capable of showing quite a lot.

Yes, mount is really poor - but you do have a choice there - either get decent mount like AZ4 - or if you have some DIY skills - make yourself a dob mount for it?

 

[Gonariu]

Have you tried to lower the tripod legs a lot? This should make it more stable.

[AstroMuni]

5 hours ago, SzabiB said:

What I want to improve:

- I try to find solution for the tripod - mount situation

- upgrade the finder scope..... the current has an equal quality of a pirate costume accessory from the fancy dress shop

Welcome!

- Buy a second hand mount+tripod OR weigh down your existing tripod with sandbags/ milk bottles filled with water to dampen the vibration. You can hang these from centre of tripod by strong string/rope. The other option of building a Dob base (as mentioned by others) is another good option.

- Get a Rigel or Telrad.

I have the Astromaster 130EQ and I purchased a 2nd hand mount and Telrad. I purchased a HEQ5 as I was trying to get into AP, but for taking images with phone an EQ3 should be fine. Also purchase a decent Barlow for planetary work. I have the Baader 2.25x.

Good luck.

EDIT: You can get decent images using the milk bottle route btw. Here is a picture of the moon taken on iphone 8 attached to holder using that technique 🙂 Just remember to put a long delay for system to stop vibrating after you have pressed the button to grab the picture. I had set this for 2-5sec.

Edited September 15, 2022 by AstroMuni

[RT65CB-SWL]

2 hours ago, SzabiB said:

I would say, even a cheap Ikea chair would do better stand for the scope.

 

Thank you. 

Many years ago, I saw somewhere, someone had attached a photography pistol grip to the OTA and a star-diagonal at the eyepiece visual port to a 'smallish' Newtonian reflector and would rest it upon his/her shoulder when observing and they appropriately called it The Bazooka!...  to quote Lance-Corporal Jones [Dad's Army]: "Don't panic!"  

[bosun21]

The AZ4 that @vlaiv has recommended would be ideal. I have my Skywatcher 120 Evostar which has a focal length of 1000mm on one. The AZ4 handles the plus 5kg no problem , which with my accessories is heavier than your reflector. Good luck 👍 

[vlaiv]

41 minutes ago, Philip R said:

Many years ago, I saw somewhere, someone had attached a photography pistol grip to the OTA and a star-diagonal at the eyepiece visual port to a 'smallish' Newtonian reflector and would rest it upon his/her shoulder when observing and they appropriately called it The Bazooka!...  to quote Lance-Corporal Jones [Dad's Army]: "Don't panic!"  

I remember seeing image like that.

Wouldn't mind to try viewing like that, but in all likelihood - I'd end up in ditch waiting in darkness for tiger to roll along the street

 

[Elp]

Another issue a longer scope presents is any wind or movement will create more inertia going back to the tripod to settle down, they also act as wind sails. I had one of those bundled extruded section aluminium tripods with both a cheap Newtonian and refractor, they're not worth the scrap value of material to be honest as any touch/wind would cause the view to have a fit and take a while to settle down. If you want to try to persevere with what you have see if you can mount a heavy weight like in a bag somehow in between the centre of the legs (some photo tripods have a hook in the centre for this reason), this may help a little with the dampening.

A good thick section tripod with minimal leg sections would be the best thing to look for next, paired with a good alt az mount head.

[MarcuSmythe]

You could "fix" cross braces to the legs of that rubbish tripod and sandbag them. OK it will kill it but it is scrap anyway and you can just leave it in situ and take your OTA indoors.

[SzabiB]

Thank you for the input for everyone. 

After last night and this morning battle in our garden, I have to announce 114 is fallen. 

The Ministry of Finance and Treasury (aka wife) gave the green light and just put in an order at FLO. I ordered a Skywatcher 200 Dob. I am too old for wasting my time to try to fix something hardly fixable. Reading out this forum, I believe it is going to be a great starter one and not going to drive me mad.

 

 

[R26 oldtimer]

Come on, be honest about it... you tipped it over, didn't you? 🤣

[SzabiB]

28 minutes ago, R26 oldtimer said:

Come on, be honest about it... you tipped it over, didn't you? 🤣

Honest accident

To be fair, I was close to pick up the hammer...