One small SCT for Man

[Dibp]

I am relatively new to the hobby and hope the below may be of some use to those sitting on the fence and trying to decide whether to get stuck in - or potentially stuck out if your daughters forget you are outside and lock up the house.

After months of research I finally decided on buying the Celestron 5dx SCT telescope. I could say it was because I mainly wanted to see the planets or possibly because it was compact enough that I could keep it in the corner of the living room, but if the truth be known it was on a special offer and had 5 months interest free credit. 
Any way for good or bad my telescope arrived and it has been out every clear night that I wasn’t down the pub and having had it 5 months now I can give a little insight for those like me who were a bit stuck.

First and foremost I have discovered that having any telescope at all is much much more fun than not having one. My small 5 inch SCT is giving so much joy to me and a surprisingly large number of unexpected guests. I live in the middle of a town with pretty bad viewing conditions and limited area of sky available from a small back garden, but even so it is such a great, and slightly smug, feeling to see friends, relatives and random neighbours being astounded at their first views of The Moon, Saturn and Jupiter. Some have even got hooked and bought cheap department store telescopes which are actually much better than expected once they changed the eyepieces. 
After a few weeks the spendits hit for me and I started to look at better eyepieces. The 26mm that came with the scope is pretty good but the 10mm was rubbish.

Again after a huge amount of looking there appeared a deal on a Celestron zoom eyepiece. It was an accidental purchase but so pleased I did it as it has been used every night and I just love the simplicity of it. Stick it in, find your target and zoom in until you get a pretty decent view. Then show off a bit! I have obviously invested in eyepieces that are better and a good show stopper is the Luminos 7mm if only because it is the size of a small hand grenade but the good ol zoom is just great for a simpleton like me who loves to see the moon and planets - it is just a joy to use.

You will be pleased to know my final observation is about taking some videos and photos to share with those fortunate enough to be able to avoid coming round. I bought a second hand DSLR camera and T ring adapter and spent many nights trying to work out the settings to get anything remotely resembling what I could see. Eventually I got bored - for me it took away all the joy of just seeing the planets. The camera is now a fairly nice ornament.

Then one weekend my daughters turned up with a 3 axis iPhone holder and bingo! Within half an hour we had worked out how to reduce the phone camera exposure and were sending videos of a ‘Lunar fly by’ and a fairly good video of Jupiter and it’s moons. We even accidentally got a video of a strange shooting sometime that went straight through the middle of Jupiter. This has sparked numerous discussions about aliens and potentially a conspiracy to blow up Jupiter for cosmetic reasons.

And that is it 

if I were to do it again I would definitely get a small SCT again but I am sure everyone would say that about their first telescope. I have just loved how easy it is to take outside in minutes and start being astounded!

I wouldn’t bother with the StarSense or motorised mount as I haven’t used it at all. For me part of the joy has been actually finding things and once you get to know a few bits you can show off a bit when sitting outside the pub.

i would certainly get a decent zoom eyepiece and the 3 axis phone holder then just sit back enjoy and be thankful that someone decided to invent the telescope!

 

 

 

 

[dweller25]

A well cooled and collimated SCT will show a lot - good choice 👍

[dweller25]

PS - Welcome to SGL 🙂

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Dibp]

Thank you both 

Just so nice to be able to chat with people with so many levels of interest and expertise. I am still amazed at how much joy I am getting from my little scope. Not for everyone I know but just perfect for me and it keeps coming up with surprises the more I get used to it. 

[Dibp]

Oh - and the shooting something through the middle of Jupiter is right at the end of the very bad video. Video is terrible but it was the first attempt and only kept it because of the unexpected pot shot

[dweller25]

3 minutes ago, Dibp said:

Oh - and the shooting something through the middle of Jupiter is right at the end of the very bad video. Video is terrible but it was the first attempt and only kept it because of the unexpected pot shot

Probably a satellite.

What was the date and time of the video ?

[Dibp]

Video was 16th Jan 24 19:36pm 

[dweller25]

Possibly Cosmos 1844 ?

[Dibp]

Please excuse my utter ignorance but I really have no idea. I will gladly accept any explanation! 

[fozzybear]

Hello and welcome i've a vintage C5 great scope

[Dibp]

Any advice on what is possible see now that Jupiter has disappeared behind the neighbour’s extension would be greatly received. Garden is South facing in Hertfordshire.  Telescope is F10 so a bit of a steer on which eyepiece would be great as well. Most of mine are fairly high powered, between 7 and 15mm but do have the trusty zoom Celestron 8-24. I also have £100 left this month! So a recommendation may be very timely 

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂