Used my scope at last....its hard!

[CaptPaul]

Hi everyone.

I finally used my scope for the first time sat night. it was really clear the moon was out so i thought id give it a go. so just as it was darkish outside about half 8 i set it all up to cool then about half nine beer in hand (this is a prefered technique of mine) i ventured out.

The sky was really clear and i could make out the plough and found polaris so then i thought id look through the scope, this is where it all went wrong lol.

Firstly the moon was the wrong side of the house which then forced me in at the deep end i had to find a star or something to look at which then showed my next school boy error... id forgot to line up my red dot scope to my telescope so it was hard to find anything to say the least. eventually after giving up on the double star in the ploughs "handle" i found the severn sisters with my naked eye and tried to get my telescope on it which i did (HURRAH) so i thought id experiment with the eye pieces (i have a 10mm a 25mm and a x2 barlow) so moving from the 10 i tried the 25 it was abit blurry then the barlow it was very blurry and when i looked up it was very cloudy so just as i was getting started the clouds ruined it i stayed up till 2 but nothing changed unfortunatley. however it has led me to a very long post (sorry if anyone is asleep by now) and a couple of questions:

Whats the best way to line up my finding scope??

and

What sort of eye piece combos should i use to see things better than the naked eye?? everything didnt seem any better but there where more stars than you could see than with the naked eye??

Thanks

:icon_scratch:

[dark knight]

Line up your red dot finder in the day time, just point telescope at a distant object (Chimney stack, telegraph pole etc) and line up the red dot finder.

Carl

[stev74]

Hi CaptPaul,

What size and make of scope do you have? I find the best way to align my red dot finder (RDF) is to (in daylight) find a distant object and centre it in the scopes eyepeice (EP). I usually go for a chimney pot or the top of a lamp post you can basically use anything, the further away the better. Once you have it centred adjust your RDF to match depending on the make it'll have little dials or maybe screws to do this with. Then thats you what you see in your RDF will then be there in your scope.

With your other issue it could be you just need to go a bit slower with your focuser. You will need to re-focus when you change your EP's or add the barlow. Mostly though stars will still just appear as points of light but you'll see more of them and be able to split double stars. It could also be a problem with collimation especially if it's a newtonian, someone can advise you more on this once you tell us what scope you have. Apart from that the more practice you get the easier it becomes!!

Cheers

[CaptPaul]

Hey thanks for the replies so quick!

I have a skywatcher explore 130pm its 5" newtonian

i was refocusing on a couple stars managed to see the double one in the ploughs handle briefly but that was by accident lol.

[red dwalf]

just sold one of these scopes, excellent quality, as the others have said align scope on a distant target and adjust the RDF then i use a smaller eyepiece and adjust again therefore working towards a smaller and smaller target, stars and galaxies are very small so you need to be as spot on as you can, managed to see the andromeda galaxy with this scope once ! also Jupiter and moons are a great site this time of year and the orion nebula was an amazing sight

[stev74]

That's not to bad a start it was one of the first things I'd seen and my first double. I still go back to it now and then the brighter of the two is Mizar and it's companion is called Alcor. If your scope is new and wasn't bashed about to much in delivery the collimation should be ok a good way to test it would be to point your scope at a bright star say Vega. Focus in and out slowly when it's in focus you should see a single point of light and out of focus the star should appear as a halo of light. A good place for info on collimation and polar aligning your scope is a member on SGL asro-babys guides : Astro-Baby Astronomy Website

Also a good object to get a bit of a wow factor from would be Jupiter with your scope you should see some cloud banding and 4 moons it's also good for practicing with different EP's and your barlow. It's the brightest 'star' in the south at the moment anytime after 9pm. Just in case you don't already know about it a good way to find objects is with a free to download program called Stellarium. Just set your location when you download it and it'll give you realtime views of the night sky : Stellarium

Cheers

[Craig H]

Hi CaptPaul, ...as already said above it's sometimes easier to do alignment in the daytime,...however I tend to align my rdf ( your red dot finder should pretty much stay where it is once aligned) and my finderscope on Polaris.This never (well hardly) moves at all.This way you're not chasing it around the sky.

Start of with your 25mm ep (bigger the no. the lower the magnification) and centre it with this, when centred, line up your finderscope and rdf....then go to your next ep in line and do any minor tweeks.

Once your up to your highest mag ( yours will be a barlowed 10mm therefore making it a 5mm ep) and everythings centred ,it should be pretty easy to find stuff,....with firstly the rdf, then minor tweeks whilst looking through the finderscope...then when you look through the main eyepiece it should be pretty much central... hope this makes some sort of sense.

I'm also a relative newbie and believe me I had the same troubles when I first set out.....It soon becomes second nature to you...honest!....keep at it, there are loads of amazing objects out there waiting to be discovered by you and your scope...

regards craig.

[CaptPaul]

Thanks everyone! appreciate all the comments and help!

gonna get my finder aligned tonight when i get home from work while its still light then just wait for these clouds to shift and ill try again. Although i didnt get to see much i saw a differance with my scope and its really made me want to use my scope properly and see more.cant wait! the bug has bit me well and truely!

[Dazraz]

Thanks everyone! appreciate all the comments and help!

gonna get my finder aligned tonight when i get home from work while its still light then just wait for these clouds to shift and ill try again. Although i didnt get to see much i saw a differance with my scope and its really made me want to use my scope properly and see more.cant wait! the bug has bit me well and truely!

Hi catpaul i am a beginner and when i first went out i thought hmmm this is not going to get easy but with great help from this forum i have now found a few galaxies and like others have said jupiter is great at the moment. Keep at it mate and it will kick in - i look at it like this if i found everything in one night there would be nothing left to find - if that makes sense. Another thing i have done is join a local club in my area and already i have been to a meeting and used a 16" telescope. Also i dont know if you know but the best way to view also is to get your eyes light adjusted ie dont come in to contact with light before you go out to view. This also might sound crazy but the more you view the more you start to see - when i started looking at jupiter i could just see a white ball - now i can see banding etc ..........

Stick at it good luck

[CaptPaul]

Thats a good point Dazraz defo wouldnt want it all in one night, need to be left eager for next clear skies (apparently the next couple nights!) i will try for jupiter if it is and if i can see it past the garden fences! (unluckily) nextdoor seem to be planting an orchard or a forest of some description so low things are hard to find but ill try.

Thanks!

Paul

[Dazraz]

Lol yer i get the same treatment from my neighbours but its not trees its a prisoner of war camp search light lol !!!!!!!!1

[CaptPaul]

I cant remember if it was on here but i saw a post or web page or something about someone with a light problem like that and he put up something similar to wind breaks around him and his scope that didnt allow the light through (light breaks i guess lol) nothing massive just around him as he was sitting apparently it helped abit? If i can find the link ill post it.

[CaptPaul]

It was on here here is the link you can read some of the solutions:

http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/85785-stargazing-city-dealing-w-light-pollution.html

[dark knight]

Dazraz, you could of course ask your neighbour to change the bulb in the offending spotlight for a less illuminating one and redirect it's beam, mention it is infringing on your rights under the Anti-Social Behaviour/Nuisance Act. First just politely ask if they would mind making the simple changes above, Most decent folk don't mind once they understand the nuisance they are causing.

Carl

[Astro Adj]

Hi Paul,

I've got the same scope as you, and had similar difficulties with it at first. I didn't realise quite how complicated they are! My first observing session was hilariously bad, but happily each one since has been a bit better. The guys here have already provided some excellent advice, especially regarding the RDF. Mine was quite badly mis-aligned, but after some tweaking it's fantastic. I tried aligning it in the day, but in my case I just couldn't find an object distant enough. I can vouch for Craig's suggestion to use Polaris though - it's what I did and it worked like a charm.

You probably already know that the magnification you get is the focal length of the scope (650mm in our case) divided by the eyepiece in use. As such, bigger EPs give less magnification than the smaller ones. However, as magnification increases, your field of view will decrease. Because of this it might be good to start out with the 25mm first. This will give you around 24x magnification, and if your RDF is aligned correctly should definitely show your object when you look through the eyepiece. If it's not dead-cente, use the control cables to put the object in the middle of your view. Once this is done, try switching to the 10mm eyepiece. This gives 65x magnification on our scopes. Hopefully the object is still centred, but you will need to re-focus. Move the focus wheel slowly until the object becomes sharp again. You can now go for the biggest magnification your combination of EPs allows, which is the 10mm used in conjunction with the 2x Barlow. This is good for 130x magnification. Once again you'll need to re-focus, and you may also need to use the control cables.

If the scope is polar aligned you should only need to use the RA cable to keep the object centred, although this magnification you'll notice it drifting out of your field of view quite quickly. The motor drive we have is supposed to correct this (by moving our scope at a rate that matches the speed of the Earth's rotation...I think!) but I haven't had much luck with mine so can't help you there.

Try having a go at Jupiter - it is a lovely object to view and I've been able to make out some detail on the planet on several occasions now. Aside from the moon, it's probably the best object to practice on.

One last thing to get your hear around is the way the scope moves on the mount. I found myself struggling a few times with the scope hitting the mount/tripod when I was trying to line it up on an object above me. I didn't realise that you can move it to the other side of the mount and still point it at the sky by using both the RA and dec controls. I also didn't think to loosen the scope in its rings and rotate it - instead I spent one session doubled over to try and look through the eyepiece!! Sounds silly, and you're probably smarter than me, but thought I'd mention it!

Anyway, best of luck.

[CaptPaul]

HAHAHA no chance i did that too there was a really bright star nearly virticle so i tilted it all the way back and poped the lil bit of plastic off the back that covers the screw inside the mount :S need to glue it back on now lol.

You sound like you got alot better very quickly so hopefully i will too.

Just one more question which may (prob) be a very stupid question but when i used my scope there was alot more stars than with the naked eye sooo how do i know its polaris in the centre of my view with out the red dot finder?

Thanks

[stev74]

What you probably want to do first is the daylight aligning then at night get Polaris centred in your RDF - check in your EP it should be there but maybe not in the centre - it should also be the brightest star in your EP - then centre it in your EP and re-centre it in your RDF using the dials or screws which ever your RDF has. Basically your just fine tuning your original daytime aligning if you see what I mean!?

[CaptPaul]

Nice one.

Thanks!!!!

:D

[Astro Adj]

You may also want to have a look at the articles here: Setting Up an Equatorial Mount - McWiki

This site was a big help for me, and I found the explanations and tutorials easy to follow. You'll soon get the hang of it, just wait until it all comes together and you have a perfectly-aligned scope and the ablility to focus it on any object you find. It's great!

[CaptPaul]

Thanks astro adj been a massive help!

CHEERS!!