first viewing session -

[modgod]

I finally got around to trying my konusmotor 500. Got a friend to help me lug it up to the roof then spent a while setting it up and playing about with the various movements of the mount.

Got a good look at the moon, tried 2 eyepieces, 10mm and 17mm I think and tried out the moon filter although it just seems to make it look yellower (cheese eh ).

Stars don't look that much different through the telescope than with the naked eye, just points of brilliance on inky blackness. What else can I start looking for? nebula, satellites etc and can stars be seen more clearly with different equipment?

The tripod seemed quite rickety so I spend the evening going over the various screws and bolts making sure that everything was tightened and oiled where it needed it, although I'm going to need to buy a socket set as there is a large bolt that has come loose and is compromising the stability of the entire mount.

Something I was worried about is rain, is it bad if water gets inside the tube of the scope, its a reflector so its not sealed and I wouldn't like to see watermarks on the mirror.

thanks in advance and hello to everyone at the forums

[Doc]

Welcome to SGL

Stars will always look like pinpoints of light, they are just to far away and to small to see any detail in them.

Get your self a copy of Stellarium, it's a freeware planetarium and will tell you exactly whats up there and where. Just google it to find it.

Off the top of my head at the moment you will be able to see Mars, Saturn, M3, M44, M42, M13. There's loads have a look at my thread here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/primers-tutorials/81493-object-list-indexed-constellation.html

[Brendan of Borg]

Hello and welcome! Sounds like a good exercise regime you have there!

[modgod]

can anyone answer the question about the rain? its really bugging me

I read the sticky on eyepieces, full of questions again.

The Konusmotor 500 is a fast scope focal ratio f4.4, so I've worked out according to the sticky what I think my set of lenses should be, please feel free to comment.

High power - 6.6mm

Medium High - 2x Barlow

Medium Low - 17.6mm (might be covered by one of the presupplied eyepieces)

Low power - 30.8mm (going with 7x focal ratio as I'm not even close to the age of 45 )

how does that sound, should the mm's be rounded up or down? and whats a good place to order eyepieces in the UK?

I remember now the telescope came with a CD containing a night at sky program most probably stellarium.

Is there a tutorial somewhere that shows how to locate objects in the night sky that aren't visible to the naked eye e.g. using coordinates.

thanks

edit-

answered some of my own questions

[Chris H]

The Konus is a reflector, don't let it get rained on. The mirrors need to be as clean as possible but at the same time you don't want to be wiping or cleaning them so keep them dry and away from dust and other atmospheric borne stuff.

Now the eyepieces, a 6mm eyepiece will give you x83 magnification this is medium power. A 6mm plus a x2 barlow will give you x166 which for your scope would probably be high power enough. The 30mm ep would give you x16 which in my opinion is a bit low. For low power something giving you around x40 magnification would be good so that would be an eyepiece around 12mm.

If it were my scope I would get a 12mm (x41) a 6mm (x83) and 4mm (x125). As for which brand that depends on your budget there are a great many to choose from. Good places to buy are First light optics, Rother Valley optics and Telescope house.

Hope this helps and welcome to the forum.

[brantuk]

Keep the mirror dry - the quickest solution if it suddenly rains is to point the tube downwards - have a cover (or bin bag) ready to throw over - and bring it indoors straight away. Touching the the mirror surface to clean it is gonna make things worse.

If it gets wet from dew use a low heat hair dryer - just fan the tube gently to dry it out - don't blow hot air directly onto a cold mirror or it'll crack.

Hope that helps