Nexstar 114 GT (newbie)

[nyma11]

Hello all,

I am somewhat new to star gazing. I just finished up my order for a 114 SLT with the optional scopes from Celestron.

First to introduce myself.

I live in a relativly dark area in NY (long island). I just wanted a basic scope to view some planets and study the moon. Did I make a good choice? I did a bit of research before make the purchase but i sure wish i would have visited this site before completing checkout.

Will I be able to view the fine details of the moon? Maybe see saturn or other planets?

Can anyone recommend the image capture software by celestron? (119.99)?

Will this scope be suitable for viewing some deeper space images?

I am pretty excited but unfortunatly i am at least a week from recieving my scope (being walked here from california ) So now i am in my basic information gathering stage, studying the moons craters and such.

Thanks for having a site such as this, i am sure ill be reading for months to come.

In any case if there is someone who can answer my above questions i would be greatful and promise not to post again until doing more thorough reading of these forums.

thanks for reading

-new guy

EDIT: in my title i specified the GT, the one i orignally was going to purchase, i actually ordered the SLT.. i understand the SLT is more sturdy then the GT, hope this is true.. Also sorry for posting incorrect title, but i cant seem to change it now.

[pvaz]

You'll be able to see the moon and planets well. Even smaller scopes are enough for that.

You'll also be able to see some deep sky objects. Start with the brightest ones, these usually have a name like M27 or M42. The M stands for Messier (french astronomer) and he made a catalog with 110 objects. These objects are very sensitive to light pollution and the amount you'll see depends a lot on how dark your skies are. If you can get out and see thousands of stars naked eye then they will be no problem, if on the other hand you can only see 100 stars or less you'll be very limited to what you can actually observe. Galaxies in particular will be a challenge.

Download stellarium, fill in your coordinates and it will provide a replica of your sky. That will help you learn where things are.

[nyma11]

thanks for the link for the software, i am checking it now. Also thanks for the fast reply. I have alot of learning to do. Luckily, my wife seems to be just as excited as me. (hope that helps some when its time to upgrade!)

[nyma11]

fantastic software, im learning already!

[pvaz]

Yeah it's really nice.

I does help to have your wife interested. Mine enjoys it too, although not as much as I do.

If you have realist expectation on what you'll see (and how you'll see things) then it's pretty easy to get hooked. The planets will be tiny but well defined on good nights, when the atmosphere is steady (we usually use the term "seeing" for short to describe the atmospheric conditions). Jupiter and saturn will show details in color, including the rings and small dots of light in orbit, which are the moons. Mars is also nice but much smaller and it only gets close enough for a good look every 3 years. Unfortunately for you last time was in January so now you have a long wait ahead. The good news it Jupiter will be pretty close in September and Saturn will be at a nicer angle to detect the rings' divisions by the end of the year. Right now the rings are edge on and look like a line.

This hobby works by seasons as things change all the time which is good or else you'd get bored soon.

DSOs are more tricky. They are very dim and we usually call them "faint fuzzies" as the amount of light you get is too low to see color. The pictures you see on nebula and galaxies are combined images with several hours of exposure stacked with software. What you'll see is very similar to this sketches: Stargazers Lounge - Talitha's Album: Deep Sky Sketches Open and globular clusters look pretty much like the pictures, nebulas don't but still some show nice structure and are great to see. Galaxies are probably the most disappointing if you expect picture like images. However, if you remind yourself that you'll be seeing light from thousands of suns, that started it's trip billions of years ago (like when the dinosaurs where walking the Earth) then I think we're lucky we can see them at all.

[Brendan of Borg]

Hello and welcome. Hope you enjoy your galactic stay!