What objects should I be able to see?

[Simon1990]

Hi all,

I live in Crawley in West Sussex, so light pollution is quite bad, but not terrible. I have recently been bought a Celestron Astromaster 70AZ and have done a few small mods to it, such as changing the RDF for a superior one, and upgrading the diagonal.

I have taken it out a few times, and had lovely views of the Moon, and Saturn, and smaller views of Venus and Mars.

My question is what other objects should I be able to see with a scope of this kind? DSO's are going to be tricky, especially with the pollution, but are there any other objects that people suggest I could have a look out for?

Also, has anyone figured out what the highest mag. eyepiece is that can be reasonably used with this telescope, and also has anyone attempted any astrophotography with this scope, and if so please can you tell me what equipment you have used, what you have managed to photo, and how well they came out.... you might even want to upload a picture or two

Many thanks for all your help. I really want to try to get as much out of this telescope as I can, and any help is much appreciated!

Simon

[Psychobilly]

Globular and open clusters, Smaller asterisms, double stars.... Brighter nearby Galaxies.... M42 and M45 when they around later in the year...

avoid the temptation to look for max mag...

A couple of books that maybe worth borrowing for the local library or purchasing....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Left-Orion-Guy-Consolmagno/dp/0521482119

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seeing-Stars-Telescopes-Practical-Astronomy/dp/354076030X

Peter...

[Moonshane]

I agree that maximum is not always best (and often not possible). I think a conservative maximum for your scope is either 1.5x aperture (105x) or an eyepiece of maybe 8mm.

Another way people have quoted this to me is 0.85x the focal ratio (focal length / aperture - in your case 900 / 70 = f12.85 x 0.85 = 10.92 so maybe 10mm which is more common than 11mm I think). With good seeing you'd be ok with the 8mm and with average seeing, probably the 10mm. You could always get a 16mm and a 20mm and a decent 2x barlow lens to give four magnifications. If you buy decent quality then you'll retain the eyepieces and be able to use them well in faster scopes if you ever got one.

Hope this helps.