The WOW Factor

[scotty365]

Well I got my first view of the moon during the very brief cloud breaks, i changed EP's .....and WOW the craters the crispness the everything...

Not bad considering ive got the damn thing over my knee pointing thro a gap in the window (no easy feat ive found).

The space in this room will not allow me much "scope" ....so ive had to make do, and its paid off.

Im sooooooooooooooo thrilled ive managed to use my scope on the 1st day i bought it

Scotty

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Next step before it gets dark tonight (might be good accoring to the 4cast) is to line up the finder 'scope.

Point the 'scope (on the mount, you want it steady) at something far away. Could be a hill, tree, pylon etc.

Fit the finder 'scope and adjust it so that whatever the main 'scope is pointing at is at the intersection of the cross hairs.

Plan is, when you want to aim at a star, you drive the mount so that the star you want is on the cross hairs then it will be visible in the main 'scope. Otherwise it can be a real pain because wherever you look with your 200mm there will be lots of stars. Sorting out which is which is annoying.

Captain Chaos

[geppetto]

Nice one Scotty..

Were all excited for you 8)

[Andrew*]

As far as I understand, that's what a red dot finder does too, but with greater ease being more visible. Am I on the right track there?

Astrophethean

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

The red dot finder does the same job, but whichever one you have you have to line it up first or it won't work.

Greater ease depends on what you are doing, the red dot would get you lined up at low magnification very easily but the magnification factor of the finder 'scope lets you get things lined up more accuratey for such as CCD imaging. The field of view of a CCD is similar to that of a 6mm eyepiece (I read somewhere) so the magnification is very high in most 'scopes. Once you have focussed your CCD the last thing that you want to do is take it off to look down an eyepiece as the focus gets messed up so for imaging a cross hair finder 'scope is better. Better still is both.

Captain Chaos

[scotty365]

Next step before it gets dark tonight (might be good accoring to the 4cast) is to line up the finder 'scope.

Point the 'scope (on the mount, you want it steady) at something far away. Could be a hill, tree, pylon etc.

Fit the finder 'scope and adjust it so that whatever the main 'scope is pointing at is at the intersection of the cross hairs.

Ive just aligned the finder scope on a pylon, I never realised I would be able to focus on things so close - I can actually look thro the window of the local pub down the road from where I have it set up in the spare room, how cool is that!

Well it must be because Ive bought a scope - after I had posted on here and was crawling into bed I noticed the sky was clear. I spent the rest of the night looking at whatever I could point the scope at, I have no idea what I was looking at, I fumbled around with the EP's and stared in awe.

4:30 ish I made it the 10ft or so in to bed. Cant wait for tonight to get it set up outside (conditions permitting)

Scotty

[ZOG]

Congratulation Scotty, first light with your first scope is something not to be forgotten. I look forward to hearing your progress as we both struggle through our first weeks of astronomy

[The Warthog]

There is a very definite WOW to your first view through your own scope. Sounds like you are going to have a lot of WOWs in the future, too!

[Andrew*]

Scotty,

I'm well jealous!! :x

Mine's still to come in a week and once I've got mine, I'm going to be like a kid in a candy shop too.

I just want it NOW dammit!

good luck with the first night sky (outside!)

Astrophethean

[scotty365]

Scotty,

I'm well jealous!! :x

Mine's still to come in a week and once I've got mine, I'm going to be like a kid in a candy shop too.

I just want it NOW dammit!

good luck with the first night sky (outside!)

Astrophethean

Yes its definately been worth the wait, I ended up completely absorbed for 12 hours tweaking and learning and tinkering with all the different stuff and I have barely scratched the sufrace - I only just realised there is another scope for alignment built in to the mount, thats will be the next thing to tinker with if I get good enough conditions. Then I'll try for a messier object and maybe a moon picture - there is so much to do.

Hope your scope arrives on time and you get clear sky

Scotty