First light with a 250px (first telescope)

[sneeka]

Yes, yes, it's another Skyliner report

Never had a telescope before - after much deliberation I plumped for the 250px. Here's my report on it so far..

First of all, stirling work by FLO. I ordered the scope Thursday night, yesterday morning I sent them an email to see if they had a rough ETA. Within half an hour they emailed back to say it should be arriving that day. A few hours later, Mr Fedex appeared with two boxes (a medium sized one and a.... bigger one ).

Once I'd unpacked everything and assembled the base (which was refreshingly easy, after having recently put together some flatpack drawers with instructions translated by Tonto), I lowered the cannon on and.... um... well, it's quite big really, isn't it? .. I popped in a cheshire collimator and it was bang on the money, so no adjustment needed there yet. Finderscope was calibrated with the aid of a chimney pot about a mile away (the whole up-is-down, left-is-right took awhile to get used to ).

Later on in the evening, the clouds looked like they were breaking, so I waddled the scope out into the garden. Arcturus was the first star I saw, so I aimed the finderscope at it and tried a star test. Collimation still seemed good, but it was more of a shimmering disc, rather than the solid concentric circles I've seen in the collimation guides - I assume this is down to the warm temperature?

Thankfully the strongish wind cleared the clouds bit by bit until, by about 11pm, I had an almost completely clear sky (albeit with a bit of high haze). My first target was Albireo, which I've split quite easily with my 15x70 binos, but through the scope it was a cinch (apart from the aiming ) - bright blue with a pale orange companion, and a mammoth gap between them when using the 10mm ep.

Next I panned upwards towards Vega and the double-double - at this point I realised what people say about straight-through finderscopes being a pain when pointing at the zenith .. Backpain aside, I got a lovely view of the double-double - I could just about see the second double on one of the pairs, the other pair just looked slightly elongated.

From there I panned down, hoping to find the Ring Nebula (something my 15x70s have been incapable of finding). Some more nudging and budging later I finally found the smokey donut. Great feeling It looked like a small smoke ring hanging in the air, and in the 10mm I was able to see wisps of smoke off the side of the ring.

Pleased with myself, I tried out M13. In the binos it's looked like a largish round smudge, through the scope it was amazing. Lots and lots of tiny points of light, too many to even begin counting. I tried the 10mm, but I lost many of the stars with that, so I stuck with the 26mm and just stared at it for ages.

Come 1am, I decided it was time to pack up (the returning clouds thought so too).

So, yeah, well pleased with it. Can't wait now for darker skies, or to see what the moon looks like through it. I've ordered a right-angle finderscope this morning to hopefully help with the back strain, along with a rigel red dot finder, although I suspect I might manage ok without the rigel.

Sorry, I do ramble on

[barkis]

You are forgiven for rambling. It's always exciting getting large parcels delivered, especially when the contents are a large toy:D.

10" aperture is something to get excited over, and although you have had a taster with it, you can sure look forward to the clear winter skies, and all the gems that will bring,

I hope we hear some more rambling when the time comes.

Good Luck, and Classy Viewing. Oh!, and all you need now, Is a Televue 30 mm 100degree FOV Eyepiece, then you can really fly into space. You need to save a lot of pennies though.

Ron.

[kniclander]

well done, it's a great scope innit?

[omega3]

I have the Skyliner too. Just about split one of the double double but not the other. You have a treat coming when you view the moon, its spectacular. I have the RACI finderscope from FLO and its a great improvement. I have mag 3 skies and find red dot finders including the Telrad difficult to use. I find a laser pointer to be much more helpful. Use the laser pointer to get the dob pointer in the area you want, then use the finderscope to home in on the location, and voila the object is in the eyepiece.

Alan

[Doc]

It's always nice to read these type of reports. I hope you have many hours of observing and look forward to all your reports.

[DarkerSky]

Brilliant!! Well done. Seeing M57 ring nebula for the first time through a scope of decent aperture is something special. I'm sure you'll have many more super nights with your 250px

[AlexM]

Yep. Love my 250px as well. I haven't had a chance to do M13 in it yet - it's next on the list. Jupiter will knock your socks off and is worth saying up/getting up for.

[MarkF]

250px as a first scope!!!!!

Wow, you are a lucky person, enjoy, and it can only get better as the nights get darker, unfortunately the clouds get thicker too. Great report.

[mdstuart]

From another 250px owner...Sounds like you had a great evening. You are in for a treat as you make your way through those special objects...Orion nebula...M36/7/8 in Auriga, jupiter etc etc..

I would recommend a high power eyepeice for those Globulars. I have recently bought a TMB 6mm and it works well on the scope. Its £36 new on e-bay from time to time..

Enjoy..

Mark

[sneeka]

Yep, I have a TMB 6mm on the way - seems to have got good reviews everywhere, so I'm looking forward to the views through it