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telescope help


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had my scope a while now and will be honest not had it out much but am so confused and i am not getting the best out of it. i wondered how people learnt there way around there scope and learnt how to read to sky and how to find stuff. i had it out tonight (skywatcher 150p) but am so confused maybe i am expecting too much but it dont help when u dont know where to look!

i am in barnsley and wondered if there where any other people in my area or club where i could get some help with it and a guiding hand.

thanks

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Finding your way around the sky is a learning experience and it will take time to get to know it.

I would recommend a good sky atlas, Turn Left At Orion is a good book I believe. I still use a Cambridge Sky Atlas that I've had for about 20 years.

Joining a club is an excellent step, I can't help you with the location of any around Barnsley.

In the end don't give up, at times it can be frustrating, even highly experienced observers can take an age to hunt down an object, I know I have, but as you become more experienced you will begin to enjoy it all the more.

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I'm still stumbling around but when you eventually get it all together it all falls into place and BAM! you see that first nebula.

I've had my scope for a couple of months and only saw my first Messier object M57 this week but it was worth it.

Take your time get a couple of books/magazines read more threads on here too.

Your lucky to be out tonight its raining down here. Have you got stellerium?

steve

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Don't give up! The previous advice is excellent. Perhaps I can add a little more? You have a really good scope there. You will get a great deal of enjoyment from it. First make sure you have a play before it gets properly dark. That way you get familiar with the scope & mount controls before fumbling in the dark. Start with something easy like looking around the moon. Jupiter is bright but low at present, better in a couple of months. Look at the visual double in the plough, then go up on magnification and see what else shows. I won't spoil the fun! All nice easy targets. These will get you used to the scope and how different eyepieces work out. Then move on in the direction that interests you. I have always found a planetarium programme very handy for predicting what will be good to look at. Not just tonight, but next week or next month. It doesn't matter which software. They are all much the same at a basic level. Try to get a free download or last year's cheap release. Eventually you will decide which software suits you and splash out on it, maybe adding a goto or driven mount. But that is some way off. Just enjoy the scope on easy targets for now. Don't try to find dim objects and don't go for high magnification. At least, not yet.

Astronomy is a huge and fascinating subject. Observing with a telescope is just one part. It has always taken me time to get good results from any scope I have used. They all work best on their own different types of viewing, or with different eyepieces.

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as kidlands pointed out, stallarium is a gud en.

and if you nip to the top of this page you will find a link to the "where are we all" thread, zoom into your locale, if i remember correctly we have one or two members not far from your area :D

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Hi Oakwell - all good advice above. I would also suggest that you by a copy of Sky At Night magazine each month. There's a monthly guide to what's up and often a challenge to spot 30 or 40 objects in a night with instructions where to find them.

You also get a sky map that's visible in red light showing constellations, the ecliptic, celestial equator, planets, meteors, and current dso's and more.

I learned my way round by reading that every month for a year (but need a bit of revision at the moment lol).

Are you using a dob or an eq mount? If it's eq make sure you know how to polar align - makes tracking easier. If it's a dob - get a Wixey magnetic angle guage - you can set the altitude and scan in az for easy finding.

All the best to you :D

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You would be able to see some planets with those ep's. The 25mm will be fine on saturn and jupiter (expect a smallish image) but the 10mm you will lose a little more light and it may appear slightly fainter or blury. Put the 25mm in the barlow and it may give a slightly better result.

Anything further away like pluto, neptune, uranus, etc I wouldn't expect to see much with them at all.

The supplied ep's and barlow with that scope are not the best (my first scope was a 150p) - it's amazing the difference when you spend a little on some better quality ep's. :D

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Hi Oakwell,

I've just started out on this path, and I'll probably have similar "success" for a while. It's not really close, but I am in Huddersfield, and there is a good club here with a proper observatory and everything, that run classes on a Wed evening. I was thinking of going myself at some point. I know there is a train direct, but hefting your equipment might be a pain. Here's the link though:

Huddersield Astronomical Society HAPS, Astronomy club West Yorkshire

Hope it may help.

Dan

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hi oakwell, I'm in Barnsley too....I'll be working like hell before my 2 week holiday but on my return in September (late) I'd be more than happy to come along and give you a little help.

I'll contact you on my return to see how you are getting along.

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hi oakwell, I'm in Barnsley too....I'll be working like hell before my 2 week holiday but on my return in September (late) I'd be more than happy to come along and give you a little help.

I'll contact you on my return to see how you are getting along.

mate thats brilliant! look forward to hearing from you.

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What I like to do is, put the scope away, fire up stellarium and reference this to a couple of books, stargazing through binoculars and Turn Left at Orion. Choose a "4 scope rated" target (i.e. something that's "easy" to find) from Turn Left reference it against the binocular book and then find it in stellarium. Run stellarium using a long distance view so you can't see the labels on the stars etc and search out what you looking for. Next time you out spotting do it for real on the same target.

Neil

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What I like to do is, put the scope away, fire up stellarium and reference this to a couple of books, stargazing through binoculars and Turn Left at Orion. Choose a "4 scope rated" target (i.e. something that's "easy" to find) from Turn Left reference it against the binocular book and then find it in stellarium. Run stellarium using a long distance view so you can't see the labels on the stars etc and search out what you looking for. Next time you out spotting do it for real on the same target.

Neil

great tip many thanks

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