help

[Lemony]

Hi, im very new to this, and any helpful tips or hints will be very welcome.

[Ant]

Welcome to SGL.

You need to be a little more specific in your query... What sort of things do you need help with?

Are you looking to buy your first scope, or do you have one and need help setting up or using it? Or something else?

Cheers

Ant

[gustavo_sanchez]

Hi,

This is a very expansive (and expensive) hobby, so knowledge can even more powerful than the greatest scope. In any case, to begin, do you already have a scope or not?

[Lemony]

I do have a telescope, but not sure if im using it right..... may sound a bit silly, but i cant really see much and it all seems really blurred, it has a barlow lens with it and different size lens as well, i was thinking of going and actually joining an astromony club, ive heard there are quite a few around, and was thinking that it might be quite useful.

[NGC 1502]

Hi, I've been nosey ( sorry ! ) and from your profile can see you are in Essex.

My local club is here www.cpac.org.uk/ its near Rayleigh. You would be very

welcome and if you bring your scope, I'm sure someone will help.

Best regards, Ed.

[brantuk]

What telescope and ep's do you have Lemony? If you'd let us know the makes and sizes I'm sure we could make some useful suggestions for you

[Lemony]

Errmm. what does ep's mean? and I have a telescope, it says it has a maximum power of 525x magnification and it also has a 76mm mirror and 700mm focal lenght, a 4mm...12,5mm and 20mm eyepiece a 1.5x image erector and a barlow lens. hopefully that makes sense to somebody out there. all helpful advice will be greatly appreciated.

thanks

[Lemony]

oooh Ed, thank you for the information on the club, im not too far away from there and hopefully will be able to make obne of the meetings.

thanks

Joanne

[brantuk]

Hi Lemony - yes it's eye pieces (ep's). Ok - 525x magnification is probably going to be a bit too much in the UK. In really good seeing the best most scopes can get is around 200x-250x and that's pushing it sometimes.

It sounds like a Seben or a Zennox 76x700 scope.

I have to say this is a very elementary scope with limited capability. To obtain the magnification with any ep - just divide the ep size into the focal length. Remember that the more you magnify the less accuracy you will have to find stuff and the more blurry it will appear. The barlow doubles the magnification of any ep, but probably not worth doing as it will be a poor quality barlow.

Try using the 20mm on its own to look at the moon (choose a crescent or half moon). If you can't focus sharply, or it's blurred then you'll get little joy with the other ep's. You might need to collimate it first for the best chance of seeing anything.

It may be a good idea to write it off to experience and get a proper first scope like the Skywatcher 130P. Let me know how you get on.

[SiriusB]

Hi Lemmony,

Longterm Brantuk (did i spell that right?) is right ,you should maybe save up for a better telescope.And most of us are saving for a "better" one still Theres always a better telescope round the corner.

So in the meantime try & make the most of the one you still have- its better than the one i started with,& that didn't put me off!!

I've looked through one similar to what you have & to be honest the optics weren't too bad at all- i just found the mounting a bit wobbly .

Stick with the 20mm eyepiece (lowest power) & maybe swap in the 12.5mm once you've found something.Leave the 4mm in the box & the barlow, its a bit too much magnification for this telescope.

You should get some nice views of the moon, see Jupiters belts/ moons (thats the real bright star in the South in the evening at the momment) & plenty more.

The hardest thing will be finding things, but thats the same with any telescope, unless its computerised. We all found it hard when we started- but keep at it!

If you haven't already got one, a star map/planisphere&moon map will all help you to find/know what you're looking at.

If you haven't already done so read the telescope manual on how to line up your finderscope- you can do this in daylight-if you get stuck i'm sure someone on the forum can talk you through it.

Once Thats done centre what you want to look at in the finders X wires,like a gun sight & your chosen object should be visible in your telescopes eyepiece.

Also practice pointing you telescope at things in the daytime- it will help at night- though obviously DON'T point it anywhere near the Sun!

Hope that helps.

[Lemony]

Yeah, Thanks Sirius Ive actually understood everything youve said, so thank you, I will do my best, and cant wait to even see the craters on the moon, let alone Jupiter.

Joanne

[Capricorn]

Errmm. what does ep's mean? and I have a telescope, it says it has a maximum power of 525x magnification and it also has a 76mm mirror and 700mm focal lenght, a 4mm...12,5mm and 20mm eyepiece a 1.5x image erector and a barlow lens.

Seen these come up before.

As Brantuk says 525x magnification is unrealistic.

The scope may give 100x, no more in reality, and even 100x may be difficult.

The 4mm will give 175x, which I am guessing is too much for the scope.

The 12.5 will give 56x, should be OK.

The 20mm will give 35x, again OK.

For the present I wouldn't bother using the 1.5 erecting prism or the barlow. Reason is that both are probably not good and would make the image you see worse.

As an experiment if you locate Jupiter with the 20mm then give the barlow and the 20mm a try. That would give a magnification of 70x. It would enable you to see what the quaility of the barlow is like. If good yippeee, if garbage at least you know not to bother using it.

After that it is a case of learning the capabilities of it and getting as much out of it as you can.

P.S. Assumed that the barlow is 2x.