Hello there, a new complete beginner, couple of questions

[burf2000]

Hi there.

I always fancied getting a GoTo telescope due to me being a techie. and loving the concept of it.

For xmas I am hopefully getting a SKYWATCHER 1145P SYNSCAN from my dad (he already has it). Its also comes with a x2 Barlow lens (guessing this is to increase its zoom) and a moon filter?

I had a little look around the forum and seen that people are using these scopes, also suggesting a x3 Barlow lens and some other bits but to be honest this goes over my head.

I hoping with this that I see the odd interesting thing but I know you have to spend serious money to see brill stuff.

Is there any particular upgrade I should go for?

What kind of things could I see with this? Mars?

Can this be controlled via a PC?

What would people suggest reading for a basic beginners guide to stargazing.

Thanks Simon

[Rob wright]

Hi and welcome

you will see Mars, Jupiter, Satun complete with rings, Venus and Mercury as disks with some detail on jupiter and its 4 moons , Uranus as a dot and some deep sky objects such as the Andrmeda galaxy the Double Cluster and The Orion nebular.

Others with far more knowledge will be along with better advice

As for a beginers guide, I have a couple of books but found the most useful guide is the reports of others on this forum and stellarium, by reading the reports of others viewing I could understand what was visable and then with Stallerium hunt for them in the sky, tonight for instance I found the double cluster for the first time with a scope and split the trapizium in orion agaiin for the first time.

The sky at Night Mag is also a good pointer to what is available in the sky

[carastro]

You've picked a good starter scope there, a GOTO (properly aligned) is excellent for findings objects in the sky, especially ones too faint to see with the naked eye. The Moon and planets will be a good starting point, and then the other objects mentioned above, however do not expect them to look like they do in books as these have been done with long exposure.

Get yourself a planisphere to help you find your way around the sky to start with, this can be adjusted to the date and time so you can see what's up NOW, make sure you get one for the Northern hemisphere, and you can also use Stellarium to find out where the deep sky objects are.

Understanding how the night sky changes by the hour and by the season is something that you might like to read up on, and how the sky is charted, but you may find you have a hand book with the telescope.

If you decide later you want to get into imaging, then this scope will be fine for Moon and planets but you'll have to upgrade to an equatorial mount if you want to do deep sky imaging, but all this can come later.

Carole

[Rusty Strings]

Hi and welcome from me

[Mr Spock]

Hello and welcome to SGL

[jasondh]

Download Stellarium for your PC or Mac and if you have an iPad get Starwalk.

I have a GOTO and you do need a little bit of knowledge or some maps to help you pinpoint calibration stars!

[Nexus 6]

Hi Simon, welcome from me as well.

Some good advice has already been given. A book that is always getting a recommendation is Turn Left at Orion, worth a look. Not sure if you can control your scope via a pc, someone will let you know for sure.

Alan

[li'l john]

HI and welcome from me too. I don't know anything about your scope except that it gets good reports. I'm new to this myself and I will echo that Sky at Night magazine and Turn Left at Orion are well worth getting.

[brantuk]

Hi Simon and a warm welcome to SGL

Some great ideas above. I would just add that Stellarium is free to download and thoroughly recommended. Most goto scopes can be controlled from a laptop or netbook. In fact the "Stellarium Scope" plug in will alow control from Stellarium itself.

But I would get used to the scope and it's capabilities first then look into that later. I have TLAO and it's a great book for scopes of your size. Learn the constellations first and the ecliptic. These are great pointers to where the planets and dso's are. The pull out in Sky at Night and Astronomy Now magazines are good guides to whats up each month.

Cheers

[Brendan of Borg]

Hello and welcome!

[johnh]

Welcome from Brisbane.

JohnH.

[burf2000]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. I do own a iPhone and iPad. I got star walk for the iPhone. I will also get the suggested software and a book or 2. My first fear is setting up the scope. Hopefully it wont be too difficult. I very excited by the fact everyone has not told me the scope is rubbish.

[oldfruit]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

[jasondh]

It's not too difficult setting the scope up but you do need a little help from the star maps, so having Stellarium or Starwalk to hand I find very valuable. At the moment for instance my Goto always selects Jupiter in the southern sky for initial alignment. Because it is a planet though I then have to centre on two bright stars which can be tricky to find with my rubbish knowledge.

I'm getting better but the initial help is very useful.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

[glowjet]

Hi Simon,

A very warm welcome to SGL, reading, and especially the threads on this forum, will increase your knowledge of the subject in no time at all, anything you don`t understand then ask, you may think it a daft question, but we won`t, enjoy the forum.

John.

[burf2000]

Thanks again

So the star walk on the iphone should help me, that's useful to know.

So the GoTo function uses 3 points to work where it is? wow that must be quite hard to get spot on. Hang on, how do you get something aligned if you don't know where it is. I mean the iPhone app would tell me roughly where it but your need to be spot on?

I might see if anyone on this forum lives in the Farnborough area (UK) and might be able to help out

[JamesM]

Hi Simon and welcome to the forum.

The stars that the goto system offers you to help alignment are easy to spot as they will invariably be the brightest ones in the sky - you can' miss them and are easy to find. The problems with identifying alignment stars usually comes into play when the view of the night sky is blocked such as the neighbour's tree or house and so that's when you might need to find a less well known alternative. Should this problem arise then a quick search on stellarium or your iphone will help you work out where to find these 'alternatives' and as people often view from home, this problem can soon be ironed out and so once sorted, it won't be something that you have to contend with EVERY time you set up. Once the kit has arrived, get outside and have a go and any problems you find you can always ask someone here who can then take you through the answer.

Again welcome aboard and wishing you clear skies for when the kit arrives.

James

(p.s Weather - now that IS the difficult bit! )

[nobbytate]

Hello and welcome from me to

[Bizibilder]

Hello Simon and welcome to SGL!!

[phillc]

Hello Simon and a warm welcome to SGL.

phillc

[carastro]

I might see if anyone on this forum lives in the Farnborough area (UK) and might be able to help out

It depends which Farnborough you are referring to. I live near Farnborough Kent and am happy to help if that's where you live.

Carole

[kris h]

Welcome to SGL

[magic77]

Hi and welcome to SGL

[Beyond_Vision]

Welcome to SGL Simon

[burf2000]

It depends which Farnborough you are referring to. I live near Farnborough Kent and am happy to help if that's where you live.

Carole

Hampshire sadly.

Yeah I was thinking that the weather would also be an issue. I got to find a place with not much light interference but I live right next to the M3