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Struggling beginner with a Sxymax 127 SupaTrak who needs a good deal of advice


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Hi All.

After always being into astrophysics, astronomy (and, I'll admit, space based Science Fiction!) I have now purchased my first decent telescope. I bought a Skymax 127 with a SupaTrak mount and, after taking it out a couple of times, I realize that I am near hopeless. I am in Purley and it's not very light polluted so I'll admit - it's definitely my fault! Problems so far include:

- Not being able to find or focus on stars or planets with the scope. Even though they are in my finder scope!

- No moon filter (just bought one) so the moon is a blur

- I only have the 10mm and 25mm lens, that came with the telescope (10mm seems poor) - what else should I get?

- Condensation (have now bought a camping mat and velcro to make a shield

- Eye strain (just bought an eye patch)

- Don't have or know of a good reference book (was told to wait for Edition 4 of Turn Right at Orion as out of date now - is it useless?)

Now maybe I'm a masochist but with all these troubles I can't stop thinking about my next viewing. It's been so frustrating that i want to buy a GOTO mount immediately but I've just spent a lot of money and know people get on fine manually finding and then auto tracking. I've seen so many posts on this great board that it's almost info overload.

Can someone tell me the bare minimum I should purchase in regards to lenses and please tell me that I can get on for a while without a GOTO mount. I don't want to spend £200 more.

Thanks so much for any info!!

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one thing i found with focusing do you have the lens all the way in the cup holder or is it out a little bit being held in by the screwy thing?

i found my eyepeice on all my scopes (bar my dob) have to be out quite far being held in by the screw for it to focus properly

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Hi, sorry to hear you are having troubles with you scope. Are you giving the scope time to cool before using it as this may cause the image to be a little blurry?

With the design of scope you have at least an hour cool down time, maybe more would be needed?

Is your finder scope correctly alligned?

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make sure the finder scope is aligned with main scope.

maks can be a little tricky to come to focus just be patient.

maks also need a bit of time to cool when taken from a warm room to outside.

when focusing on a planet, start with 20mm eyepiece

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only things I can add to the above:

line up the finderscope with the main scope in the daytime on a distant object (500m plus)

focussing on the mak can be tricky cos you can turn the knob such a long way. try going slowly all the way in and all the way out - slowly cos it's easy to miss it.

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Thank you all so much, and every bit of info is appreciated, so keep it coming. i'm usually a jobsworth at work and don't muck about on the internet but I've been on this forum every day for the last week!

Can I also ask: What is a Telrad?

It's a type of red dot finder that projects (or seems to project) 3 rings onto the night sky where your scope is pointing. It's just about the best of it's type but it's quite a large device for a compact scope. The Rigel Quikfinder is nearly as good and a lot more compact.

First Light Optics sell these for around £30 I think.

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Please don't be disheartened Elvis. I got the same scope for Christmas and was disappointed on my first couple of nights out. Admittedly I did get a GoTo but I don't think this is your issue. As the other guys have pointed out, aligning the finderscope with the main scope is key to having the same area in both.

On Xmas night I tried to align the finder, in the dark, on my first attempt with the scope. Hopeless! Of course it can be done at night but it is far, far easier in daylight as you can imagine. I am still learning and my knowledge of the scope is coming on slowly.

The 10mm is not brilliant but the longer you can cool down the better. At the moment I am tending to stick with the 25mm because the FOV is that much larger than the 10mm and if you are a little off with the finder it is much easier to move around and perhaps hit on your target when you are at the eyepiece.

Keep smiling, keep warm and feel free to PM me if you need any one to one help. We can stumble along together perhaps. Having said that, the guys here are fantastic and could not be more helpful when sharing their knowledge.

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I'm just going to repeat most of the advice given above:

1. Line up the finder with the scope. Out of the box they will not even be close! Find a distant object in daytime (obviously avoid the sun) and focus the scope on it (read below). Then adjust the screws on the finder until the dot lines up with the object visible through the scope.

2. The focus knob turns a very long way and with a short FL eyepiece, it doesn't take too much to turn right through focus and miss it. Be patient and start with a longer FL eyepiece (did you get a 25mm with the scope?)

3. The supplied 10mm EP is not going to win any awards but it is far from useless. Don't rush out and buy another EP straight away - you can have a lot of fun with the supplied EPs.

4. The scope needs about an hour to cool down from house temperature to ambient. If the scope is warm then there will be eddies of hot air within the scope (think air shimmering off a runway - these eddies are not as big but you are magnifying them).

5. Don't worry about upgrading anything until you're happy with the scope.

6. Have fun!

Andrew

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All very good advice from everyone as always.

Do not worry about the fact you don't have goto. You would need to know the names and locations of some stars anyway, otherwise you can't align. If I am completely honest the goto version of this mount is not that acurate anyway, I now only use the tracking function. Great OTA though... good choice.

Watch the focuser though as you may find that there is a certain amount of play between clockwise and anti-clockwise movement.

Definately spend some time setting up your finder scope because you wond get too far without it.

Best of luck.

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Hi Elvis, I got a Skymax 127 Supatrak for Christmas, bought for me by my wife.

Like you, the first night I went out, I didn't have the finderscope aligned, not realising just how hard it was going to be to find anything without it. I think it took me the best part of ten mintues just to get the moon centred in my eyepiece.

A couple of days later I took the scope out during the day and spent some time aligning the finder on a distant sign. Later that evening I centred the finder on the moon and with some excitement I turned to the eyepiece, and there was the moon bang in the middle of the EP! It does take a little while to get the hang of looking through the finder with one eye and the target object with the other, but once you do, targetting objects that you can see easily with the naked eye isn't too hard.

As per the advice posted above, it does sound like your problems are related to cooldown and focusing and I've already noticed some nights it's harder to get a clear image than others.

So far I've had one night when I went to bed a little disappointed.. The next morning I was up about 7am and looked out my kitchen window and could see a solitary star in the southern sky. I took my scope outside, then went back in to make a cup of tea and start the kids breakfasts - 10 minutes was all the time my patience could allow for cooldown, I went outside, aligned on the star, took a look through the EP and there was Venus!

How excited was I! More than made up for the previous evening. I hope no-one ruins it and tells me it couldn't have been Venus I saw! It was the morning of the 18th at about 7.20am and Venus was due South.

So what I'm trying to say is, keep the faith, the tiniest thing can turn it all around and get you excited again.

Good luck, Rob.

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Just got a skymax 127 myself. +1 for lining up the finderscope in the daytime. I used a telegraph pole on a distant hillside. When I went out for my first observing session things seen in the finder were centred fine in the scope using the 25mm eyepiece.

I found you need to let the tripod settle between each movement of the focussing knob. Takes 2 or 3 seconds. Also a sandbag on the accessory tray helps.

Don't give up. Jupiter looked great last night.

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As has been stated finder scopes need aligning to the main scope. That sounds like the first job.

As to eyepieces, if the 10mm is bad then consider say a 10mm, 12mm and 15mm. Standard plossl's should do fine so Antares, GSO or whatever at about £20 a piece should give more selection and better performance.

Eye strain - can do nothing about that, you will have to search for methods of viewing and try to find one that is more relaxed.

Condensation - you seem to have done the first step.

Book - more difficult. I like the monthly sky guide, and don't get on with TLAO. Books are personal, if they present information as you can take it in then they are good otherwise not so good. Another person will be different.

As you are around Croydon you could get up to Kensington of Feb 4 or 5th to the Astrofest show. Lots of retailers and therefore lots of bits to look at or buy. If you wanted eyepieces immediatly then they will probably be a few there. Also a good supply of several books to look at a choose - probably the best chance of comparing several in one go.

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I've had my SW 127 Mak for nearly a year now and I love it. Though I found the GoTo useful at first I don't use it at all now. I just use the slew controls to move the scope to where I wan't to view.

After I aligned my finder scope for the first time I found that it moved slightly as a result of removing it and refitting it prior to each session. It's not so far off that the object is not in the field of view (FOV), just not centred. So the first thing I do when I start each session is to locate a bright star in the finder then check the main scope and centre the star in it's FOV then go back to the finder and tweak the finder screws to centre the object in the cross hairs again. That way unless I really badly knock the finder when removing and refitting it will always work when I refit it especially with a low power EP.

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