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I've Bought a Skywatcher 200p EQ

Neilius

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Neilius

Neilius

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There are a few of these on eBay at the moment, might be worth a look if you don't mind second-hand. I'm tempted and I don't really have the money...

Thanks for the heads up but even second-hand they can't beat FLO. One is going for £400 minus 1p, another for about FLO's price and the last currently stands at £255 with 14 bids and 5 days to go.

I'm happy with my purchase. Or at least I will be when the blummen thing gets here!

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wolfytom

wolfytom

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Here's an eye piece/scope calculator which will give a rough idea of what you'll see:

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

Bear in mind most dso's will just be grey smudges and no colour except on planets :)

Please tell me that's an accurate depiction..

A Celestron Nextar 114 with 3x barlow and 3mm lens will produce Saturn as depicted?

Now I'm genuinely excited...

Or misguided?

Which is it?

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Jannis

Jannis

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Well, since it didn't pop up many pics in this thread, here's a coupple i've taken the last 2 months...

A pic i took of saturn yesterday with the explorer 200 PDS and a canon 550d camera at 640*480 crop (7x enlargement).

Still tiny, and was hard to get any details out at all, but, anyway. It's a great scope, but don't expect to SEE too much, beucase the real stuff only comes out with pictures, more pictures, and even more pictures, pluss hours, days, or in some cases, weeks of image processing... :)

and a pic i took at orion with the same setting, but at full res.

And M31, andromeda.

And last, the moon.

Note that these are very beginner pics, taken right under a street light lamp, and you can expect a LOT better then this from the scope, when you learn how to use it properly (wich i'm still a beginner on..)

Also attached a pic of the scope from last night. this is the HEQ5 pro synscan.

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post-22179-133877530869_thumb.jpg

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wolfytom

wolfytom

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So the image of saturn above is multiplied 7 times from the 200p original visual?

The previous post seems to support my belief that the scope simulator site listed further above isn't a true depiction of what can be seen visually, through the range of scopes.

I simply don't believe a 114 nexstar is capable of what the website suggests.

I gotta get myself to a star party to see for myself!

Anything going on around Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, North Wales??

Help me - I'm starting to lose faith..

Please tell me that's an accurate depiction..

A Celestron Nextar 114 with 3x barlow and 3mm lens will produce Saturn as depicted?

Now I'm genuinely excited...

Or misguided?

Which is it?

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malc-c

malc-c

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Here's a few I've taken with my 200P

Oh come on.... you can't post up lovely pictures like that without providing details of camera, settings and how long the exposures were...

The best I've managed (OK it's only my first attempt at using the scope with my DSLR) is this one of the moon. This has been cropped and re-sized as the original was 3624 x 2448 pixels

moondslr4.jpg

This was prime focus of my 200P. All attempts to use some form of magnification with barlows or eyepieces didn't work as I couldn't get the thing to focus (lock to lock of the focuser).

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IvanT

IvanT

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Oh come on.... you can't post up lovely pictures like that without providing details of camera, settings and how long the exposures were...

Details of settings used can be found along with my other first efforts here

http://www.itastro.co.uk/Messier_Catalog.php

I'm sure the 200P is a lot more capable than I've managed to extract from it so far.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Jannis

Jannis

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Don't mix up what you can see, and what you can take pictures of - very important!! Look at my andromeda pic, you see the M31 very nice and clear and big, but with just the eye, all i could see was something similar to the tiny galaxy right next to it (as you can see on the bottom left side in my pic).

and yes, saturn there, is how it would look with a 7x barlow (just then it would be in full camera resolution), however, this depends strongly on the camera you use, or eyepice if you're watching and not pictuiring.

that page shows you roughly the correct magnification with, but can't show you what you can actually see. for planets you can use it in most cases, as they're very bright and you can see them with even a dark scope clearly. But for everything else, it only shows you how the pictures will turn out.

Edit:

A thumb rule, with most medium quality scopes (meaning, our category, and not NASAs), you can have magnification up to 2x the diameter of the scope. meaning, with the explorer 200p, you can get up to 400x magnification under good seeing condition, and i'd say 200x at medium seeing condition (with air turbulense, slight wind, light pollution and so that is normally there if you're watching in your back yard for example).

So yes, even though the page says the 114 nexstar CAN show this and that at that magnification, it can't. Because maximum usefull magnification with that scope before everything get's blurry is around 114*2 = 228x. With 3mm lense and 3x barlow as you mention, you're pushing the magnification to 1000mm * 3 = 3000mm scope, 3000mm scope with a 3mm eyepice = 1000x magnification...

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brantuk

brantuk

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When using the "DString" fov calculator website do make sure you have it in the correct mode for either "visual" or "camera" use.

It may be slightly out on one or two measurements but mostly it's a reasonably accurate guide and a good representation (given clear seeing and a sensible elevation). :)

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jmfdiver

jmfdiver

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Ok Iv'e taken delivery of eq5 goto and 200p. (thanks too Rother Valley Optics) I am following video it came with. I got the wieghts right to the bottom and the balance is'nt quite right. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks Jen

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zimzimma

zimzimma

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These are amazing photos and testament to the fact you dont need a HEQ5 to take such images. Im expecting a delivery of my HEQ5 syntrek(couldnt resist it)and 200pds shortly and hope i can put something together like these, a friend whos into photography for airshows is letting me borrow/have?? his canon d10, not sure what lens is on it. Also brought the scp900 so hopefully at least get something. Thanks for posting these as its given me hope that this scope is capable of images like these. One question though (hope im not invading the thread) but is it possible to use a camera in conjunction with the lens on the telescope to help magnify the images or is this purely based on the lens on the camera itself?

Thanks again for these images.

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malc-c

malc-c

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My conservatory looks like a telescope shop now, had a bit of trouble with polar alignment but I will take a look at that tomorrow. Does anyone else find the instruction manual a bit vauge or is it me?

Jen :)

Jen

Congrats on getting the scope so quick. Yes the manual is poor for what is in essence a technical instrument. I spent a few hours last night following astro baby's guide to setting up the polar scope, and then between the clouds managed to get the mount aligned at around 11pm ! In reflection its not that difficult, provided you use the correct scales !

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malc-c

malc-c

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Jen,

To start off with, just have the mount minus scope and weights and set the mount up in your room. If you find that when setting the transition up for today (approx 17:02 hrs) the weight bar is pointing to the left when viewed as if looking from behind then you've used the wrong scales on the RA dial. At least that's what I found as the constelations were in opposite parts of the sky when compared to the graphics in the pole scope

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jmfdiver

jmfdiver

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Think Ive got the hang of it ,set it all up for the transition ,it was too light and to cloudy so I lugged it back indoors. So if I knew where it was supposed to be later in the evening say at a 3 oclock position could I use that instead and set time and date for when its at that position? I can,t see why its got to be in the bottom (or top) position.

Cheers for the help

Jen

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