My First Night

[Walsh]

Just finished my first observations with my first telescope, an Evostar 90mm refractor which arrived last Friday.

All in all it was very interesting and suprisingly hard work. The night was nice and clear although the fairly full moon washed out a lot of the stars. Lunar views were nice and impressed the whole family. Most of all I was glad to be able to point out Jupiter to the children before it gets too low in the sky.

I appreciate the difficulties more now: setting up the EQ2 mount was straightforward but aligning the finderscope was very tricky. I also understand now that it can take a bit of skill to actually "see" things.

Another thing was the damp. Do lenses need protecting from dew and if so then how?

[nightfisher]

congrats on first light, out of interest how do you rate the 90mm evo

[Adz]

Hey Walsh welcome to SGL, for due you can buy dew shields or try to make your own from old carpet, camping mats etc for cheaper

You can align your finderscope any time, perhaps during the day using a nearby aerial mast light?

[Slangers]

Yes, finderscope is ideally a daytime activity- align on something fairly distant.

Having said that I've just been doing mine in the dark working with first of all a chimney pot and then Jupiter.

[Adz]

Yes, finderscope is ideally a daytime activity- align on something fairly distant.

Having said that I've just been doing mine in the dark working with first of all a chimney pot and then Jupiter.

And remember to step up the power of your eyepieces Walsh, once you have got the object in the perfect center of your highest powered EP then adjust the finderscope accordingly.

[Walsh]

And remember to step up the power of your eyepieces Walsh, once you have got the object in the perfect center of your highest powered EP then adjust the finderscope accordingly.

Ahh! I didn't use the most powerful eyepiece for that purpose, only the 25mm one. My backgarden is in a large square of other gardens at the back of lots of houses which is great for blocking out street lights but not so good for picking out distant land objects during the day for alignment. I looked at an object only some 150-200m away to do this. It was pretty hopeless trying to align with Polaris; I don't think the moon helped much.

I'm impressed with the quality of the Evostar so far, but I don't have anything to compare it with. Even though it's a 3.5" refractor, and thus a small scope, I was suprised at how big it is. So far I am glad I got a refractor as it should save on collimation and other fiddling and also means that the eyepieces are handier for my children to look through than with a larger reflector (which I aim to get in the future).

As regards dew shields, I think there is one on the end of the 'scope. Do you mean shields for the botton of trays etc?

[Adz]

Yeah collimation is something not for a beginner. I am sure it's okay after you have got it down to a practice. But I am by no means happy with mine and I have own a reflector and refractor for a while. If you need an advice about a reflector purchase feel free to pm me.

I mistaked your comment about the dew shield. If you already have one great, but after extended use outside you may find that it isn't enough and another custom one might need to be built.