Advice

[Star_Prize]

Hi all,

I'm new to astronomy/star gazing, having only been enjoying it for a few months now and recently bought a Celestron Astromaster 70AZ to take it to the next level. Took it out tonight as we hadn't got a bad night. Now I'm wondering if any nice and infinitely more experienced people might give me a few tips. Don't worry, as a total newbie I understand that I'm hardly likely to get excellent results for a while yet. There were no planets or moon up at that time, but I had a look at some stars, namely Sirius and Arcturus with the 20mm eye piece provided. They appeared as rather fuzzy orbs. I was wondering if there were any accessories suitable to my scope that anyone might suggest which would improve my viewing. Had a little trouble getting to grips with the finderscope but assume that wil come with practice. Are there any other tips anyone might be able to give to give a novice some hope! Thank you, I appreciate any words of wisdom!

[John]

Welcome to SGL !.

Sounds like the stars were not focused properly. They should look like bright pinponts of light. But either side of sharp focus stars expand into disks of light which increase in diameter the further you go from the focus point.

It can be quite easy to over or under shoot the point of sharpest focus which would make the stars look as you have described.

You probably already know this but you adjust the focus using the knobs which move the tube with the diagonal and eyepiece in gradually back and forth.

[Star_Prize]

Thanks, forgot to mention it but when I finally had the slippery little devils in the field of vision with a bit of messing around with the focus I was able to bring that 'fuzzy orb' into a more refined smaller circle of intensely bright light. I imagine with this basic Celestron I won't be able to get much more of a clearer picture of the stars than that?

[John]

Thanks, forgot to mention it but when I finally had the slippery little devils in the field of vision with a bit of messing around with the focus I was able to bring that 'fuzzy orb' into a more refined smaller circle of intensely bright light. I imagine with this basic Celestron I won't be able to get much more of a clearer picture of the stars than that?

You should get a sharper image than that - a pinpoint of light, possibly with a dim ring of light tight around it.

No Earth-based telescope can show the stars as anything more than pinpoints of light though - although huge objects they are just too far away.

[Star_Prize]

Yeh, I think in the end it shall just come down to getting more practice. A night with better conditions would help alot I think

[RumplySimon]

I've also just got one of these scopes, and was wondering what levels of detail I should be expeting to see out of it.

Once I've learned where some of the more interesting things are to point it, will it give good results?

I've mentioned before in the introducing threads that this scope was bought for me and my son by my father.

Thanks

Simon