Borrowed Telescope - Advice

[Gladders1980]

Hi all,

Well borrowed my Dad's telescope yesterday as he never uses it, its only a beginners scope i presume.

Its a Konusmotor 70 #1782, 70mm F900, f12 refractor. KONUS - Optical & Sport System

It came with 3 eyepieces, a Plossl 17mm, 10mm and 6.3mm and a 2X Barlow lens, and a green filter that says moon on it.

Unfortunately no instructions so am figuring things out as i go along.

My questions to start with are what can i expect to see with this scope?

Tried looking at the moon last night, but wasn't impressed so guess i was doing something wrong. Also tried Saturn but i think the Moon was washing it out. Was only playing around with it so trying to get use to how it moved and other things, so am hoping once i get used to it, things will look clearer and i'll find them easier.

I would like to be able to see DSO's would i be able to with this scope?

[NickK]

My Vixen A80Mf (80mm, fl=910mm, f11.4), supplied with a 6 & 20mm plossls, sounds similar to your scope. I use mine on a manual mount.

The scope is a good lunar scope, and will give some really good observations. However it will only really show DSOs as smudges or groups of stars. You will be able to see the great orion nebula. However the quality of the optics in both the scope and EP are, well, far lower than other scopes and EPs (such as Baader etc).

This is where aperture fever will set in as the more light and more expensive optics. However it is a perfect place to start in order to understand how things work and what you'd want to see. Don't forget that light pollution will result in your eye not being able to distinguish features as easily too.

I found that it was possible to look at the moon craters etc in good detail with the 6mm (it needs lots of light).

My Pentax (105mm, fl=675, f6.38), on the other hand, leaves it for dust but that's not surprising. Due to the additional aperture and resulting f6.38 it means I can visually see more things - the orion nebula has far more detail and brightness. However the rosetta nebula I can see the stars and the smudge of the nebula itself through my Baader Hyperon 13m EP which completely outclasses the bundled EPs (at least twice as bright as the 20mm in the pentax!). If I attach a camera.. then it will pull out the additional detail resulting in photos that you can see - this is what the scope is designed for.

If you want to visually see DSOs ... then you're going to have to go for aperture. A 10"+ light bucket (Dobsonian) or a Newt is going to be your best option and add good quality EPs.

The washing out is usually when the moon is too bright. Try looking at the line between the dark and the light to provide contrast, use a higher mag EP (which requires more light, or, use a lunar filter.

[Gladders1980]

I dont mind the DSO's looking like smudges, just as long as i could see something, would i be able to see "something" with this scope? or will it just not be good enough to see anything.

Its borrowed for as long as i need, so not too worried at the moment, hoping it will give me a good idea if i like the hobby without wasting money on my own scope if you know what i mean.

[John]

I started with just a 60mm scope (your dads is 70mm) and I had some nice views of the moon, some double stars, Saturn and Jupiter and a few of the brighter deep sky objects with it. Ok the planets will look small but you can see that they are planets and you can see Jupiters 4 brightest moons, Saturns moon Titan, Saturns rings, the phase of Venus, open clusters will look nice and lots of lunar details can be seen and even the faint smudges of galaxies.

You will need to persevere to see these things with a small scope but it can be done. Try the freeware software "Stellarium" to see where things are in the sky and ask lots of questions here on what's worth viewing with that scope.

[Gladders1980]

yep already got Stellarium, had a bins for a few months. I know where things are etc. though finding them in a scope may be a challenge

Speaking of which, do people use the RA/Dec dial things on the EQ mount to find things or do you just star hop like with Bins? Didn't try last night but i can imagine star hopping in a scope to be difficult, especially when looking for something that can't be seen with the naked eye.

Was difficult finding enough getting Saturn lined up and i could see that with my eyes.

An not really interested in looking at the moon or planets, even though i will at times. Seen so many pictures of them that looking at them with my own eyes won't really inspire me, whereas DSO's even if only a smudge would inspire me.

[Doc]

Best advice would be get to darker skies as dso's will be alot easier to see.

70mm aperture is quite restrictive but you should be able to find M42/43, M45, M44, M13, M15, M34, M35, M36, M37 maybe M81/82, and quite a few more.

Important thing is to get your finderscope alinged up and get some proper maps and a red torch and then try and star hop to these objects, it takes time and is pretty hard to do, but once mastered is quite an achievement.

[NickK]

I star hop - you learn more about the constellations etc and star names.

The best place to start is Orion. If you have stellarium, just find the belt, make a mental line through the belt, goto the bottom star and then from the line make a 90deg line from the belt line at the bottom star... follow it down and you'll arrive at the Orion Nebula.

Another great one is Plaiedes (ics) which is a good one to start star hopping from Orion to find. The from there you have a few such as M34 which is an open cluster of stars and the Triangulum Galaxy as you follow the sky around.

Believe it or not - star hopping is harder with a scope that shows more stars as you have to find the star in a haze of them! (I star hop without a finder scope)

[Gladders1980]

Cool cheers for the advice all.

I can star hop reasonably well with my Bins, so hopefully it won't take much more with the scope and finderscope.

[Gladders1980]

oh another quick question on storing the scope.

Is it ok to keep outside in the shed? or is it better to keep it in the house so its less prone to the elements?

[Doc]

Cool down times won't really be an issue with a 70mm scope, I would say either way is OK.

[Gladders1980]

ok cool, was more concerned that if it was stored 24/7 in the shed, is it ok that is cold in there?

Just been playing about with it indoors and aligning the finderscope, was very impressed that i could read a car number plate about a mile away through a window, blumming typical that its cloudy now so unlikely to get to play some more tonight.