help on telescopes.

[samantha25]

hey chesty the name is luton astronomical club and the address is University of Bedfordshire, hitchin road, putteridge bury, half a mile beyond the stopsley roundabout, here is the link

Untitled Document

not sure if there is anything goin on there at the moment, i think we will have to wait for an update. but hope it helps a bit.

[chesty]

brilliant samantha, i live in hemel and have been looking for something a little closer thank you very much:icon_salut:

[ronin]

As I said not sure if the Luton club is still going. It is one tht seems very quiet, so leaves you wondering if it is still active.

Also the LDAS meet is for the public to look through scopes that members have, and have brought along. So you should get a good selection to peer through and look at.

It was the number/selection of scopes that should be there that I mentioned the meeting for.

The Luton club assuming still going will not, unless they have a public viewing night, have as many at the place on a normal club night.

[samantha25]

im sure there a few stargazers in luton, that if the club is inactive, then maybe can do there own, i think stockwood park in luton would be a great place to take our telescopes.

[JohnR]

Hi

skywatcher Explorer 200P EQ5 Telescope | eBay UK

This scope isn't too far from Luton,if you are able to pick it up.£250 is cheap,and in the hopefully unlikely scenario that you find it's not really what you want,you should be able to resell it with no,or very little, loss in value

edit - Of course usual buying over ebay caveats apply,give it a thorough check for any damage,esp the mirrors

[JohnR]

Hi

skywatcher Explorer 200P EQ5 Telescope | eBay UK

I said it was cheap - gone already

[mag10]

Even in my 130mm Dob, Titan is not a problem, its a dot, but as was said elsewhere on this site, with practice, it becomes a pretty big dot! (With practice, your seeing actually improves).

On one memorable night with my 130mm, I actually saw Enceladus (mag. 12.73). Although had I been watching a few minutes earlier or later, I would have missed it. But at that precise moment, it was "coming around the corner" and hugging Saturn, making a small "bump" on the limb. (I had to confirm what I saw later on my Starry Night planetarium, but there it was, right where I saw it!)

So Titan and the other larger moons of Saturn are really not a problem. Once you become accustomed to observing, you'll notice a regular swarm of dots around Saturn.

I like the planets, no doubt about it, but I think I enjoy the moons of the solar system even more!

Have fun!

[AlphaRob]

I have a skywatcher 130P on an eq2 mount, which has so far given me some good views of Saturn with Titan, as well as a few of the brighter DSOs.

The only thing I've found to be a bit of a pain with an eq mount is that other than the time it takes to set it up and align it, when you move the scope from one object to another, the motion of the mount means the eyepiece can end up pointing in odd directions. You then have to loosen the tube rings and rotate the tube to bring the eyepiece back to a position you can actually look through! I imagine with something the size of the 200p, this could get annoying, so maybe the 200 dob would be better as the eyepiece will stay in a sensible place. Just another thing worth considering in this minefield of choices

[jasonp]

Im up for creating a club

[chesty]

i am up for creating/joining club

[jasonp]

Lets do it then would be good so we can get a group of people together and somewhere dark and safe to meet. I hate the idea of taking all my eq somewhere were its either going to get robbed or vandalised.

[novice123]

Hi, I'm in need of some help here.

I recently got a skywatcher explorer-130p synscan AZ goto telescope, and I'm in need of help in how to properly set up the system. I tried to use it last night (my first clear night for 2 weeks) and I couldn't get it to work, as I tried to set it to go to a similar celestial body. However, I'm really not too sure about what I'm doing with it! (Oh yeah and I'm only 15 so please don't say anything too complicated for me!)

[John]

Hi, I'm in need of some help here.

I recently got a skywatcher explorer-130p synscan AZ goto telescope, and I'm in need of help in how to properly set up the system. I tried to use it last night (my first clear night for 2 weeks) and I couldn't get it to work, as I tried to set it to go to a similar celestial body. However, I'm really not too sure about what I'm doing with it! (Oh yeah and I'm only 15 so please don't say anything too complicated for me!)

Hi - welcome to the forum

It would be worth starting a new thread in this section on your question - buried down her on the end of this existing thread it could get overlooked. I'm sure you will get some help when it has it's own thread

[GazofCorra]

I would leave the Dob for now and get a 127mm mak especially if you want to look at planets & moon, for me most DSO's only look good using CCD, but some people like looking at fuzzy blobs with averted vision but i am not one of them.

[rwilkey]

Hi Sam, another vote for the 200P, the larger aperture makes the object (planets in this case) much brighter, so the bigger aperture does help a lot, no problems with setting up and breaking down - 5 mins, until I suffered a stroke, now I need help and have bought a refractor, 200P will blow you away.

[novice123]

Yeah- it's me again. I've discovered that during alignment my telescope is giving me the wrong points to align to, it would say for example slew to 192 degrees by 38 degrees yet on Stellarium it would say that the star is at 145 degrees by 60 degrees. I'm so confused, and I have even tried putting my telescope back to factory settings but it does nothing. I have checked my coordinates, date time etc. are all correct and they are. :S