what do I need to do

[OmahaWx]

I just got a meade 114mm 4.5in equatorial reflector...just wondering if it is impossible to view while partly cloudy...last night I tried to view venus but had no luck locating it...Could someone describe a basic viewing night, how long does the scope need to be in the dark before viewing? Im not sure what I need to know to create the best possible conditions. Please help. thanks

Tyler

[Siguy]

You cannot observe something if the clouds are covering it, or if for any reason something's blocking it from view. The best conditions are clear, cool nights.

Your eyes will take about twenty minutes to adjust to darkness.

The best places are away from cities or bright lights.

[schlaugh]

Viewing on partly cloudy nights can be frustrating but it also depends on the kinds of clouds. Haze is the most annoying but if you have clouds moving by with large clear patches among them then it's not evil. Just not ideal.

Venus is rather easy to spot in the west right now, so I wonder just how cloudy your skies were? It's VERY bright and visible from dusk until late in the evening in the western sky. As a caveat you won't see much except a crescent or gibbous moon shape because for all practical purposes Venus has no visible features. Just bright white.

The scope doesn't need to be in the dark but your eyes do. Unless looking at very bright planets or the moon, you really need to let your eyes dark adjust for 20 - 30 minutes before observering. The longer you stay out, the better adjusted they become until they are fully adapted. If you need to use a flashlight then it should be one with a red filter.

There are a number of threads in this forum related to observing and what you can expect with that Meade scope. Suggest using the Search function at the top right and look for Meade, plus just scan the threads.

[OmahaWx]

my declination control knob wont work, I dont know whats wrong, It worked before...and by the way there was a huge clearing in the clouds above me but clouds to every direction, I could see venus with no clouds near it. I cant beleive that the declination control doesnt work..UHHH!

[Kaptain K]

I assume it's:

http://www.meade.com/starterscopes/eq_series.html

First, make sure the finder and scope are aligned. You can do this in the daytime by picking out a distant tree top or light pole and making sure that the object is centered in both.

Second, a Newtonian reflector needs to be collimated occasionally. See here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.scagell/collimate.html

Third, if the declination will move one way but not the other, you may have just used up all of the adjustment. Just crank it several turns in the direction it will go and you will have range again. If you need to adjust the declination to follow a star, you need to align the R.A. axis with the celestial pole. When the scope is properly polar aligned, you only need to adjust the R.A. to follow an object across the sky.

[OmahaWx]

the declination control will move either way but it feels like its not conected to anything because it won't move. plus the knob broke off, I think I need the entire equatorial mount to be replaced, just casue of this control. thanks for responding everyone...:razz:

[OmahaWx]

WOW! tonight was great I saw the crescent of venus and the rings of saturn!! that was awesome. At first I just used the 25mm lense but then I tried the 9mm, amazing!! I cant wait to get a barlow lense! thanks guys...I did it all without declination control

[Siguy]

Cool. Try to use the 25mm to see the Orion Nebula, with a 114mm it should look really cool.

Below the belt of Orion, there's what some times is represented as the sword sheath. The middle star in that is the Orion Nebula. It looks like an eagle shaped cloud through a small telescope. There are lots of things like that, you should do some research.

[SharkByte]

I know I'm a day late but I'll respond to your OP anyways. Some of the Info may not be as relavent to your scope as it is mine but it greatly increased my enjoyment of the hobbie:)

I have a Celestron C11-XLT which I do my observing with. Because of the volume of air inside my scope it takes a while for the tempurature inside the scope to equalize with the air tempurature outside the scope. This un-equal tempurature causes air currents inside the scope which can distort or obstruct the view so I always move the telescope outside and get it set up about two hours before I plan on viewing. It won't take nearly as long for your 4.5 inch scope to cool down as mine does but getting the scope outside and set up a good 30 minutes or so early wouldn't hurt.

I'm going to assume you have a finder scope attached to your reflector but you didn't say if you've alligned it properly. There should be instructions that came with the scope to tell you how to do this but its a pretty simple process really. Point your telescope at something about 2-3 miles away and lock it down so it can't move. Personally, I like to use a tree on top of a mountain near my house. Adjust the finder scope so that whatever it is your pointed at is dead center in both. My finder scope sits in a bracket mounted to the C-11XLT optical tube and adjusts by turning three adjustment screws. An older scope I picked up at a garage sale years and years ago you actually had to shim the scope bracket to align it.

Once your aligned properly it is relatively easy to find the object you want to observe in the finder scope, get it centered then switch to your lowest power eye piece in the main scope. Center the object in that eye piece and then you can step up the magnification by incrimentally changing to higher power eye pieces. When talking about telescopes bigger is not always better and some objects will look better at lower magnification. The rings of Saturn look amazing at high magnification through my 11 inch scope but the Pleadies cluster actually looks better through my finder scope because it has a wider field of view. Even at the lowest power my C-11 has to narrow of a field of view to see the whole cluster. Always starting at lowest power and stepping up the magnification as you go makes it easier to find whatever it is your observing and in my opinion, give the best viewing experiance.

[Tog_]

I'm not exactly what broke on your declination knob, but I used to have that same type of scope. The knob on mine attached to the scope using a set screw at the end of a floppy cable. That screw would get loose and slip off of the flat bit on the declination control on the mount which would let the knob turn without actually moving the scope. If the whole cable thing came off, I'd look for that to be the first cause.

[OmahaWx]

Ive seen saturn its rings, venus the blue clouds to the north and the sunlight to the south and the orion nebula, which isnt great no color just a cloud...searching for the andromeda galaxy but i think it is to far down on the horizon, and i have a bunch of houses all around me.

but this summer I will be working in fremont, nebraska a rural town, and will be staying about 5 miles out side of town which should bring a lot of starlight and more openly horizonal horizons so im looking forward to that.

[Siguy]

The Orion Nebula isn't colorful through a small telescope, but if you have a good eye you can still see the bird shape.

Neither the Andromeda or Triangulum galaxies are visible currently. The Andromeda Galaxy is currently visible about an hour before sunrise or so. The Triangulum Galaxy should be visible before sunrise around early to mid May.

There are plenty of other wonderful deep sky objects to see. You should do some research. A lot can be accomplished with a 114mm reflector.

[OmahaWx]

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&formtype=address&popflag=0&latitude=&longitude=&name=&phone=&level=&cat=&address=&city=fremont&state=ne&zipcode=

this is where I will be staying this summer, hopfully good viewing