Telescope for christmas

[evey]

I got a telescope for christmas. Although I am a fan of astronomy I have no idea about telescopes. Mine is a skywatcher, 1141EQ1, catadioptric newtonian telescope. It has 2x barlow lens and a 10mm and 25mm eyepiece.

Yesterday we set it up and had a look at the moon which was an amazing sight. And I really couldn't believe how much detail we saw. What else can I expect from this type of telescope? Will I be able to see planets, or galaxies - will buying different lenses or eyepieces make any difference in what I may be able to see?

I am hoping to be able to look at comet holmes and turret perhaps tonight if the weathers good. Any tips or information would be appreciated as I am a complete utter novice :)

[RickJ]

This time of year local astronomy clubs often have sepecial events for Christmas telescopes.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations
You can look up a contact person for your area. Even if they don't have a special night attend their meeting with the scope and they'll be happy to show you how to get the most out of it.

As to learning your way around the sky this too is where they will be of far more help than anything we can do here. There are several good books on the subject but attending a few star parties with the club will give you what you need to really understand the books. Astronomy has a very steep learning curve and the on hands support of a club will go a long way toward making it bearable.

You will need to learn your way around the sky. For this a good simple star atlas and a pair of binoculars are a great aid. See Dave's sticky note on binoculars for help here. Though again the club will be invaluable. Most binocular objects will be even better in the scope offering you a good starting point of objects to look at.

I have no idea the quality of the eyepieces, again this is where a local club can help you as they can actually see what you have. I found very little on this scope. Even the term catadioptric newtonian is vague as it could be any of several designs. Mak/newtonian or Schmidt/netwonian being the most common. I'm going to guess it has about a 1000mm focal length, you didn't say because you don't know what's important and what isn't. That is as to evaluating whether the eyepieces are appropriate or not. If it is 1000mm (I chose it as that would be a good fit to your eyepieces) then you don't likely need any new ones or additional ones for now. Quality is the unknown here.

The 25 gives about 40x which is great for open clusters and finding anything. Always start with this eyepiece when trying to find something! The 25 with the 2x barlow (again of unknown quality) would give 80 power as the 2x would indicate. A good medium power for many objects in your scope. The 10mm alone would be 100x, not a big change from the 25 and barlow. If the barlow is good and the eye relief of the 10mm poor then you may prefer the 80x to 100x for medium power work. The 10x with barlow gives 200x about as high as a scope of that aperture can provide and then only if the atmosphere is willing and the object bright. Each time power is doubled the image gets 4 times fainter so going from 40 to 200x makes the object 25 times dimmer! A good reason to avoid that 200x for most deep sky objects! All this assumes your focal length is 1000mm. If it is different, say 1200 then multiply the powers by 1.2. That would put the 10x with barlow at too high a power so I hope that isn't the case. If it is say 800 then multiply by 0.8. Those powers would still be reasonable.

A local club will know and understand your sky conditions and how to get the most out of them with that scope so again follow their advice. Anything I say would be a guess at best.

Even if there's no club close to you contact the nearest one. They likely know of amateurs in your area that can help.

Rick

[Casus_belli]

Download stellarium. Its a free easy to use virtual planetarium.



www.stellarium.org




The moon will look a lot better in a few days when it darkens a bit. Saturn is a great target and rises before midnight. Mars is at its closest point to us atm but is a very difficult target to tease any surface detail.

Galaxies are very faint and can be difficult to track down. They're best seen from a dark sky site when the moon is absent from the sky.

Holmes has faded but is still visible in binos. I havent seen Tuttle yet

[evey]

I put turret instead of tuttle i'm glad you knew what I meant!! lol. Yes the focal length is 1000mm with 114mm diameter (I assume d means diameter). I think it is a reflector.

I should use the 25mm to find things, yes I can't see anything with the 10mm. Do I have to remove the barlow to view things with the 10mm? It sounds like a club would be the best bet, other than struggling to figure out what I'm doing. I'm having a bit of trouble with the finderscope at the minute. My brother set it up and I don't think its right. But I read you should really do this in the day time.

[evey]

I also have a large star atlas with my telescope and I have a star wheel also which has the months, times, and degrees around the edge.

[Casus_belli]

Blast. Did a great long post then did something silly just before posting it and lost the lot:wall: Too much Xmas spirit.

Anyway the barlow lens doubles the power of the eyepiece thats in it. I'd use the 10mm ep (eyepiece) with the barlow on the moon and maybe the planets. You'll need good steady seeing conditions for anything else.

The 25 mm ep will, through the barlow give you almost the same view as the un barlowed 10mm ep, however do experiment with your ep's. On its own the 25mm ep will give you a wider view which is great for seeing the andromeda galaxy, clusters and star fields. Also good for tracking down objects so you can try a more powerful ep.

If you are new to this the best advice I can give you is...

1. Dress warmly, a cold astronomer is not a happy astronomer.
2. Invest in a pair of binoculars, A star chart and a set of bino's is the best way to find objects if your scope doesnt have a goto.
3. If you can get away from as much light pollution as you can, you'll see so much more.
4. Go to a star party if you can.
5. Keep asking questions. I can also recommend

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php

Its a site I belong to. Theres an excellent newcomers zone there.

[Hornblower]

In my experience there is no hard and fast rule on the optimum magnification for faint galaxies and nebulae. Sometimes a really small fuzzy wuzzy is easier to see at higher power, despite the reduction in surface brightness, because more rods in your retina are brought into play.

You will need plenty of experience in finding and observing brighter objects before attempting these faint ones. Experienced observers in a club can be a huge help in learning the observing techniques.

[evey]

I had another go on my own last night. First a looked for a star which was way too difficult so I left it for a while to let the scope cool down for a bit. Then when the moon came up I focused on that. I was using the barlow first of all with the 25mm and the 10mm but I didn't understand what I was looking at. So I took the barlow out and looked through the 25mm which was small but still an amazing sight. I got the whole of the moon in good detail. Then I swapped for the 10mm without the barlow and got very close to the moon. I then swapped for the 25mm with the barlow and saw a lot of surface detail. Then I swapped for the 10mm with the barlow and it was blurry white. ?

But I'm sort of getting to know the lenses now a little bit. But I have to have a go at polar alignment and setting the telescope up properly. I found a club starting on 11th january, so until then, I pretty happy with just looking at the moon - its not long to wait. I might have a go at alignment but until I know how the coordinates work and stuff its going to be pretty useless. LOL - I just keep kicking my heels until its dark. I wish it was dark all the time. Well actually I don't but you know what I mean.

[Veeger]

Hi Evey,
Its refreshing to see your enthusiasm. Where I live we seldom have good viewing conditions. Its cloudy all the time and when its not, it seems the truly best seeing occurs in the few hours or so just before dawn when I'm usually checking my eye-lids for cracks. I wish you the best and hope you find someone or something that guides you in the proper use of the telescope. Its an enriching hobby and I still enjoy it after 40 years. I hope you will as well.

Best to you,
veeger

[Kaptain K]

Then I swapped for the 10mm with the barlow and it was blurry white. ?
This is not unusual. It just means that you've reached (passed) the limits set by atmospheric conditions. Seeing that allows such high magnification are few and far between, no matter what scope you use. You are also up against the laws of physics. The generally accepted "rule of thumb" is not to exceed 2x per mm of aperture!

[evey]

We don't always have the best conditions in the uk. Plus I live in the town so you don't get the best view. My parents live in a little village and the night sky when it's clear is just amazing. I guess thats why I'm so facinated by the subject.

In any case, when I get a bit more confident I might take the telescope down my parents house one clear night and have a look, I bet it would be awesome.

The generally accepted "rule of thumb" is not to exceed 2x per mm of aperture

Can you explain this a little further? Sorry, I'm a bit dense.

Hopefully it'll be clear tonight, though it feels like it might rain :sad:

EDIT: - no go tonight, the sky is completely clouded over so I'll be studying the star charts tonight :-)

[Arcane]

When you say you saw the moon as blurry white with the 10mm and Barlow I might have some advice if you haven't tried it.

In my telescope the focuser will not go far enough out or in to show anything in focus if I use a 10mm and the barlow and insert them all the way into the hole. So if you dont put the barlow all the way into the hole you then have a little more room for focusing adjustments which should allow you to see the moon with the 10mm lense and the barlow in perfect clarity.

Granted, I have a different telescope, I use a 2.8x barlow with the 10mm lense, and my lenses may be of higher quality, it still may help you out.

[Siguy]

Your telescope's aperture is 114mm. The maximum magnification is twice the aperture (opening) in millimeters. So in optimal atmospheric seeing (lowest air current possible) you will get 228x magnification. Typically expect 1/2 to 2/3 that. You do not need to use very high magnifications often, and the largest telescopes rarely use higher than 300x magnification. Magnification is focal length divided by eyepiece focal length. So if your telescope has a focal length of 1000mm, a 25mm eyepiece will give you 40x. 25 to 75 times magnification is the optimum magnification for most deep sky objects.

You have a slight problem with your telescope. Yours is what is sometimes known as a "bird jones" optical system, which is a variation on the traditional newtonian. It is not, however an improvement. Instead of a parabolic mirror, it uses a spherical mirror. Inside the focuser is a built in barlow lens (the element that makes it catadioptric) that lengthens the focal ratio from something like f/4 or f/5 to around f/8 or f/10. At this focal ratio you will probably not see spherical aberration, however, the correcting barlow lens thing in the focuser makes collimation harder. It also makes it harder to achieve lower magnifications. Aside from this minor problem, the telescope you have seems decent and will certainly give you good views.

As for the barlow, all that will be doing is doubling the focal length to 2000mm or so, so you probably don't need to use it much if you have a good array of eyepieces.