UKC

Anyone got a telescope?

I've been given a dogs bollocks Sky-Watcher MAK127 to set up for a total technophobe mate.
http://www.cameracentreuk.com/skywatcher/skywatcher-skymax-127-synscan-az-g...
I'm currently setting it up and by browsing tinterweb, so far, I think I've sussed the following:

Set up the viewfinder in daylight by focusing both telescope and finder on an object about 1/4 mile away?

25mm eyepiece on its own - low power, for finding stuff.

10mm eyepiece - more power

10mm + Barlow lens - max power.

What beginner tips can you give me?

Cheers,

E

In reply to Enty:

Don't bother looking for any attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion

In reply to Enty:

With the computerised mount on these telescopes honestly there is not much to do, just push the buttons and that's it you are set up, these are ridiculously easy to use.
You can set up the viewfinder by placing a tiny shiny object (small lead ball from a bearing for example) and place it as far away as you can, and use maximum magnification you have, it gives you a nice small target to calibrate on.

In reply to RomTheBear:

Cheers,

The instructions are a bit vague. Are you saying that once I set the scope level and facing north it can find stuff on its own just using the auto tracking? there's nothing about this in the instructions.

E

In reply to Enty:

Never used a goto mount but surely you must need to align the thing before you can use it. Is there anything about Polar alignment in the manual? Once it is aligned I assume it is just a matter of tapping the in RA & Dec to get something in view.

In reply to Clarence:

Yes I've found a bit about that. It comes with a compass.

E

In reply to Enty:

I have found the manual online at the skywater website (UKC doesn't like any links from skywater it seems but it should be easy to find). It looks like you have to set the whole shebang pointing to true north using the compass, set up your position (lat/long), time of viewing (noting BST of course) and then put it in alignment mode. For this you need two bright, easy to find stars such as Vega, Arcturus, Capella or Altair (use a planisphere or a printed star chart for this) which you centre in the scope and then select the appropriate star name from the alignment list. Once you have two of these in the bag then you should be ready to go. I'm sorry I can't be more specific without having a play myself but it looks fairly straightforward (famous last words...) if you get everything in the right sequence.

You can use Google sky to find the bright stars or a get a star chart online from http://www.skymaponline.net/ or http://skymaps.com

In reply to Clarence:

Cool - top stuff. I'll have a play manually tonight - weather looks good. Then that should be the next step.

E

In reply to Enty:

Ok progress made. I've set the finder on the number I on the church clock about half a mile away.
Looking forward to a clear night tonight.
Suprised at how much vibration there is on the tripod, even out of the wind.

E

In reply to Enty:

When you set up the GoTo computer, it will expect you to give it the date in American (ie mm/dd/yyyy) format. This fact would have saved me significant time and effort the first time I set one up!

In reply to Enty:

yeah, find a solid surface for sure.
your alt-azimuth mount is not ideal for manual astro observing- needs the computer to be set up to follow the sky depending on your location.
i really should treat myself to something like that- always been on my wish list since childhood
you can fit your dslr to it y'know?

In reply to Enty:

Jupiter is always a good target..

In reply to Enty:

Come on guys!

You cannot have an astronomy post where no one mentions uranus!

In reply to Enty:

The 127 is a great telescope. To start with, do what you have already done with the star finder and the main scope. Stationary object and centre the star finder then align with the main scope, job done.

To then make sure the scope tracks correctly when star gazing, find 2 stars that are prominent and use them to align the goto tracking. I normally use the Dubhe star on the plough:

http://img.geocaching.com/cache/1329e295-1869-43a7-94b8-c081c1fe4d61.jpg

And either Rigel or Betelgeuse on Orion:

http://astrobob.areavoices.com/files/2013/01/Rigel-OrionS-400x311.jpg

All of these are easy to see with the naked eye on a decent night which really helps.
Then stick the 25 mm eyepiece in, find your first star and get it dead centre in your telescope. Once you've done this, stick in the 10 mm eyepiece and do the same. Once you're happy with this, that will be your first waypoint so to speak which you enter into the handset.

Then do the same with your second star and that will then be the tracking aligned. It sounds easy enough but can be a bit fiddly especially as the standard eyepieces are ok but really not good enough and it is sometimes difficult to get dead centre and it is ridiculously easy at the start to find the wrong star.

Another problem is that you must make sure your lat and longitude are correct at initial start up otherwise you're buggered! If your mate gets into it quickly, I'd recommend he buys a power unit for the goto as the batteries tend to die fairly quickly. I'd also recommend an eyepiece upgrade after a while and It is also important to make sure he understands the scope length/eyepiece size magnification relationship and if you're going to use a Barlow, buy a decent one and go for x2 rather than x1 or x3.

Hope he enjoys it, great telescope and he will see bucketloads of stuff easily.
Hope this helps, Den

In reply to Denni:




I'm hoping he won't ask for it back

Anyhow - thanks for all the replies. It's crystal clear outside and the Mistral wind has been howling all day and died down now so the air should be clear too.

E

In reply to Enty:

If you're interested in a telescope, my 4 year old has one of these (not meant to be a derogatory comment!);

http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/skywatcher/starter-scope/mercury705.html

2 minutes to set it up, she keeps it set up and when she wants to look at the moon, we just lift it out and it is fantastic. It has a red dot finder which makes life so simple and we upgraded her standard eyepieces and it is soooooo easy to see Jupiter, it's atmospheric storms and 4 main moons, Saturns rings, Mars and the moon is unreal through it.

She has even started to use my DSLR to take photos of the moon as it has an attachment already on it. It is the best £99 odd quid plus upgraded lens we have ever spent. I use it a lot when I can't be bothered setting up the big scope and I get fantastic views.

Unusually, it is also a day scope so we use it on the local beach to look at the Isle of Wight and the yacht racing, even used it a few times in the hills as it isn't really heavy, not portable but worth a one hour lug up the hills for clear skies.

Here is the chap I bought it from with a review. Where you live, it would be criminal if you didn't have a telescope!

youtube.com/watch?v=x8PcsTem6m0&

In reply to Enty:

So, brightest thing in western sky tonight must have been Jupiter - two distinct bands around it and two distinct moons close together and another moon visible too.

Not bad - everything shaky though and focusing was hard. Then I only get a few seconds looking at it then it's out of the eyepiece.

Not sure what I was doing wrong but a bit underwhelming.

E

In reply to Enty:

Without being there to see it's hard to say what's gone wrong. The mount should be tracking at sidereal rate so, as long as you've set the mount to point at polaris before you started AND used the align setup to align on a couple of the brighter stars in the sky AND made sure you set for daylight savings and entered your lat/long and the current date it should have kept Jupiter in the field of view indefinitely.

In reply to Enty:

I spent a few years researching and mulling over what telescope I wanted. I had a wish list of the biggest and best scopes in the world but was limited by two things, budget and 'she who must be obeyed'.

I wanted the biggest and fastest telescope that I could afford, with what I was willing to pay. This meant that I had to ditch any ideas of a computer goto product or motorised tracking systems because most of the cost would go on a gadget rather than the money going on optics. And just like in photography, its the optics that are the most important aspect, because if you have crap optics, you have a crap view.

I was also limited to design/build of telescope too, which meant that fancy stuff like maksutov style telescopes were too expensive. I could only afford a long tube with a mirror at the end to collect light, meaning a dobson telescope. Nothing wrong with dobson's because you get more bang for your bucks, and this was what I needed most.

I'll put it this way, your mate's telescope costs £360-£420 depending on where you shop, while my choice of telescope with the exact same eyepieces thrown in and better magnification cost £128. That's just shy of £300 for the privilege of the telescope moving for itself, rather than me nudging it with my hand. Bit of a no brainer.

My next criterion had to be portability because if it was too big or heavy then it would become a dust gatherer and that would piss off 'she who must be obeyed'. My dream choice would have been an 8 inch dobson telescope coming in at a respectable £430. This baby would have given me 'the world and more' with the exact same eyepieces as your telescope but would have had brighter images and double the image potential. The down side was that it would been huge and feking heavy. It would have been as tall as me and almost the same weight. We are talking 60kgs+ here. This meant that it would not exactly be portable and would need lots of love and care to keep it in focus.

I went for portability, and ease of setting up. My chosen scope can easily sit on the back seat of a car and be set up in under 5 minutes flat from removing from the car, to placing in the eyepiece and aiming at a target.

Don't let the Fisherprice design or cost get in the way, this is an excellent bit of kit for a novice, casual observer, such as myself.
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextub...

I too have the same eyepieces as you, and I think that they come as standard with practically every new budget scope, much as in the same way as kit lenses for budget dSLR's.

I soon discovered that the 10mm and 25mm plus barlow were not going to cut the mustard if I wanted to view Jupiter or the Moon. This meant that I had to choose the best eyepiece that I was willing to budget for, which was as little as possible. At first I went for an eyepiece at the maximum theoretical range that my scope would allow, 260x, giving me a 5mm eyepiece. I bought my eyepiece from a reputable website and could not wait to try it out. I had never been so disappointed in my life. The image of Jupiter was so dull as to be a grey blob. And to make matters worse the image would only stay in view for a couple of seconds before zooming out of sight.

My next problem was that the eyepiece not only magnified Jupiter but it also magnified all the atmospheric pollution and air currents as well. All this meant that I had an expensive eyepiece that could only be used maybe once or twice a year, weather permitting.

Thankfully the website that I bought the eyepiece from had exceptional customer service and allowed me to return the item and replace it with another of my choice. This time I had more realistic options and I went for a 15mm eyepiece. This gave me 43x and 87x (including the barlow) magnifications which was perfect for Jupiter and outstanding for the Moon.

I can not rate this site highly enough for extra eyepieces.
http://www.skysthelimit.org.uk/telescope%20eyepieces.html

As for forums to seek advice, I suggest
http://stargazerslounge.com/

And to buy scopes, only because I got mine from there
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/

As for books get Turn left at Orion
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turn-Left-Orion-Guy-Consolmagno-ebook/dp/B009019V5U...

As for software, Steliarium is free for PC and mac but costs a few quid on Android. If you have an Android bit of kit, spend the money because it is superior to Google's free version
http://www.stellarium.org/

And BTW, the Moon is feking bright, so think about buying a filter.