First nights veiwing

[Whizgig (Eugene)]

Hi all, I would just like to let you now how our first nights viewing went with our telescope. It took me a while to get the eq mount all set-up but boy it was well worth the effort. I finally with all of the help here worked out how to use the eq mount properly and how to find stars ect on the sky charts. So here goes first stop was veneus it was a bit hard to get into focus properly due to the cheap optics but it was still amazing! Next stop was Jupiter WOW! could see it and all of its moons it was truly amazing! But again the optics made it hard to focus but you could make out the bands on it ect. Then I decided to try to have a look at M8 The Lagoon Nebular it was very hard to seeit prperly but I could make it out and it was fantastic! The rest of the night was spent traking Jupiter ans just sitting back in ore of the sky. I need to get a new Telescope I am thinking of a 12" dob or a 10" on an EQ6 mount but I have a while before then so I will join the ASOG here in Geelong and try out a few to see what I think, but I am just in ore of what is in store so much to look at and discover its amazing!

Cheers
Eugene.

[Kevnool (Kev)]

You sure did enjoy your first nights observing dont worry about Venus to much as your trying to look through to much atmosphere thats why Jupiter was more crisper , 1 law of thumb is the higher the better.

Good luck on your next choice of scope whichever type you decide on it will always be a pleasurable experience....cheers Kev.

[Davekyn (David)]

I am glad you enjoyed yourself. I was a little dispointed with focusing on stars with mine, & after I eventually collimated like for the fifth time, I could see that not only did stars come in a lot more like the pin points they should, but that I was getting much better focus as well.

Having a good variety of Eye pieces is really helpfull as well. Although I just got a 12" Dob, I really beleive you can get a lot more out of your 8" than you think, or at least improve you focus. One thing I found that really helps was to back off the magnafication or use a 2XED barlow with a wide angle EP.

Good luck with it
Dave

[Whizgig (Eugene)]

Thanks for the info Dave, The scope is only a cheap one from ebay and yes I think it needs allot of work done to it as in setting it up properly it is a bit out and needs to be collimated, But I haven't got the equipment to do it as yet and I am saving up for a 10" or 12" on a EQ mount with motor maybe.The lenses for it are only the ones that came with it and not very good, I would like to invest in some new lenses and get it all fixed up but I think it might be better to gust get a real one maybe a 12" dob on an EQ and save money for maybe fixing it up at a latter time as a spare as its needs allot of things to make it good.

[monoxide]

a 12" dob is a BIG scope, unless you are really tall (like super freaky tall) you would probably need a step ladder to look through it on an EQ mount.
im about 5'8 and the eyepiece is only just at eye level when pointed at zenith on the dob base.

if your not going to be doing any photography through the scope id say get a 12" dob and fit it with an Argo Navis.

[Whizgig (Eugene)]

yes I have thought of that but I dont mind sitting in a high chair LOL the reason I want the EQ mount is do get into photography an I would also need a motor drive as well. But I will start with a standard 12" dob and then work up from there. I was thinking of getting the one on Andrews site the delux model but they are out of stock at the moment and Ive still got quite a few penneis to gather up before then lol.

[monoxide]

mabee consider an 8 or 10" dob if you plan on using it for deep sky imaging on an EQ6, anything bigger and you need to throw some serious money around to drive it reliably enough.

i started imaging with a 6" newt on a HEQ5 and i couldnt imagine being a beginner and starting off with an EQ mounted 12", you would probably end up throwing the whole lot over your neighbours fence half way through your first go

if you have your heart set on the EQ mounted 12" though you will need to get a Losmandy G11 instead of the EQ6