My First Week in Astronomy!

[Landy (Andrew Laynie)]

Hey Everyone!

I am Andy from South Aus and I wanted to throw a few questions about where to next in my astro gazing sessions??

My Telescope is a Skywatcher Mak Cass 127mm with GoTo Mount.

I started with the 10mm and 25mm eyepieces that came with the Telescope and quickly realised that was not going to be sufficient. So the next day I went and purchased a Plossol eyepiece kit with 5 EP's ranging from 6mm-32mm. Where I am in SA it has a lot of light pollution and has been slightly cloudy making it difficult to see anything besides the moon and Jupiter. I did check out Mars and a few Stars like Spica and Arturus but I found that I want more!! Next week I will be travelling to an island off SA called Kangaroo Island which I have heard is amazing for Star Gazing! I am hoping for some nice clear nights "crossing fingers".

So with that said here are some questions
1. What are these Colored filters I got in the EP Kit for and When is the best time to use them?
2. I found that the moon is awesome to look through with the 32mm and Jupiter is good too look at with either the 8mm or 13mm, What other cool stuff is there to see within my EP range I have (Plossol EP's: 6mm, 8mm, 13mm, 17mm, 32mm // Super EP's that came with the Scope: 10mm, 25mm 2 X Barlow lens: x2)
3. Can you double up on 2 x barlows for 4x magnification?
4. If I wanted to see something like the Orion Nebula would it be possible with my current set up and which eyepiece would be best?
5. With the above, if my set up isn't going to see stuff like that what would I need to see things like that?

6. This is a bit of an open question but what other cool things are there to see with this type of telescope and EP's? what is your favorite thing to look at??

BTW I am loving this forum so far you are all great and extremely helpful!

Thanks to All!!

Andy

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Best time to use the filters is 01.45 23rd June 2019.
No one is ever sure why they are included in the kit.
I use mine to amuse the children.
Welcome to iis. Kangaroo island sounds good . Hope you get some good views. Try some of the globular clusters. Your scope will do them well.

[julianh72 (Julian)]

Originally Posted by jenchris

Best time to use the filters is 01.45 23rd June 2019.
No one is ever sure why they are included in the kit.

Or ...

Try the filters when viewing the Moon and planets to improve contrast and detail.

As an example, a blue filter will pass blue, and tend to block greens a little and reds a lot. If you have neighbouring features of similar brightness but different colours / shades, the various filters can darken some colours while leaving others relatively unaffected, making it easier to distinguish the various features and the fine detail. A blue or yellow filter can really help distinguish the surface features of Mars, for example, which are all shades of red / brown.

Try them all on Jupiter first, as it is nice and big and bright, with lots of detail in various shades. Then try them on the Moon, Mars and Saturn - the effects will probably be less dramatic, but still real.

Check out this link, which suggests a few specific applications:
https://www.myastroshop.com.au/guides/filters.asp