Any information on General Telescoping

[Demise]

Hello all, i have zero experience with telescopes but received one as a gift that i requested. I was wondering if lense magnification eyepeices are inter-changable in some type of universal level like one fits all style? I have two eyepeices and found the moon last night,hooray!, but wanted to know if i can get even closer. The view was very clear which was great but can we zoom right in. Any info would be appreciated.Thanks.:)

[Demise]

Where else can i be pointing the telescope for the beginner ??

[rmcpb]

It would help if we knew what type of scope and eyepieces you already have.

[janoskiss]

Try Jupiter. The brightest "star" in the sky to the west after 10pm. And Saturn is the other bright "star" north-west right after sunset. You need to swap eyepieces to change magnification.

Tell us more about your scope.

[Demise]

Thanks for the direction. I'm sure the scope isnt great but i will get the info and we will take it from there. I will check out the Planets tonite regardless,cheers.

[iceman]

Steve means "East" rather than west :)

But yes, tell us what type of telescope it is.. what markings and labels does it have on it, and the eyepieces too..

Does it sit on a tripod?

[janoskiss]

:lol: thanks Mike. My world is upside-down back-to-front and left-to-right.

[Terry B]

Dear Demise
I am new to this group but not new to astronomy.
Yes eyepieces are interchangeable between scopes and there are 3 standard sizes.
The most common are 1 1/4 inch, 2" and 0.975"(I think) in diameter.
Most of the little ones (0.975) are of poor quality and few of the better telescopes have adaptors for them. The standard is 1 1/4" but more expensive and bigger scopes will take the 2" eyepieces and use an adaptor to take the 1 1/4".
Magnification is determined by the focal length of the eye piece and the focal length of the scope. If you telescope has a focal lenght of 1000mm and your eyepiece is 10mm then the magnification is 100x. Reducing the focal length of the eyepiece will increase the magnification. In theory you can use any magnification combination but there is a limit to how much magnification is practical. This is determined by the diameter of your scope.
I hope this helps.

Terry B
Armidale

[toetoe]

We need a full report on what you have been observing in that area of sky please Steve.:rofl:
Welcome to IIS Demise :thumbsup: as already mentioned above, more info on your equipment is needed for the answers to your questions. Just ask away and someone here will steer you right.:)

[janoskiss]

Yes, go on laugh at me! :sad:

West is to the left of North in my head, so since I've gotten into this hobby and started using star charts, I often get confused when I refer to directions in the sky without thinking about what I'm saying. :P Maybe it's time to seek some professional help. :reindeer:

You better watch it with this hobby Demise. You never know what it'll do to ya. :screwy: Considering your choice of login name I'd be extra careful if I were you. :scared: :P

[ving]

poor steve :(

hi demise,
its great that yuo had no problems finding the moon. now on the eyepieces is a number in milimeters (eg 7mm or 20mm), the smaller the number the more it magnifies. now thats eyepieces covered (more or less), have you aligned the finder scope to the telescope so they both point to the same piece of sky? you will need to do this so kyou can find things. please tell us what desing your telescope is so we can help with this :)
star maps or a star atlas will help you find your way arnound the sky so get one :)

oh! and what sort of mount does your telescope have? if its what they call an equatiorial mount then you need to align it to the celestial south pole, so tell us what sort of mount you have so we can help with that too :)

as for an absolute beginners guide to observing, i can recommend you go to your local public library, i am sure they will have books there on what to look for and how to do it :)

please ask more questions :)

[Demise]

Yes the scope is on a tripod and i will check out the ID tags and so forth. It seems to be quite a large scope possibley about ( Barrel) 15cm in Diameter. Does anyone live on the sunshine coast ?? Terry B that was a full on explanation that went sraight over my head at this point but be assured i will understand it soon enough,thanks. When is this cloud going to piss off??

[vespine]

Hey Demise, I only very recently got into astronomy myself and after a few observing sessions with my new scope I can tell you the 2 objects that I have found the MOST spectacular so far are:

M42 the great Orion nebula.

http://www.solarius.com/msas/findercharts/m42.html

This one is pretty easy to find, the charts in the link are northern hemisphere which means it's upside down to the view in Australia. Orion is pretty high in the sky to the east immediately after sunset, basically look for the middle star in the "handle" of the sauce pan in Orion.

The other brilliant object is omega centauri, I found it a lot more challenging to find but extremely rewarding to see! You can easily spot it in binoculars as a faint grey blob to help you point your scope at it. (it is a naked eye object in less then heavily light polluted skies) but the view in the scope is much more amazing. It is in the constellation of centaurs right beside the southern cross.

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/AList/Centaurus.jpg

Alpha Centauri and Hadar are the 2 pointers, the above is well positioned high in the westerly sky after sunset.


EDIT: OH, I forgot! The coolest thing that I was directed to by the kind people here is THIS:

http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

Download the southern april pdf and print it out! It will show you the coolest, easy to find objects in the sky. As a beginner it's exactly what I was after to get me started. Happy hunting! :)

[Demise]

Ving i found that the finder scope doesn't really line up with the scope. I only breifly tried to adjust but will again tonite. The tripod is made from alloy with dials and numerical locators all over the shop. They must have to line up with some type of fixed point so the rest of the action can be found in the sky.I am keen to view the Orion Nebula so will check that out tonight,cheers vespine. How does ol' Venus go through the telescope??

[iceman]

Align the finderscope during the day, it's much much easier than trying to do it at night.

And DON'T look at the sun through your scope!

Venus is nice through a scope, it's very bright early in the mornings at the moment.. from about 5am look east and it's bright.. you can't miss it.

[Demise]

Yeh no worries i can always find him 100% with the eyes. Should this be done by looking at some type of landmark to align the finder in the day?

[iceman]

Anything in the distance, a power pole, tree top, etc. It doesn't matter what, as long as it's far enough away to come to focus in your eyepiece.

Use a fairly high power eyepiece to get it the most accurate, however if it's currently way off, try a low power eyepiece first and then switch to a high power one.

The high power eyepieces will have the smaller number on them. The low power will have a larger number (like, over 15mm).

[Demise]

Does any one know any one on the sunshine coast? One other thing, ialso have two lens filters ? One says moon and one says sun and they can be screwed into either of the two eyepeices that i have with the scope ?? Are these lenses as obvious as the name suggests?

[janoskiss]

Never use the Sun filter. Those are illegal for good reason. They can easily crack under the intense heat of focused sunlight. Instant permanent blindness. Pls destroy the filter.

[vespine]

yeah actually I've seen many threads about this too, everyone says put a hammer to that sun filter. If you just throw it away someone may find it and try it.

Apparently The only "safe" filter to view the sun is with a full apature filter, that means a filter that covers the big end of the telescope, not at the "eyepiece end"... I even find the idea of that pretty scary! I used to burn stuff with a 3" magnifying glass (plastic cutlery and cardboard and stuff, I wasn't into burning insects :P ) Can't imagine pointing my 12" at it no matter how "safe" any filters claim to be! Call me paranoid but one tiny slip or crack or split or something and you're getting 12" of Sun focused directly into your ~5mm pupil! Projection viewing is the only way I'd consider looking at the image of the sun.

[ving]

yes as steve said, throw that sun filter out, i could litteraly send you blind if it fails...

sounds like you have an equatorial mount, probably like this:
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/objects/images/eq_mount_150.jpg
if so the for now just get out your compass and align it to magnetic south, this will help you track and object for a few mins. later when youlearn constellations you can track down sigma octans for more reliable tracking :)

[Terry B]

Dear Demise
Sorry my post was unclear.
What I was talking about was the actual diameter of the eyepieces as you asked if eyepieces are interchangeable. The answer is mostly yes.
I agree with the posts above about aligning your finder during daytime. it is much easier to find a land based object to align on rather than a star in a dark sky.
DO NOT USE THE SOLAR FILTER. The only save solar filters go on the front of the telescope and block almost all of the light entering the scope. Filters on the eyepiece can crack leading to instant eye damage.
Good luck

[Demise]

Well there was almost some carnage in the making there, cheers for that warning,filter is smashed. I had no real interest to check out the sun any way,its easier on TV. Is there any need for the filters at all?

[Terry B]

Dear Demise
Yes filters can be of use. The moon filter is just a neutral density filter. It just reduces the glare when you observe the moon. Sometimes coloured filters are used to view planets as they can increase contrast but for now don't worry about the filters.

[Demise]

Yes that is the stand! Nice work. I was struggling to describe it. What indicator on the stand should point south? I have no idea i know.

[ving]

ok, the bar with the weight(s) on it when pointing straight down should be towards the front (ie facing south).
:)

[RAJAH235]

Demise, FWIW, please read this in regard to your 'sun/solar' filter.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=934
DO NOT USE IT....DESTROY IT!!! Cannot emphasise this enough.
As for 'collimating' your telescope & finder, do in the daytime as Mike said.
Take outside & find a fixed object, (pole, tower, etc), at least 500 to 1000 mtrs away. Line the t'scope up on the top of this, with the largest numbered, (eg; 20 or 25 mm), E/Pc in it. Adjust the 3 or 6 screws on the finder to line it up with the SAME object you have in the t'scope field of view. Put in your next E/Pc, (10 mm?), & check again that they line up. This will be good enough for you to find most objects.
A few basics, your t'scope is say, 900 mm long & you have a 25 mm E/Pc, therefor the magnification will be, 900 / 25 = 36 x. When you want to 'get closer', change E/Pcs. eg; 900 / 10 = 90 x mag.
If you have a 'barlow' lens, this will effectively double the magnification of each E/Pc. This is fitted into the focuser & the E/Pc fits into it.
The moon filter will 'dim' the moon a little, making it easier to see details.
HTH.....:D L.
ps. Ask as many questions as you like. Lots of great people in here.

[Demise]

Yes there are some good solid anwers flowing thank you. I have this " barlow filter " but last night it wasnt working for me so i took it out and just used the smaller of the eye pieces and that worked fine. Keen to get home and re-check it all out again!!

[[1ponders]]

Hi Demise.

I'm in Nambour, is that close enough? I'm on holidays for the next week until after Easter (curse the moon :tasdevil: :mad2: ). If you want a hand let me know. There are a few of us up this way and each new moon we meet out at Astroron's place a Cambroon near Kenilworth for a nights viewing in the dark. You're more than welcome to join us.

[ving]

sounds like an offer that'd be hard to refuse :)
on ya paul :)

[[1ponders]]

Lucky it's dark ving or I'd scare too many of them off. :lol:

[ving]

thats the great thing about this hobby hey ;)