Beginner / Saxon 1025 AZ3

[browncoat]

Hi there everyone,

I am very much a beginner in astronomy and it probably would have been better to have found this site and asked more questions before purchasing my scope.. but here we are.

My 12yr old son wanted a telescope for his birthday recently but having owned really cheap telescopes as a kid myself I didnt want to inflict those apon him so I bought him an IPad and few weeks later for my birthday I bought this scope which he and I can use together. Now I know that to most of you guys this Saxon refractor is probably considered a cheap telescope too at 500 bucks but I couldnt justify spending more to the wife :)

Anyways, is this Saxon 1025, AZ3, refractor going to be ok for us as newbies? What can we hope to see with it? Advice on objects to search for?

Thanks guys,

Looking forward to getting out there.

[dannat]

a short focal length refractor isn't going to be great on the planets/moon - there will be violet hues around the objects - a newtonian reflector will have no colour as it uses a mirror instead of the light passing thru glass-

if it were me id recommend a 6" dobsonian mounted reflector (these can be had for 329 form bintel in sydney)- but I'm sure many here will push for the 8" model

as for advice on objects goto skymaps.com (http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html) download the southern objects chart -start with the naked eye, then bino objects -the planets are on the map also.
Might want also download a program called tellurium - its an electronic star program.
The easiest objects to see after moon/planets are the messier objects -denoted by M numbers e.g. M6, M42 etc

[Astro_Bot]

Did you mean Stellarium? (Damned spell checkers.)

I wouldn't want the poor guy searching for something that didn't exist! ;)

[MattT]

Hi Phil,
I have the skywatcher 102 ST version to yours its exactly the same scope different paint job. Best for cruising around the night sky looking at the milky way and star clusters, not so great on the Planets though as at higher mags it gets quite colourful on the purple end. As you have an ipad have a look at the link to sky safari program which is really terrific specially the pro version, will show you everything up there that you can see with this scope.
http://www.southernstars.com/products/skysafari/index.html
Cheers Matt

[cometcatcher]

Might be able to reduce those with a fringe killer or semi-APO filter.

[MattT]

Had a look at Saturn last night with mine with a 5mm Hyperion and was surprised to see the rings clearly with a slight fringe of green/yellow. No Cassini division or cloud band. Normally have a 28mm 68 ES in the focuser, for my unfussy eyes not a bad scope at all.

[browncoat]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll definitely check out that software.

MattT Is it possible to do any photography with our scope and a canon EOS 550D?

[MattT]

I'm not into photo stuff I assume you mean for terrestrial and astro? Doubt astro would work, maybe someone else knows.

[dannat]

There will be a fair bit of violet if you try photography with th e scope, you could get some monochromatic shots though, incl the moon

[dannat]

Dup