Hi from Hobart

[johnnyb (John)]

Hi All ,

I joined the forum a few weeks ago and have been reading lots (thanks to everyone!!), but I'm only just getting around to posting because I have some questions

I bought a 2nd hand Celestron Astromaster 130 from the classifieds here, plus a couple of eyepieces. I didn't want to spend too much to start with as I don't have a lot of time (I have 3 young kids), but I thought this scope would be good enough to let me know if I want to get serious, and if not I won't have spent a bucket load of money. We've had very few clear skies since I've had it, but the few nights I've taken it out I've had a few sucesses and a few frustrations.

The successes were a great view of the moon (over the last couple of nights), and a great view of the jewel box (both of which impressed the wife as well).

The main frustation I'm having is actually viewing the star that I want through the eyepiece When I first got it I only had a 10mm eyepiece (which gives me 65x magnification as the scope has a 650mm focal length). The scope has a built-on "finderscope", which is a little zero magnification thing with two red LED spots in its centre that you are meant to align when you look though it. I've tried to align this during the day (by centering something through the scope on a distant hill and adjusting the finderscope), but then at night when I look through the finderscope and center it on a star the star is nowhere to be seen through the eyepiece. It just seems to have too much parallax error when trying to line up the two red spots, and the red dots are too bright to see "through" them to the star you are trying to centre. I actually found the jewel box by randomly moving the scope around while looking through the eyepiece, which obviously isn't going to cut it in general.

I don't know if it's me (maybe I just need to spend some more time with it, and try aligning it again during the day) or whether the finerscope is crappy. I don't really know how to use it I guess - should I have my eye up close to the finderscope, or should I be a long way back from it??? If it is crappy is there an alternative. I see lots of posts refering to a Telrad - is that what I need? I bought a cheap 25mm eyepiece as I thought that would let me see enough of the sky to find what I want, but the few times I've tried it even that seems to provide too much magnification and I still can't see what I thought I centered in the finderscope. Maybe I need a 40mm eyepiece!

Part of the difficulty may be the equatorial mount, but I actually quite like it, even if it is a "bit" awkward to get it pointing where you want it to sometimes, and the eyepiece can be difficult to get to. (The way the equatorial mount moves makes me feel like I'm part of the universe , which is why I like it).

I haven't yet tried to properly align the mount so that I could use the RA and DEC circles to find a star. I thought that would tackle that after I had a bit more play time , so I don't think that's the solution (but I may be wrong).

So any suggestion/tips are more than welcome.

Thanks (and sorry about such a long rant for my first post).

John.

[erick (Eric)]

Hi John

I think that your hilltop may still be too close. You really want something several km away - a distant TV transmission tower is one. If you are east of the Derwent, can you find a place to look to the towers on Mount Wellington? They should be far enough away.

Otherwise, bite the bullet and try aligning that red dot finder on the Moon. You can even do this during daylight hours. It shouldn't be too hard to get the Moon into the field of view of the scope. Use the 25mm eyepiece. That is not too much magfnification. Try to centre a recognizable part of the Moon, then try to align the red dot finder so it is on the same part. Once you get close, more to a bright star after dark and see if you can get it any closer.

See if you can find Saturn - that should be a nice view. Then try for Omega Centauri - but you might have to wait for a few weeks until the full Moon is past.

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Hello Johnnyb
I am in Hobart too, have a little set up at home. Have been trying to find like minded souls down here for astro nights. Send me a PM .
I am a relatively new guy to this game also.
Graham

[Jen]

welcome to IIS Johnny

Yep try what Eric suggested i always use the moon as my first target to align the finder scope with the eyepiece good luck

[johnnyb (John)]

Thanks for the suggestions Eric and Jen. I had a go aligning the finder with the moon yesterday (before dark) and then tried again at night. I used the finder to point at the moon and it was in the scope view (at least with the 25mm eyepiece)!!. And I also tried to find beta Crux and the jewel box, and managed that after a few attempts too (so I'm not sure if it was skill or luck ). I still think the red spots are too bright and it's hard to see the star you're aiming for, but maybe I just need to get used to it. There was lots of cloud flying past last night as well, which didn't help. I was hoping to try and find Saturn as you suggested Eric, but that part of the sky was covered in solid cloud all night

So I'll just persist I think, and see how it goes before buying any more kit.

John.