Hey fellow astronomers! I just bought myself a secondhand Newt Optex OP600 reflective. It's a 8" with 1000mm focal length. Pay $330 for it comes with 4 eye pieces.
Ditto to all the above.
5. Don't clean it unless you REALLY have to. A bit of dust (even quite a bit of dust) isn't going to worry it too much. The mirror is too easy to scratch so infrequent cleaning is the order of the day. If you feel you have to, it's not difficult and if you do a search for mirror cleaning you will find plenty of threads/posts
Many thanks for the help. I'm also thinking of picking up astrophotography. Will this telescope do? what camera should I be getting? I don't want to spend too much $$$ on one and came across the Phillips webcam which you can attach to a telescope? would i need filters for it?
ES you could do planetary imaging with a webcam through it, but there are much better options if you want to do DSOs as well. The problem is not so much the telescope (is the scope actually 1000mm long or is it only about 500mm long, Important to know this) as the mount. You might be able to track a planet for webcamming if you're careful but DSOs are only going to cause you grief with that setup.
Seriously, if you are thinking of astrophotography, including DSOs, then your minimum setup cost, to do it with a minimum amount of fuss, you are looking $3000 plus. Tha'ts a good motorised mount (EQ5 or HEQ or EQ6 (more expensive)), good quality small scope for imaging (that one might be ok, I don't know the quality of th optex), cheap guidescope and rings, Camera (DSI for about $500) and a reticle for manual guiding. And that's just to start with. If you want goto and autoguiding add another $1500 to $2500 to that. Roughly.
Hope I'm not putting you off .
If you want to just do planetary and lunar then depending on the quality of your scope you could probably do it with a webcam and a laptop (opps I forgot about that up above, add another $400 to $700 for a second hand one with serial port and parallel port as well (for long exposure webcamming. need parallel port (LPT1))
For astrophotography, the telescope will probably do, but the mount will probably not. Webcam will do Moon & planets but not so good with deep sky. Mount won't do planets. So that leaves the Moon for imaging, which would still be fun.
Seems like quite a good deal you got there, especially if the mount is of good quality . An 8" can see more objects than you could possibly see in your lifetime so I think you will get a lot of good use out of it for many years to come. I have an 8" and I have had some great views of DSO's (from dark skys) so it is certianly possible. One thing you have to become familiar with is collimation. Reflectors require collimation every time they get bumped around a bit (If you move it carefully out to the backyard should be fine). Collimation is simply aligning the mirrors so that the big one at the bottom of the tube (The Primary Mirror) points directly to the centre of the small one at the top of the tube (The Secondary Mirror), and the secondary mirror points directly to your eye. There are a number of tools to help with this and make the job easy and a quick search of the forums will provide you with more info on the tools and the techniques. Welcome to astronomy.
P.S. I would recomend you spend a few months just doing visual work and familiarising yourself with the sky and the scope before you get into imaging, IMHO.
Yep, i'd have to agree with that..The setup you have now will provide you with hours of fun,,,no hassle fun,,,i attended an observing night a few nights ago, and there were guys there with 10,000 bucks worth of gear, trying to do imaging...the cursing and cussing coming from them was unbelievable, they just weren't having any fun...but me and another iis member just pokked around with his dob and my 8" eq newt...we had a blast...So yea...just get out as much as you can...have fun,,,even on moonlit nights(not full moon)...have a good look around the moon...It all helps to learn the art,by the way...have you got the virtual moon atlass?
G,day Ezy, welcome to the forum and the greatest hobby ever.
A 200mm scope like yours will show you thousands of deep sky objects and once you train your eye's to observe efficiently you will even make out some detail in galaxies millions of light years away
Thanks for the warm welcome all. The community is so friendly and helpful around here compared with other forums
well i took out the scope last night at 3.15am since down here in Melbourne was so cloudy until that late. I point the 8" at the moon and saw many many details. really fun. Right below it, there was Jupiter so i decide to have a look at it. Was very disappointing as i can only see a blurry white ball? this because of the moon being right next to it?
The pointing scope is not align with the eyepiece, i tired aligning it but the only alignment i got was horizonally not vertically? anyone know how i can align it properly to the eye piece?
@ astrogeek: what is Collimation?
btw, do you guys get sore back using your scope? i did
Jupiter should certainly look better than that. You should see the two main cloud belts at least (even in poor conditions). Collimation is getting the mirrors optically aligned. I linked the S&T article in my previous post above. It is one of the best and most accessible articles around on collimation. Whereabouts in Melbourne are you?
you need a stool or a chair, if you havn't got one the right height go and get one...will save your back..Sounds like mabye you weren't focussed properly...once focussed on the moon you shouldn't need to adjust the focus then..start with the lowest mag eyepiece(ie the highest number) and center the object..then try the next lowest number..and center again..but you may need to adjust the focus slightly when you change eyepieces..with jupiter you should see a few bright dots around it aswell..its four main moons(but sometimes 1 or more may be behind him)..don't get dissalusioned,it takes a bit of practise,,you'll get the hang of it
I've got the same size thing, only in the SkyWatcher and it's good fun and very capable of very nice views of DSOs and planets.
Stick with it. Get familiar with its capabilities and when you're ready get yourself a couple of better quality eyepieces and definitely a better mount.
You'll need slightly better quality eyepieces eventually in a fast scope to get the most out of it but like the previous posts have said, you'll need to learn how to make sure your optics are correctly aligned (collimated).
There's no easy way around this I'm afraid. You've just got to jump in and have a go. You'll more than likely get it wrong the first few times and think you're ruined your scope. Don't worry. The good news is it's not broken. It's just out of alignment and waiting for you to figure it out. And you will. Eventually
Given that you are not familiar with collimation there's every likelihood you're not aware of what to look for to determine if your collimation is out. So it probably is.
It might have something to do with why Jupiter wasn't so pretty through the eyepiece but the moon was??? The moon's (a little) more forgiving on poor collimation than details on Jupiter.
I'd agree there's also a chance you're not focusing correctly.
Also make sure you were in fact pointing at Jupiter and not a star!
Otherwise, go for it. The night sky loves being looked at, when there's not clouds everywhere!!!!!!!!!
yea, i forgot about that...make sure it is jupiter ur looking at..to allighn your finder use a telegraph pole or something ON EARTH ..put it in the center of the view through the scope first, then allighn the finder to the object and recheck you didnt move it when you adjusted the finder...then do it on the highest mag eyepiece you have..to make it more accurate...and like i tell all newbies..Get a red dot finder...man these tings are worht there weight in gold..only around 20 bucks from ebay..save you heaps of hassles
As soon as you get a nice clear night try a 15 or 20mm eyepiece on Tuc 47 or Omega Centauri.
Both spectacular globular clusters and your scope will show them beautifully. You'll also be blown away by the Orion Nebula.
You'll need to be up around 2am (or later, if you can ) for Omega Centauri to be nice and high but if you've never seen it before it's worth the extra height in the sky. Then hop over to the jewel Box (NGC 4755) in the Southern Cross, sweep over to Eta Carinae ... and keep going to the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) between the constellations Mensa and Dorado and that should be a very enjoyable hour or two... taking in a small slice of the southern sky, before you swing round to the East where Jupiter should be burning bright close to 20 degrees abover the horizon.
For Jupiter, try to have an eyepiece in the 6mm to 10mm range, which will give you about 160x to 100x magnification. That should be plenty to bring out at least the 2 major equatorial bands and certainly the 4 main moons, if all are visible?
Do you know anyone who can lend you an eyepiece in that range with acceptable eye relief? By that, I mean an eyepiece where you don't have to push your eyeball right up against the glass to take in the view?
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and 
EzyStyles
) for Omega Centauri to be nice and high but if you've never seen it before it's worth the extra height in the sky. Then hop over to the jewel Box (NGC 4755) in the Southern Cross, sweep over to Eta Carinae ... and keep going to the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) between the constellations Mensa and Dorado and that should be a very enjoyable hour or two... taking in a small slice of the southern sky, before you swing round to the East where Jupiter should be burning bright close to 20 degrees abover the horizon.
