Tearing whats left of my hair out....

[Weescotty (Kevin)]

The Mrs had decided for her birthday she would like a telescope so she could look at the planets.
So after a lot of searching I picked up a Skywatcher SW500S.
Last night for the first time we had pretty good clear skies, although there is quite a bit of light pollution at our home location.
So I moved it outside into the backyard a used the finder scope to line up on what I am pretty sure was Jupiter (to the left and down a bit from Orion)
Put in a 25mm eyepiece, then uncovered the main scope.
NOTHING!
I can only assume that the finder scope and the telescope aren't aligned.
So what do I use to align it?

Cheers
Kev

[The_bluester (Paul)]

If you have view of a street light or similar object (as far away as you can get) then you can use that to align the two. Visually align the scope by looking along the tube and start with the lowest power (longest focal length) eyepiece to give you the best shot at finding it in the main scope.

Then swap to a high power eyepiece and center the object up in the main scope before aligning the finder on to it.

Fixed objects are the best so you are not trying to align on a moving target.

[scagman (John)]

Hi Kevin, Welcome.

I sometime use the moon to get my initial aligment as its big and easier to find, Then move onto a bright star to get better accuracy. But as Paul said a street light or other fixed objects are usually easier. You can do the alignment during the day too, which might make it a bit easier. "DONT use the sun thou"

Cheers.

[Poita (Peter)]

Set the scope up during the day as a double check that everything is working okay, focus on a far away tree or as suggested a power pole or streetlamp.
Align the finderscope to the image in the telescope.

Then have a go at night on the moon and get focused and aligned a bit better. Then when your eyes recover, have a hunt for Jupiter. It will be worth it once it pops into view.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Hi Kevin,

to IIS!


Like John suggests, try doing this during the day. Particularly since you are also using an equatorial german style mount whose movements are a little perculiar to start with. You'll find going through the alignment process a bit easier for this reason too. Take your time as the finder may not show the image right side up, but upside down and left to right. This can add to the confusion. This isn't a mistake this orientation of the image. To achieve a correct orientation image means using more glass elements that both result in reduced light getting through, but makes producing the finder more expensive.

After you've aligned, move the scope away from the original target and see if you can easily acquire it again with the finder. Just remember to have a low power eyepiece in place.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Hi Kevin and as others have said to IIS!!

Congratulations on purchasing a first scope. Getting finders aligned is often a bugbear for beginners, and they often need tweaking each time you take the scope out. Once you have done it a couple of times it is easy and only takes a few seconds.
As other have said the daylight is the best time to do this with one small warning. WATCH OUT FOR THE SUN!!!!
If you look in the eyepiece and the scope is pointed at the sun you will irreparable blind that eye. The heat can also shatter the eyepiece.
This warning is especially important for beginners using EQ mounts as they move in a non intuitive way and you may not even realize it is getting near the sun. Safest thing is to be in the shade of a veranda when doing your alignment.

Malcolm

[Weescotty (Kevin)]

Thanks guys,
I will try out the suggestions sometime this week.
Hopefully this time I won't look like an idiot .

Thought I'd better get the basics right before she starts getting her own 'add-ons'.

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

If the finder is causing problems, a good "add-on" can be a red dot finder...

Welcome to the madness...

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Whereabouts in Sydney Kevin?

I used the distant object method this morning to realign my guide scope after changing its dovetail and mounting rings.

[Weescotty (Kevin)]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

Whereabouts in Sydney Kevin?

I used the distant object method this morning to realign my guide scope after changing its dovetail and mounting rings.

Lilyfield.

[Poita (Peter)]

My next bit of advice would be to purchase a Telrad, I find them so much easier to use than finders. Best thing I ever bought.

[Suzy]

This is a very helpful thread- everyone has contributed such fantastic advice. Bookmarked to help anyone else in the future!

+1 for a red dot finder or telrad.
To this day I still struggle using a finderscope to know where to point the scope- there's just too many stars visible thru it, and that's where the RDF (red dot finder) comes in handy for me. It has zero magnification, so what you see thru it, is the sky as it is with your naked eye.

There are a couple of different types of RDFs- the ones that you look through a tube and the ones that have a square mirror (no tube). From my own experience with using both, I find the one with a square mirror gives a wider view and very easy to look thru without cranking my neck. Whereas the tube design, I've really got to look thru it & has a smaller field of view (fov). I have both of them working at the moment on two different scopes so I'm very familiar with their ease of use factor.
Telrad's are great and many here love them- I had one myself. However, I found that they were susceptible to dewing very easily which would have shortened my observing session in no time had I not had an RDF as well. I don't know quite why, but my square mirror RDF doesn't encounter the dew problems (is it because the glass is much smaller than a telrad I wonder.) I don't know how other people go with them & dew, but for me it was a constant veritable nightmare. I then spent extra & bought a dew shield for it, which btw had to be slightly modified by filing the edges so it would swing over the glass (doing research on this at the time of mods taught me that this was a popular problem). Anyhow, that didn't work anyway because I kept forgetting to pull down the dew shield everytime I looked thru it *sigh*.
I also personally found the rings distracting (many don't) when trying to place the dot on a star, even though I could dim it. I also could never get it to work for me successfully using the circles- again, I'm sure that's just me but I thought I'd throw that in there seeing as I was speaking from my own experience. I found it much easier to measure the sky with my hand (sometimes bit of gymnastics in front of RDF )

What works best for me is having a finder on the scope plus the RDF. You use the RDF to pop the scope on the brightest star and then look thru the finder to go deeper for star hopping.
You will need to drill two holes in the tube to accommodate another dovetail plate.

And there's a huge bonus here by having the two- if one of your finder's gets knocked out of aligmnent- it's a very easy process to re-align it using the one that's already lined up.
When you travel with the tube in the car, protect your finders from hitting anything in case the alignment gets knocked!

Sheeesh and I thought this was going to be a quick post
Yes, I can hear you guys say "that's impossible!"

And sorry for not mentioning it before...
A big welcome Kevin to IIS, you're wife is in great hands by the looks!

*cough* we've already starting spending your money.

[Weescotty (Kevin)]

Thanks everyone!
Used the moon early this evening to line up the finderscope.
Hubby doesn't look like an idiot anymore lol.

So we have -
SW500S
25mm eyepiece = 30x
With 2 x Barlow = 60x
10mm eyepiece = 75x
With 2 x Barlow = 150x

Was thinking of one those light filters and a moon filter...
Any recommendations or suggestions on anything else?

Cheers!

[Vegeta (Ibrahim)]

Originally Posted by Suzy

*cough* we've already starting spending your money.

I would recomend the moon filter first; It REALLY makes the moon enjoyable to view without worrying about discomfort. You wouldn't need a light pollution filter on the planets unless you plan on viewing nebulae

[Weescotty (Kevin)]

Re: moon filter .. Will get one.

Well thanks to everyone she had a good look at the moon tonight, then I eventually found Jupiter as well.
Could see the bands and I think 4 moons.
Got the obvious question from her - can I get it any larger?
So what would be the 'smallest' mm size eyepiece that would be usable with a 750mm focal length?

What I found surprising was that at 75x you can actually see the moon moving in the eyepiece!

[vaztr (Andrew)]

Hi Guys,

Welcome to apature fever!!

Rule of thumb for a scope is 50 x inch of apature is max magnification. Your SW500 therefore is capable of 300 x magnification ON A REALLY GOOD NIGHT. So for your 750mm F length the smalles eyepiece would be 2.5mm (or 5 with the 2 x barlow).

After that you have to start looking a a bigger mirror

More of your money spent *cough*

VAZ

[Varangian (John)]

I would recommend anywhere between a 6-8mm eyepiece for Jupiter. You need to find a balance between the ability of your scope and upping the mag as much as possible while retaining good detail on the object. The higher the mag the less bright an object appears and the more difficult it will be to make out detail (e.g. Jupiters belts). Clear skies.

[Weescotty (Kevin)]

Got the Moon filter yesterday, it clouded over 30 minutes later, and has stayed clouded over.
Jinxed?

[Rob P]

Hi Kevin,

Welcome to the madness.

Hate to break the news to you, but the amount of cloud cover & the time the cover lasts is directly proportional to any astronomy equipment you buy

Enjoy the hobby

Rob

(And my apologies to Central Queensland - just been spending my birthday money the Wet starts this week!!!)

[Cam (Cam)]

I beg to differ. I worked on the 50X per inch and as a result ended up with some expensive eyepieces I consider worthless in the scope I purchased them for. I'm a newbie too and got some helpful advice on here (sorry I can't remember from who) on seeing and magnification. Might just be my eyes (I've been told bourbon and smoking removes oxygen from them and reduces night vision) I stick to about 35X. I would rather look at a smaller object with great detail than a larger blurred image missing a lot. One thing you have done right is find this forum. Even if you don't post you can usually find the questions you want to ask already answered by these helpful people with a wealth of knowledge, and a lot of different opinions sometimes so you can see what works best for you. If you can find a local astronomy club,join. I'm a member of Snake Valley in Vic.We have only been on two camps but it's great to meet up with some like minded people (Snake Valley members are great! friendly, accepting and helpful) and things can make a lot more sense seeing them physically done rather than just reading about it. That said, back to polar aligning lol. Goodluck enjoy the sky.