What to expect...

[Cork Dork]

Greetings all
After having a little browse of the forums I'd thought I'd drop you all a line...
Over a glass or three of shiraz last night I brought out the telescope (which had been given to me last week) to see what I could see.
I didn't attempt alignment with the polar axis (I was already having difficulty aligning myself in the dark as it was) and pointed it towards the Southern Cross for a squizz.
I have a SkyWatcher Maksutov F:127mm D:1500mm on what appears to be an equatorial mount. The eyepiece is a plossl 25mm.
The view was impressive but not spectacular. Would this set up be able to bring Jupiter and or Saturn into technicolour glory or is the Moon as far as I should be pointing it?
At some stage I'd also like to hook up my Pentax istDS DSLR.
After an email to the appropriate vendor I received a quote for a mount, a T-ring and an oppcam. What are these mysterious items and can I build them myself out of barrel staves and empty wine bottles?
Cheers

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Cork Dork

Greetings all
After having a little browse of the forums I'd thought I'd drop you all a line...
Over a glass or three of shiraz last night I brought out the telescope (which had been given to me last week) to see what I could see.
I didn't attempt alignment with the polar axis (I was already having difficulty aligning myself in the dark as it was) and pointed it towards the Southern Cross for a squizz.
I have a SkyWatcher Maksutov F:127mm D:1500mm on what appears to be an equatorial mount. The eyepiece is a plossl 25mm.
The view was impressive but not spectacular. Would this set up be able to bring Jupiter and or Saturn into technicolour glory or is the Moon as far as I should be pointing it?
At some stage I'd also like to hook up my Pentax istDS DSLR.
After an email to the appropriate vendor I received a quote for a mount, a T-ring and an oppcam. What are these mysterious items and can I build them myself out of barrel staves and empty wine bottles?
Cheers

You should be able to see Saturn and Jupiter quite well in this scope and you'll definitely see some colour in both. The Moon....well, it's the Moon. You'll see various shades of grey and maybe some muted browns here and there. Don't expect to see much colour in faint fuzzies like nebulae and galaxies. Your eyes can't pick up enough light to really see bright colours, however on a moonless night you might see some very muted greenish grey in bright nebulae like Orion and eta Carina. Stars will show some colour because they're essentially bright point sources. However you'll be stumped sometimes by binaries that have a high contrast in luminosity between the components. Some will not reflect their true colours as the contrast between the two (or more) stars will make colours look different.

Well, the mount (camera??) and the T-ring will allow you to attach your camera and such to your scope and allow to add eyepieces/filters in between the camera and your scopes optics.

As for making the components out of empty bottles and barrel staves, you could try but I doubt they'd work

[Cork Dork]

thanks renormalised
i'll re-anaesthetise myself against the frost soon and look for jupiter by jove!

[Dujon]

Originally Posted by Cork Dork

I didn't attempt alignment with the polar axis (I was already having difficulty aligning myself in the dark as it was)

A man after my own heart you are, CD.

Originally Posted by Cork Dork

Would this set up be able to bring Jupiter and or Saturn into technicolour glory or is the Moon as far as I should be pointing it?

I'm not too sure about the technicolour glory, but you sure as heck should see colour. Even in my little two inch vintage department store refractor Saturn turns up as bluish and Jupiter as an orange sphere with bands. The Orion nebula looks green through the wee machine - no hint of the reds you might see in photographs.

I can't help with the photography bit as I haven't tried.

[WadeH (Wade)]

Welcome Cork Dork.

Sounds like you are having a lot of fun. Wine and scope, fantastic!

Speaking of scope, thats an interesting unit you have there. Focal lenght 127mm and apperture 1500mm, I'd love to see a picture? Maybe the wine effect.

Keep it up.

[GazzMeister]

Here's a site that can give you an idea, http://eaglenebula.net/astronomy/tel...Comparison.php There is another good site out there but I can't remember it at the moment. Sometimes people can be dissapointed with their first viewing of a gray smudgy nebula, but for myself nothing, absolutely nothing, comes close to actually seeing the real deal through the eyepiece. Your scope sounds good (fellow skywatcher owner) and you should be able to get great views of the planets and decent views of the brighter deep space objects.

Gareth

[Jeff]

Hey Corkie,

Saturn should be pretty easy to find for you ... if you haven't already found it (due north in Adelaide at about 7:15pm, about 40 degress above the horizon).

You should be able to discern the rings, a hint of yellow, and maybe some of its moons with your 25mm eyepiece. Ideally you'll want 150x to 200x magnification to enjoy the planets once located in the scope .... (somewhere between 12mm and 7mm for your scope). Maybe there was a 10mm that came with your scope?

Cheers.

[psyche101]

That is an excellent site. Thanks for leaving that link. I am getting the 10" out tonight to hunt down M51! That looks spectacular!

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by Dujon

...... Saturn turns up as bluish........

are you sure you took the blue cellophane packing off the scope?

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by psyche101

That is an excellent site. Thanks for leaving that link. I am getting the 10" out tonight to hunt down M51! That looks spectacular!

It only gets to 4 deg elevation from Melbourne. Hope you get a good view.

[psyche101]

Hi Eric!

I am in SE QLD, Gold Coast, I have been trying to spot the Sombrero Galaxy without much luck, could you suggest to a new guy what might be a good bright target in they way of Galaxies I should aim for? Your advice on the Butterfly cluster was spot on. My new Dob gave it a life I didnt know possible. Just breathtaking. As was the nebulae in Orion, as you said, no colour, but more detail than I was expecting, and a real treat, many thanks for all your help along the way friend.
PS, think I finally got that goto sorted, if I get a chance tonight, I am going to try again. LOL. Getting there! What a great way to learn though. Thank goodness for the excellent Stellarium