Another new stargazer

BC,

May I ask how long you have been in the hobby? where are you observing from City, suburbia or rural?

All these can have a great impact on what you are able to see, and what experience will allow you to detect.

I have a 8" f/6 Newt, First year I had it I really didn't see alot of faint fuzzies especially galaxies pure because my inexperienced eye didn't know what I was looking for. Your are right not to expect Hubble style views through any ground based telescope it simply doesn't have the atmosphere to punch through, even then if you were to put an ep on the Hubble you still wouldn't see what it can pull off imaging-wise.

In my 8" newt I can easily see all the Virgo Messier objects, Infact so far I have logged another 50 odd galaxies in and around the Virgo-Coma galaxy cluster. The ep's I used were GSO 30mm SV and a Pentax 10mm XW. I used my GSO 30mm all the time to track galaxy clusters and zoom in with the 10mm XW

I should also add I live at a dark site, so the sky is up front and personal here

If your Bino's are pulling off better views than your 10" dob then there is something difinitely wrong with the setup of your scope.

These scopes have a great reputation for there price out of whats on the market today.

regards, CS

Originally Posted by asimov

BK7 or Pyrex...Pyrex is supposed to have the edge over BK7, but I would'nt really know.

Pyrex is because of it's low expantion when cooling to meet the outside atmosphere. Meaning it doesn't expand and shrink as much as BK7 does

regards

Originally Posted by chunkylad

Hi Everyone


I decided to do some of my own homework. .....



....The GSO 12" Dob is looking better all the time . It seems hard to beat in the 'bang for buck' stakes!!!. A good place to start for a novice. Also, a good candidate as a conversion project later on methinks.

Cheers

Dave W

Dave if I were you I'd go for the 12", aperture always wins!!!

regards

[ving (David)]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Hi David

what?

[BC]

Sorry, I should clarify, the views from the binos were vastly better than expected, hence big wow factor. The views from the 10" are not as good as expected, hence no wow factor. The telescope does allow greater mag than the binos, so some things are better. The views from the dob finder are very sharp and make me think I should have gone down the refracter path. Yes, I admit to being very inexperienced, I have only just got the scope. I live ~ 25km from Canberra at 900m altitude so the skies are fairly dark. You can tell I'm fairly discouraged. My issues could be with eyepieces but I'm not about to go throwing good money in vain hope at this stage.

BC,

Originally Posted by BC

Sorry, I should clarify, the views from the binos were vastly better than expected, hence big wow factor. The views from the 10" are not as good as expected, hence no wow factor....

Haven't we spoken before, you emailed through my website some weeks back about this scope. You brought it from Bintel in Sydney.

It's sounding to me that it is need of collimnation. I mean the optic are out of whack. Newtonians can be knock out of whack quite easliy. And would probably almost definitely need it after a drive from Sydney.

have a read of this article on collimating your scope. If you take your time you should easliy be able to master this and get it bang on after a couple of practices.
http://skyandtelescope.com/printable...rticle_790.asp

Here is another on the subject...
http://www.oarval.org/collimatE.htm

Failing that see if you can take it along to a local Astro society in Canberra and have one of their people look at it. Read the article trying their tricks to see if it is infact a collimation error.

Please let me know how you do!!

kindest regards

BC,

Oh yeah! forgot to mention you can make a basic collimating cap out an old film canister by drilling a 2-3mm hole, 4mm if so desired in the center of the base and slotting it into the EP holder.

Regards

[slice of heaven]

80mm @ 20x v 200mm @ ??x and theres no wow factor?

You need to hook up with someone and have that scope checked. Somethings amiss.
I doubt whether you'd be satisfied with a refractor either then. A decent refractor at half the aperture will cost you a lot more and you'll lack the detail of the 10".

[dhumpie]

You need to get yourself to a dark sky site and look at some bright messier galaxies...better yet look at some of the brighter globs. You will certainly feel the wow factor when stars come pouring (no screaming!!!!!!) out of a high powered eyepiece. I remember the first time I looked at 47 Tuc through westsky's 10" dob. I almost fell over from the WOW factor....

Darren

[chunkylad (David)]

Hi everyone,

Speaking of the WOW factor, I had it when I first set eyes on Omega Centauri with my 114mm EQ reflector. I can't see myself being dissapointed visualising the same scene with a 10" or 12" Dob.

I have been busy reading and rereading all the ads in A S & T. I have also made a tentative shopping list for basic visual observation essentials.

12" GSO Dob (from Andrews), comes complete with 4 plossl Eps, Crayford focusser, with an optional fan unit.

My 'essentails' list also includes: Cheshire collimator EP & 2X Barlow.

My first question is: is achromatic vs apochromatic worth the extra expense for the Barlow?

Secondly, are there any other 'essentials' to consider purchasing?

Thirdly: Could someone please explain the benifits to be derived from a Telrad (and its basic method of operation)? Would you consider it a worthwhile purchase for a beginner, as an aid to finding DSOs etc?

Lastly, I live in the tropics, and my OTA will live in my workshop adjacent to the house. This means that it lives in similar air as is outside. Do you feel that the fan unit is an important upgrade for me?

Cheers

Dave W

[slice of heaven]

I'll answer the 3rd one.
If youve good dark skies, Yes the Telrad is an excellent accessory .
It uses 3 illuminated target rings to aim the scope. The rings are 1/2 degree,2 degrees and 4 degrees so you can starhop and hunt down your quarry using those rings and a starchart to suit. I've used the Telrad for over 10 years and it makes finding things easy as the rings are overlaid on the natural sky. Finder scopes flip the view and make it a bit harder to understand . Once the objects located in the Telrad, using a low power ep in the focuser you can centre the object then increase magnification. Easy.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

For the medium size dob user , an observing chair is the number one accessory !
A wooden bar stool cut down has served me well.

[asimov (John)]

Hi Chunky. I'll answer your first question. I would definately go the APO barlow. I have both APO & achro barlow...suffice it to say, I dont ever use the achro anymore.

I think a fan is a must! Although I cheat these days & stick the OTA in an airconditioned room until it's the same temp as outside. as the temp continue's to fall, I stoke the fan up every 30 mins or so.

[davidpretorius]

asimov, is the orion shorty plus an APO barlow to your knowledge?

[davidpretorius]

got it, i shouldn't be lazy. From bintel

"Apochromatic Design Gives Ultimate Power-Enhancing Performance. The Orion Shorty-Plus 2x Barlow features an air-spaced, three-element apochromatic optical design of 27mm clear aperture, for superior image sharpness and color correction. And, the Shorty-Plus boasts fully multi-coated optics for even greater light transmission. The Shorty-Plus doubles the magnifying power of any eyepiece, providing better eye relief and edge sharpness than you'd get using a shorter-focal-length eyepiece by itself to achieve the same power. Made in Japan."

[chunkylad (David)]

Hi everyone

Thank you all for your help. I feel I have enough info to make a semi-educated purchase now; enough to get me going anyhow.

Can't wait to up close and personal with more DSOs! I collimated my small newtonian yesterday, and last night (first cloudless night in a while) found the Butterfly Cluster, Ptolemy's Cluster, and Uranus. What a buzz. It makes me itch to get my hands on a bigger OTA.

Cheers

Dave W