Telescopes

Archive for September, 2009

i was thinking something along the lines of this one here….
http://store.fortdiscovery.biz/tb702.html

will i be able to see the moon, stars, planets, etc? Just curious as to what i will get out of my money. thanks for any help!

I would certainly recommend that you step up $10.00 (yes, just $10.00) and go to the 6" model.

You have the right idea. A dobsonian is the best investment for the casual amateur. You will easily be able to see the phases of Venus, the bands of Jupiter (and its moons), the rings of Saturn and Titan; and if you have a dark-sky sight Tethys, Rhea, and Dione are not out of the question. You’ll have access to a number of open clusters, as well as at least 1 globular –though it may not resolve– and all of the Messier Objects.

The best part about a dob is that you will have to learn your way around the sky. After just a few months of week-end use, you will begin to feel comfortable about consulting a good star chart, and then taking your scope out for "the hunt."

If, later, you choose to move from casual observer to dedicated observer, the move to a 10" or 12" dob will satisfy you.

Good luck!

Oh, yes, here’s the link:

http://tinyurl.com/65334h

HTH

Charles

i cant really see much..i look at the moon which looks GREAT! and i look at Saturn which looks like a little pebble with a ring around it..haha well i was wondering what kind of eyepieces should i buy for this telescope? my price range isnt high so i was looking for some good decent eyepieces that doesnt cost 300+..i wanted to get a kit too so i dont have to buy them by single..if i look at a nebula in my telescope with the correct eyepiece..how will it look? im excited and want to know what should i expect?

Avoid kits. They contain a lot of cheap eyepieces in focal lengths you’ll probably never use. You’re better off buying a small number of good eyepieces.

The 10mm eyepiece gives way too much magnification and too narrow a field of view for most purposes. Top priority would be a low-power wide-field eyepiece. My most used eyepiece is a Tele Vue Nagler 22mm, but that’s probably outside your price range. I’m currently testing an Orion Stratus 24mm which looks promising, giving the maximum field of view possible in a 1.25" eyepiece. The GSO SuperView 30mm is widely available under various brand names, and is a remarkably good inexpensive 2" eyepiece.

Second priority would be a Barlow lens or a short focal length eyepiece to give you higher magnification for the Moon and planets. A Tele Vue Barlow or the Orion Ultrascopic Barlow are both highly recommended. It’s worth spending a little more to get a premium Barlow, as a cheap Barlow just degrades the performance of all your eyepieces. 5mm would be a good focal length with your scope.

[Edit] The 55mm and 38mm which n2s.astronomy suggests are too long in focal length for your f/5 scope, and won’t work well.

Nebulae will probably not look as you expect, if your expectations are based on colour images from the internet and magazines. Our eyes see only in black and white at low light levels, so nebulae appear as wisps of grey, rather like smoke. Star clusters, on the other hand, look better in a small telescope than they do in any picture, because we see the individual stars at different brightnesses.

A 10×50 binocular and a good star atlas are essentials for finding deep sky objects. My favourite atlas is the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas (Sky).

it cant be turned roundit has to sit on the tripod head with the dowel between the 2 azmuth adj bolts
it cant be turned round it has to sit on the tripod head with the dowel between the 2 azmuth adj bolts

You certianly must have the instructions to the thing,, how can we answer this without knowing what the thing even looks like, My suggestion is to remove it and turn the thing around until you get it done in the proper position,, Good luck