..I think I have a scope! Some advice please... :)

[Astrogirl]

Hi, would first like to thank those who I met at the meet in Wymeswold on Sunday 26th May was  a great first experience for me & you all made me feel very welcome, so thank you.  I left feeling truly inspired, if a little overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge you guys had but great advice taken on board too so haven't rushed into any purchases just yet...

 

I'm officially hooked & hoping to get my first book soon 'Turn Left At Orion' which was suggested by a couple of members that night.  I've also managed to find a telescope hidden away in my parent's loft which is the purpose of this question really.

 

Does anyone know if this is worth getting started with (please bear with me, I will just list down the info I have & hopefully it makes sense!)

 

SOLIGOR RT-1000/3.7E

astronomical telescope

refractor  D=93mm F=1000mm

 

..ideally I would like to start off with identifying planets & stars, but hopefully too I would like to see some DSO such as galaxies & nebulae.  Ultimately my ambition with this is to get into astrophotography - I have a lonnnnggg way to go though & lots of reading/practising to do!!

 

x

 

 

[Craig]

I have a copy of Turn Left at Orion you can have.

[Guest Tweedledum]

Don't forget to download a planetarium prog. Stellarium can be found here :--http://www.stellarium.org/

[Perkil8r]

A quick hunt on Go Ogle as I call it reveals a few reports, none of which are too shabby

 

FYI it is now going under the manufacturer GSO and seems pretty good at first glance. I can't vouch for the optics personally having not looked through one but for planets and the moon it should be ideal to get started with

[Astrogirl]

Thanks Craig & Damian.

 

I've managed to get stellarium on my laptop a couple of months ago, just need to get it on my android phone ideally - I downloaded google sky map the other night but it doesn't seem as detailed as the stellarium one?

[Astrogirl]

Thanks Mike, ..will attempt to give it a go then as soon as we get some clear night weather ..eager to get started!

[Brantuk]

Sounds like a good achromatic starter scope. Here's a link to the spec for it: http://www.gs-telescope.com/content.asp?id=118

 

Moon and planets should give good views - possibly double stars too - try it on Albeiro and you should see two stars - one gold and one blue.

[xanthic]

If you don't mind shelling out a couple of quid, Sky Safari is superior to Google Sky and to Stellarium in some aspects.

Edited May 29, 2013 by xanthic

[Craig]

Julia,

 

Do you come by Nottingham at all, as I can meet you somewhere and pass the book to you.

 

If not, we'll need to find a way of getting it to you.

[BAZ]

That's not  bad scope to get going with; a good find there, I wished my (late) parents had an attic like that!

 

Have you got the tripod and mount as well?

[Astrogirl]

Thanks Leigh, I will try the Sky Safari it sounds good.  I don't get to Notts very often Craig, but if I do would be great to borrow the book sometime & yes Martyn, the scope has a tripod & mount.  great to hear it's good to get started with, ..thanks everyone for the advice..x

[Orion]

That sounds like a good scope in terms of the objective diameter 3.7 inche refractor - wow. If the optics are good, you should be able to see a fair amount of things with that.  Have a look at epsilon lyrae, the double double in Lyra. Not sure if it's a demanding test on optics but certainly a test of some description (not sure how much the star doubles are seperated by in arc seconds).

 

A test of the optics could be to look at a star in focus (not a very bright star, but may be one of magnitude 3-4?). Focus it to a point of light and see if you can see a faint diffraction ring around the star. Then, put the star out of focus a slight amount and observe what you see. It should look like a disk with homogeneous amount of light.  Then rack the focusser back to focus and continue the other side of focus by the same amount exactly. The image should again be a disk with homogeneous light.  It would be good to make a drawing of what you see so we can see it.  If the optics have some abberations, they would show themselves up by the images either side of focus being different. But if you can split certain binary stars, see the Cassini division in Saturns rings (a small dark space between two rings), belts on Jupiter with some detail, then that would be a good sign. But don't be disappointed if you look at a planet and there's not much detail.  Often, it's due to bad seeing conditions. On another day, you may get a glorious view. Derek

[Astrogirl]

Thanks Derek ..I will try that out & keep you posted, it may take a while though as I need to know where to point the thing first!

[+Ibbo]

I would suggest trying to learn a few of the easier constellations or asterisms

 

The plough also know as saucepan, big dipper (part of Ursa Major-the great bear) is almost over head after sunset

 

Cassiopeia , the "W" or "M" is in the north after sunset

 

rising in the East are the 3 wide spread bright stars of the "summer triangle"  which are the brightest stars of 3 constellations brightest of the 3 is Vega (Lyra) Altair (Aquila) and the faintest and most easterly  Deneb (Cygnus)

 

After sunset the bright star to the south is Arcturus (Bootes) which is a bit orange in colour and below that are 2 bright objects the blue/white star is Spica(Virgo)  and to the side a yellow/golden colour is saturn

 

 

Hope that is not too daunting

 

Steve

[Guest]

It certainly sounds like a good "starter" 'scope. If you want a list of objects to see, here's the link: http://philippugh.comlu.com/Directory.html

 

As for photography, it is the long exposure deep sky ones that grab the headlines but did you know that you can capture constellations just by using a compact digital camera. You can hold a camera to the eyepiece to capture the Moon.

[Orion]

Thanks Derek ..I will try that out & keep you posted, it may take a while though as I need to know where to point the thing first!

Yes. Take your time.