New telescope Sky watcher Explorer ...any opinions ?

[Guest nightingale]

I bought this new one just yesterday and is yet to arrive tomorrow. Is anyone using this ? I have 7 days to return if get some negatives comments as I have seen 2-3 good customer  web  reviews  about this piece of equipment . I am rather new in this field and was willing to spend £250 ...(kind of , but have spent more ), I opted out of DOB skyliner due to the size .  This also comes with   magnifying eye pieces  and that 2X  Barlow lens .Please advice ...

This is what I bought :

 

Sky-Watcher Explorer-130P SupaTrak AUTO Parabolic Newtonian Reflector 
1x Sky-Watcher UltraWide 6mm Eyepiece 
1x Tal Moon Filter

[red dwalf]

this is the scope and mount i started off with, to be honest it was a great little thing, very easy to use and light to handle, should serve you well.

same scope as in my aviatar on the left.

Edited March 3, 2014 by red dwalf

[Guest nightingale]

AHA ....Rob ...that is the best I have heard !! looks a good piece of stuff there .....nice ! thanks as I am a bit nervous really . It comes home tomorrow. I shall keep you updated on how I cope . 

nightingale

[tuckstar]

Hi, I have a 130 explorer and It does just fine. Yeah ok your not going yo get details out of galaxies or anything like that, but you can see them, and the beauty is that it's small enough to drag out to some dark skies and easy to set up. I'm normally at the eyepiece while everyone else is swearing at their gear, a common occurrence I might add. Seriously it's about the best of the smaller newts that's out there and you won't be disappointed. If you like the hobby you can upgrade later. You will struggle a little with just a 6 mm eyepiece, you'll want something that's a bit lower power. If you can come to a meet and try some eyepieces out as some people get on with some but not others.

good luck and hope you get clear skies.

Andy

[red dwalf]

indeed the 6mm eyepiece might be too much for it, if i remember correctly i liked the 15, 20 or 25 mm eyepieces with that scope,

if youi get chance have a look at M42 with the scope, it`s a great view and i swear i could see some colour with my scope, jupiter will be good also although alittle small, Saturn was a lovely view with it but that was when old Saturn was alittle higher in the sky than it is now.

[Guest nightingale]

Thank you . I can actually return the 6mm eye piece if it is not recommended ...it is a good 34 quid ! I cd get the other ones recommended . M42 ?  hehehe....sounds like a motorway ...is that the name ? any other specifications? Yes < Andy , the reason I cancelled teh Skyliner DOB ( I hear it is just FAB) is because of the size. I did feel a sad about this because there wasn't a huge price difference too . 

I expect mine anytime now ...so waiting excitedly !! Will  let you all know how I cope . 

[tuckstar]

The m stands for messier. Charles messier was a french astronomer who primarily looked for comets. He made a list of 101 objects in the sky that are not comets, so he didn't miss identify the comets he did find. In the process he left a nice catalogue of objects for us to find.

M42 (messier number 42) is the orion nebula found in orions belt. You can't miss it with a scope it's huge.

With my 130 I find an 8mm is great for planets and luna, and then a 13 mm for intermediate and 20/25 mm for wide views and a 5 mm for that one time a year seeing is excellent ;-).

[Daz Type-R]

Hi,

As you appear to very keen and also very new to this wonderful hobby, quite a lot of the time we use abbreviations and acronyms to shorten our sentences.  For a newbie, this can be a little confusing.... 

Can I suggest you have a read through some of the posts in the beginners section under guides and tutorials, can be found here......

http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/forum/50-guides-tutorials/

This should get you up to date on abbreviations etc.

Have fun!

[red dwalf]

sorry M42 is the Orion Nebula, forget not everyone knows things like this, great sight through a telescope

[Guest nightingale]

you experts must be fed up with people like me ....anyway I am learning !! My telescope has arrived and I took the whole morning to assemble . The instructions weren't exactly great and the pics didn't match it . I didn't  know where the tube would go on the mount as there were no rings .  Anyway it is mounted..but I am a bit sad that power supply cord is not provided .  It has a 8 battery provider ( battereis not incl...which is Ok)

it now also pushes me to buy a  back up (7HR)power battery thing  and it is £59 . Lets see how this performs. The good thing is , it is not very heavy and looks portable to me . MIne is not blue as the pictures say . It is a grey -black .

Just one question .....mine moves only up and down and not sideways ...is this normal and how telescopes are made ? So if I need to see another part of the sky I wd have to move the whole tripod ( like a camera) .  Also ...at what height is normal for the tripod . I started from the top and now it is about 5ft 5in till the tube  ...Sd it be any lower ...Opinions?

Pl feel free to tell me ....whatever you are thinking  . I sound really annoying and stupid!

[red dwalf]

Don't be daft, if you dont ask questions then its harder to learn, ask as many questions as you like.

I would say the battery pack does work but can soon get though the batteries,

I might go for a mains supply of leisure battery will last longer than the 7amp packs which are expensive,

The mount should move left and right as well as up and down.

[Guest nightingale]

Oh yes ...it does with that remote and not manually ...I was really being silly . I had no batteriies and had to go and get them. Now it moves. Hurray !! I got a 2x barlow with it and where does that go . I am so scared to shove something into the view lens . 

[Guest nightingale]

Ok ...it was all set and we had a wonderful clear sky today but sadly I wasn't able to see anything , not even a star . I did not try the moon as it was on the other side of my drive and it wasn't visible from my garden . I cd see loads of stars using my naked eye instead . what am I doing wrong ? I was out side for 3 hrs and cd not see a thing . BTW .. I did remove the caps . 

[tuckstar]

Don't despair it will be something silly. Are you using the 6 mm eye piece you mentioned? Might be that it is to much mag for the scope/ conditions. And it would be a very narrow field of view.

Barlow lens goes into the focuser then eyepiece into that to increase the magnification of selected eyepiece by multiplying the focal length by stated amount, in your case X2.

Edited March 4, 2014 by tuckstar

[Guest nightingale]

No I did not use the 6mm at all after you told me not to , I didn't open it at all . I tried Barlow and the 25 mm which came with the telescope . It was totally dark . Is it the hand control operation ? I don't know how to sort this out . Don't think it cd be the alignment problem .

[tuckstar]

Hhmmm. Try for the moon tomorrow with just your 25 mm to start with. Or in the day if you can find a chimney or church that you can point at without upsetting the neighbours; -). If you can see anything have a play with focusing. Has it got a red dot finder or a small finder scope? If you can try to align this at the same time.

Just a thought, if you try it in the day make sure YOU DO NOT POINT IT ANYWHERE NEAR THE SUN!!!!!

Edited March 5, 2014 by tuckstar

[Teslar]

Use the 25mm and wind the focus well out then gradually wind it in. If you still don't see anything you might need a spacer to get more back travel. Not sure of which focuser is fitted to your scope but many newer scope are set up for astro photography and the locus point is too far in for visual

[Guest nightingale]

It came with a small finder and actually I am not sure how this even operates . sorry . I am rather depressed !!

[oldfruit]

Don`t worry too much, you would be surprised how many times we have had folks visit us at Badger Farm or other dark site, seeming unable to get there telescope to show anything. It is usually something quite simple and until someone shows you how will you know? Believe me it is usually something that is easily fixed.

[Toymaster]

Ok ...it was all set and we had a wonderful clear sky today but sadly I wasn't able to see anything , not even a star . I did not try the moon as it was on the other side of my drive and it wasn't visible from my garden . I cd see loads of stars using my naked eye instead . what am I doing wrong ? I was out side for 3 hrs and cd not see a thing . BTW .. I did remove the caps . 

 

I had the same problem when I tried my first scope. Saw nothing the first evening, so don't despair.

 

The next day I tried it in the daylight with a distant object to see where the focus was and to check out the eyepieces. These days I always start out with the lower mag 20-25mm eyepiece and then when I have the object in my field of view I move to the higher mag ones or a barlow - Seems to work for me.

 

With the higher mag ones I found it was more critical to get my eye in the right place to see a full image.

If you wear specs like me try with and without them. Just a matter of experience.

 

Keep trying,

 

Adrian

[red dwalf]

you can use that scope well in the daytime, put the eyepiece into the hole at the top of the focuser and secure it with the little thumb screw, then point the scope at a wall some distance away and then while looking throught the eyepiece rotate the focuser knob until focus is achieved.

anyone on the forum thats not too far away from you that could possiably help you out alittle ? don`t despair it`s an easy scope to use and there`s not much that can go wrong with it.

keep going at it, don`t worry and have fun

[tuckstar]

So finder scope. In the day. Find an object like a chimney or something fixed a good 400 meters or so away and get it in the centre of the scope eyepiece. Then you should have 3 hand screws around your finder scope. By turning these individually you will change where the finder is pointing. Play with these until you can see the same object in both finder and main scope. The higher the mag the more accurate it will be. The finder will be low power and so give you wide views when you use it to find objects. Once done where ever you point the finder is where the scope is pointing.

As Adrian said try moving your eye around the eyepiece. Some people can get black out areas in some eyepieces and if your eye is not in the right place you won't see anything.

[Guest nightingale]

Thank you Mark and Adrian 

I tried mine outside this morning  to check at least if light was passing through . I checked the different eye pieces and kept some stationary objects like chimney ,,,pole...sign post etc .Good news  is ...light is passing through and I  cd see  ,but I still do not understand the use of the auto tracker . How does that help . Tonight you don't want to be out ...cold, windy and its not even a clear sky . I have 5 more days to return this . If i can't figure this out I may just return this and get one without a auto tracker. haven't found much into abt this on the net . Any one here OK to help me ?

[red dwalf]

from what i can remember you need to put some basic details into the handset either latitude or longitude, thats in the instruction manual somewhere,

then with the mount powered you need to align the scope north, you do this by using the controller and make the scope go up until it is pointing at polaris, use the red dot finder to do this, then you tkae the scope back down again until horizontal, then if i remember correctly you need to unplug it and then plug it back in and then it`s set, should all be in the manual somewhere but i found the manual alittle confusing first time as it talks about things in astronomy i knew nothing about at the time, anyway after you have done this you can,  using the handset make the scope move i.e. slew to a target in the sky and it should now track i.e. follow the object. stick with it and get to a meet sometime, it`s a good scope and you need to give it more time to understand it, anyone local to you who could help you out ?

[Guest nightingale]

Hi everyone
had another great nite yesterday ,Saw the moon and Jupiter with 3 moons . Also got to see the bluish  stripes on the planet . Stunning !
i am going to return the 6mm eye piece and I have 2 days to  return and upgrade my current SkyWATCHER 130P 650mm supatrak and I am thinking of this Celestron NexStar 102SLT Computerised Refractor Telescope  instead . The reason is I don't think I really want to change  and upgrade in a year or 2 years and i am thinking if I can do this now ..it would be even better , It not far too heavy and has some good reviews too. This costs about a 100 more which my dear husband has kindly offered to pay . So I have an option . What are your expert opinions ? How is a refractor good for a beginner compared to a reflector ? 
laks