Thinking of selling up....is this normal in the early days?

[Werisit]

Neil, if you have prescription glasses you may have astigmatism which will effect your view to some extent. I usually wear my glasses at the eye piece but have found that the effect without them is quite minimal. Otherwise you are quite correct in thinking that the scope's focus will take care of any dioptre correction needed.

[+RonC]

I wear glasses to use the red-dot finder and finder scope but take them off to use at the eyepiece, never had a focus issue even though I have an astigmatism .

 

Cheers

Ron

[Seamaster]

Thanks Andy, I appreciate that and would love to hook up but this Friday is my birthday and we are having a bit of a get together and my wife may take offence if I'm not there!

no probs, not looking good on the weather front anyway. Just shout up if you want to meet up sometime. I'm not that far from Derby.

Happy birthday for Friday. Expecting astro kit?

Cheers!

No I doubt I will be opening any kit this year, my pressy was a few days away so perhaps next year?

Thanks for the clarification on the glasses thing guys, much appreciated.

Now...if only these clouds would clear off...!

[Johnnyaardvark]

Hi Seamaster (Neil),

 

I prefer to wear my glasses at the eyepiece. It can make getting a full field of view and avoiding light from the side more difficult but with a bit of patience and shielding my eyes from the side I usually over come that. The reason I wear them...? astigmatism. Usually makes a point source wider in one plane than another. If the astigmatism is quite pronouonced (and I didn't think mine was till a got back into astro recently) without glasses I can never quite get focussed.

 

If I focus in one plane (say the vertical) the star is out of focus in horizontal and the opposite is the case if I focus in horizontal plane. Wearing glasses corrects this so I tend to get a better (overall) view with them on. The other advantage is that if someone else is looking (with perfect or corrected eyesight) it should be pretty well focussed for them.

 

If you don't have an astigmatism, well, I'd let the focus to the correcting.

 

As for looking from a window...   I did that regularly in my days as a much younger astronomer. Far from ideal for the best views but I could have a lazy slightly warmer view of big bright objects. Of course you should really be outside though as you do/will have issues with thermals.

 

I am also pretty local to you (other side of Derby) so could be available to have a look at your gear with you sometime if you like.

 

Anyhow, just another point of view on the glasses.

 

Also hoping for clear skies and the energy!

 

Steve

[Seamaster]

Thanks Steve, sounds good if the clouds ever do one!

[Guest]

Hi Neil, just sticking my nose in here. I also am a beginner and find that when I look out the sky is fairly clear so I go inside to get my scope Etc. and when I go out again the pesky clouds have appeared. So what I did was to purchase a pair of binoculars (Nikon action 12x50) they are wonderful and when I mount them on my tripod it is amazing what can be seen,such as the Andromeda nebula, Pleiades and of course the Orion Nebula. So it is a pain but using my bins when the viewing window is small really makes me glad I can see some of the sights.

I once heard it said that an astronomer is someone who owns a £500 telescope but spends most of their time using £30 binoculars. I would regard binoculars as ESSENTIAL and bought my first "serious" pair before my first serious telescope. I also use them during daylight (with filters) to view and monitor sunspots. If I was in a position where I had to sell some of my gear, the binoculars would be the last to go. They have travelled the world with me, literally!