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Post by Ronny on Mar 27, 2012 23:51:26 GMT
I got my 12" dob on Friday night and 2 cloudy nights and 2 night shifts later I managed to get it out and into the garden. I was out for a family meal so I didn't get out until well after 10 so Jupiter, Venus and the Moon were out of sight to the front of the house so I just looked around.
To be honest I was quite disappointed. I saw loads of stars but found absolutely nothing except for Alcor and Mizar which were stunning. Truth is I really don't know what to look for and where to look. (M42 was gone as well.)
I waited until just before midnight and had a look at Saturn. It was beautiful through both the 2" and the standard eye pieces. I thought when I put my x2 Barlow on it will be fantastic but instead it was out of focus.
One other thing I noticed is that Saturn was beautiful and quite sharp when it was in the middle of the eye piece but as it drifted towards the edge it became more and more blurred. I guess this is a collimation problem?
Bottom line is that I don't have a good enough knowledge of the skies as yet and once more it reiterates that I need to get out with others and glean their knowledge.
I will keep an eye on your observing sessions and hope to join you soon.
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Post by brianb on Mar 28, 2012 3:34:47 GMT
You can easily push the magnification too high.
Scopes take a while to cool off, until they do you get a blurred wobbly image. Sometimes the temperature is changing so fast the scope never gets to ambient temperature. Sometimes (usually to be honest) the air is too unsteady to allow a high power to be used at all. In my experience (at Portballintrae) anything over x225 is very rare indeed with my 11" SCT ...
Falloff towards the outer edge of the field is not necessarily a collimation issue. Collimation is needed to get the image at the centre of the field perfect. All Newts have some loss of resolution as you go away from the centre of the field but you shouldn't notice it much. The most likely issue here is that cheaper eyepieces tend to be poorly corrected away from the centre of the field.
Drop me a PM and perhaps we can arrange a session!
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Post by Ronny on Mar 28, 2012 10:29:02 GMT
Well I suppose I don't really know the difference between good and bad eyepieces as I've had nothing to compare with. Thanks for the bit if insight, I'm sure I'll get there.
PM sent.
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Post by bigeye155 on Apr 23, 2012 15:22:28 GMT
Hi Ronnie, Congrats on your 12", that's a big scope which will show you thousands of objects, so if it doesn't have goto then you will need to brush up on your observing skills to get the most out of it. I'd suggest you come along to our regular observing sessions at delamont, some members have 12" scopes and would be more than happy to give you some tips You just missed our last session of this season at the weekend, exc' skies and great craic! David
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Post by Ronny on Apr 25, 2012 10:38:13 GMT
Hi David. Yes I'd love to come along and I will make a point if I'm available to come along. Sometimes I wish I'd spent the money on a goth and other times I'm glad I didn't. I suppose I will just have to buy a goth now, then I'll have the best of both worlds!
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Post by bigeye155 on Apr 25, 2012 23:10:31 GMT
Hi Ronnie, you will be more than welcome to join us for some observing fun at Delamont. There are pros and cons to goto scopes, theres plenty of info online on that subject. I know quite a few members who enjoy letting the scope do the work and being able to see dozens of objects in one evening, which is great especially in our climate. But you can't beat the satisfaction of discovering objects for yourself, and learning the night sky at your own pace, best done without the crutch of goto imho. Part of the skill of observing is not so much being able to see xyz galaxies, but enterpreting and understanding what you are looking at, and how long its taken the light from the subject to reach your eyeball. Learning to see with your scope is a skill that will take time. With practice, you will be able to see some detail in objects...........dark skies help too Clear skies David.
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Post by Ronny on Apr 30, 2012 19:32:31 GMT
Cheers David. My 2 big moments since have been The Black Eye Galaxy and the Whirlpool Galaxy, both discovered with a bit of hunting around. I'm on holiday at the moment and can't wait to get back home to get out again.
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