Re: Newbie Astronomy Misadventures (with Questions)

tony_flanders_at_yahoo.com
Date: 01/17/05 

Date: 17 Jan 2005 04:28:21 -0800

Michael K wrote:

> Ok,after lurking here and one of Yahoo Groups for many weeks learning
> which scopes are toys and which are not and a little about maker's
> reputation, I bought a used Orion Skyview 8" EQ.
>
> It is A LOT more scope than I imagined ...

Steve Maddison and Chris gave most of the answers that I was
thinking of. Just a few more comments.

First, you've just discovered the hard way why the default
recommendation for a begginer's first scope is a Dobsonian
rather than a Newtonian on a equatorial mount. An 8"
equatorial-mounted Newt is indeed a pretty daunting package,
but an 8" Dob can be carried easily in one trip, and sets
up in seconds. And the learning curve for a Dob is virtually
non-existent.

Having said that, you've purchased a fine scope, and you
should definitely stick with it. The scope will not, alas,
get any lighter, but it will get *much* easier with practice.

Your poor views of Jupiter were undoubtedly due to Jupite's
low altitude, and also probably poor collimation and lack of
cooldown. At -13F, it's going to take the scope a couple of
hours after being brough outside to give decent high-power
images! And collimation is genuinely critical at F/4. You
absolutely need some kind of collimation tool, and you
should center-spot the primary if it's not already center-
spotted.

If the scope is cooled down and well collimated, and Jupiter
is more than 15 or 20 degrees off the horizon, then the
cloud belts should be immediately obvious in an 8-inch scope
at any magnification. No need to mess with filters -- they're
mostly useful for teasing out subtle detail within the belts
at high power.

I definitely agree that you should forget about those setting
circles, at least for a good long time. In order for them to
be useful, you've got to do a seriously accurate polar alignment,
whereas pointing the scope within 5-10 degrees of Polaris works
fine for casual visual observing. Anyway, most EQ-mount users
find setting circles more hassle than help.

    - Tony Flanders

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