A little help needed :)

From: Jan Gustavsson (jangus_at_foi.se)
Date: 02/10/05 

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 13:49:23 +0100

I am an owner of a Meade ETX-125CE since a month ago. I am both
impressed and disappointed. The eyepieces that I have are the 26mm and
(I think) 8mm. I also have some filters for the eyepieces and one sun
filter for the telescope.
I also have the LPI.

The 26mm is rather easy to use but the 8mm is really hard to get a good
focus with. If I happen to get a good focus with the 8mm it goes in and
out of focus all the time when I get into contact with the eyepiece
while watching.

I know that it is very important to practice watching through a
telescope as one does not see much of the details in the beginning. But
some things as nebulas and galaxies, I cant find at all.

I have so far succeeded in viewing of the: Sun, Moon, Saturn and off
cause some stars.
I have had no luck in finding any nebula or galaxy.

The Sun
There is no problem finding the sun :) but I miss the sun as an object
in the Autostar. Maybe it is there but I can’t find it. Anyway it would
be great to have the Autostar automatically tracking the sun.
The only thing I can see is the sunspots. I can not detect any
prominence, chromosphere, flare or the patterns in the photosphere (hope
I did get the names right).

Is it so that the sun filter I am using is too simple? The filter looks
like a aluminized plastic folio. I believe I read somewhere that it only
let 0.000001% of the light through.

The Moon
Viewing the moon is ok. I have yet to use the moon filter.

The Saturn
Saturn seems to be a bit small, but that is as it should be. After all
it is some distance between earth and the planet.
Yesterday when I watched Saturn, then the image became fuzzy and then
clear with a frequency of around 1Hz. That has not happened before.
Could it be the tracking or was it just the atmospherically noise? I
think it kept a rather constant frequency.

Saturn also seems to be very bright so that I can not discern any
details. I made an attempt with a red filter (not remembering the #)
that where one of the filters that where recommended for viewing Saturn.
It made Saturn darker and red, but I did not se much more details.

Galaxies
I made an attempt to look at a few galaxies that where in my field of
view. (no FOV to Andromeda). But I could not see any galaxies at all
(26mm). Or if I did see them then they looked like ordinary stars.
How clear would they be seen?
Could it possibly be that I have to much light in the neighborhood? I
live just on the edge of a small town (30 000 citizens or so). The town
is on one side and a rather big lake is on our other side. There are not
many lights from the surrounding that penetrates into our garden. I
think I can see the stars fairly good but I can not see the Milky Way.

Nebulas
I have also tried to find some nebulas, both with and without a nebula
filter. I did not see one single nebula. I search for several and the
names that come to mind are the California nebula and the Orion nebula.

LPI Camera
I have just started to get acquainted with the camera, looking at
terrestrial objects. I believe that I first have to master the telescope
without the camera before trying it out in the sky.

At the moment the cables are to short, but I found a USB-TP-USB cable
(uses a standard TP Ethernet cable between the USB connections). I will
try that out later.

As my house is rather walled in by bushes, hedges and buildings I have
problem finding nonmoving objects to practice at. Treetops have a
tendency to move a lot. But a day without wind I tried out the camera by
pointing the telescope at the top of flagpole. That way I could take a
picture of myself reflected in the brass top.
Anyway the camera seems to be very hard to focus. Is the LPI camera any
good at all?

So to end this long text I have first to ask you to forgive me if some
of it does not make sense, as English is not my native language.
And last, if you have any suggestions that might help me, please tell me.

/Jan G

Relevant Pages

  • Re: A little help needed :)
    ... I also have some filters for the eyepieces and one sun ... Your 8mm eyepiece provides a rather high magnification. ... Your sun filter is a "white light" solar filter. ... >Saturn seems to be a bit small, but that is as it should be. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Observing Report (UHC with 6" F5)
    ... Still light outside and there wasn't any point looking at anything else except the first star I could find to dial in the collimation. ... The polarizing filter was worthwhile when the sky was still light, but as it darkened I pulled it and tried the blue. ... Swapping back and forth between 60x unfiltered and 42x filtered, there was no doubt that the UHC made the nebula appear _much_ brighter against the background sky. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • How Old Is This Earth? Part 2.
    ... selected this disintegrating nebula as the ... The local system headquarters planets were ... and the spectacular period of sun dispersion begins. ... terminal solar system. ...
    (sci.skeptic)
  • Re: Oops, I looked Near the Sun w/Scope
    ... > his scope & solar filter. ... > eyepiece to continue to locate the sun in the FOV. ... I had a small 360x240 camera connected to ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Solar activity?
    ... Thursday and grabbed the scope and ran outside prepared to ... the Sun _is_ quiet now. ... You won't ever see anything along the edges of the Sun with your filter. ... solar minimum cycle has been unusual for the amount of activity still ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)