First light and further questions

Many thanks for the original help and advice a month or so back.

In the end, I decided that the 8" Newtonian was too heavy and the
resulting eyepiece height wasn't practical for my children to view
through. So I bought a second hand ETX125 which I've had for a few
weeks now and am very pleased with it.

Its portable enough that I've used it pretty much any time the sky has
been clear since I bought it, even if there's been 50% cloud cover.

I've got a Garmin GPS connected using StarGPS (I write GPS trackers so
had one lying about) plus a PC connection which I haven't really used
yet (I really must get round to loading some tours into the autostar #
497)

I also have the full set of Meade Series 4000 eyepieces, which were an
excellent investment and a flexible focus extension, though the image
still moves about a fair bit while focussing, so I might look into an
electronic focusser later on.

However, I now have a few more questions that I'm hoping people can help
me with.

Given the current UK climate, I'm having a problem with ICE on the scope
- not 'dew' but real ice (like you get on the car). Would a standard
dew shield help much, or is some sort of heating system required for
long sessions at this time of year. I often put the scope outside about
7pm and go out for an hour at a time until I'm totally frozen which
means the ETX can be outside until 2am by which time the lens and fork
arms have a covering of frost.

A lot of my viewing has been Moon, Jupiter and Saturn (which a week ago,
on Saturday night was stunning through the 6.7mm eyepiece - by far the
best seeing I've had so far).

However, I'm now getting a bit more adventurous and am trying to find
some of the other night sky objects (by hand as well as using GOTO) -
can I expect to see much of them from my light polluted suburban back
garden as a viewing site with such a long focal length telescope? Are
any of the light pollution filters worth getting or should I be looking
to find a decent dark sky site (if there are any, around Swindon)?

I'm going to get a moon filter (my kids _love_ looking at the moon!) -
is there any advantage to buying a 'branded' one, rather than something
off ebay?

Finally, I'm getting interested in doing some imaging but I don't think
any of my digital cameras are really up to the job (Olympus E10 SLR but
the lens cannot be removed and a couple of Casio GV10 fixed focus
cameras) - I've read a lot on the web about the Toucam so will probably
get one of those. My concern is that with the ETX 125 being an f/14.9
telecsope, am I going to be restricted to imaging planets (which I guess
I'll need to get a decent quality barlow for good sized images)? I know
the focal length is more suited to planetary work, but does it make any
attempts at deep sky imaging pointless?

Once I get things sorted out next month, I hope to get along to one of
the local observing sessions which will probably provide more help and
advice again.

Thanks again to everyone for your patience in helping me out.

Given the current UK climate, I'm having a problem with ICE on the scope
- not 'dew' but real ice (like you get on the car). Would a standard
dew shield help much, or is some sort of heating system required for
long sessions at this time of year. I often put the scope outside about
7pm and go out for an hour at a time until I'm totally frozen which
means the ETX can be outside until 2am by which time the lens and fork
arms have a covering of frost.

The answer is yes to BOTH! The ICE that's formed is basically frozen dew.
The solution is get a dew shield straight away, it'll make alot of
difference. Try that a few times, and see if it's enough to solve your
problem... if not then some active dew prevention will be worth getting and
used in combination with the shield. take a look at my site
www.cjdawson.com it's got a project that you can follow to make a dew
heater, it seems to work pretty well. There's also several variations of it
that you can get from a search on google.

A lot of my viewing has been Moon, Jupiter and Saturn (which a week ago,
on Saturday night was stunning through the 6.7mm eyepiece - by far the
best seeing I've had so far).

However, I'm now getting a bit more adventurous and am trying to find
some of the other night sky objects (by hand as well as using GOTO) -
can I expect to see much of them from my light polluted suburban back
garden as a viewing site with such a long focal length telescope? Are
any of the light pollution filters worth getting or should I be looking
to find a decent dark sky site (if there are any, around Swindon)?

I've heard lots of stories on weather they're good or bad. I think alot of
it boils down to the skies, quality of the filter and the object that you're
looking for.

I'm going to get a moon filter (my kids _love_ looking at the moon!) -
is there any advantage to buying a 'branded' one, rather than something
off ebay?

provided that the quality of the filter is good, the make shouldn't really
make alot of different. Mind you, I bought the Meade 4000 Moon filter when
I got my scope a couple of years back.


Finally, I'm getting interested in doing some imaging but I don't think
any of my digital cameras are really up to the job (Olympus E10 SLR but
the lens cannot be removed and a couple of Casio GV10 fixed focus
cameras) - I've read a lot on the web about the Toucam so will probably
get one of those. My concern is that with the ETX 125 being an f/14.9
telecsope, am I going to be restricted to imaging planets (which I guess
I'll need to get a decent quality barlow for good sized images)? I know
the focal length is more suited to planetary work, but does it make any
attempts at deep sky imaging pointless?

I don't think that any attempt at DSO's will be pointless. Again I'll point
you to Google, see if there's anything from an ETX125 on there. I'd be
shocked if there's not something of good quality.

Regards

Colin.

"Colin Dawson" wrote in message
I don't think that any attempt at DSO's will be pointless. Again I'll
point
you to Google, see if there's anything from an ETX125 on there. I'd be
shocked if there's not something of good quality.

Regards

Colin.


I second that. If you don't know Mike Weasner's website yet, it's a mine of
useful info:

In particular, some vimpressive pictures made with an ETX90 in the gallery:

http://www.weasner.com/etx/guests/20...s_deepsky.html

I've got my ETX125 only a few eeks ago, so, I'm afraid I cannot realy help
you more, being myself a beginner. I have a Digital camera Coolpix990 and I
bought a Scopetronix adapter (that I recommend) and got some decent planets
shots(but still far from what could be obtained)

Philippe
http://www.gogo.me.uk/newastro/astrophoto.html