Tal 2m or Explorer 150/200?

On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 08:56:32 GMT, "Saxon"
wrote:

Chaps (Mike especially),

Many many thanks for the comprehensive reply - it's greatly appreciated when
those with experience stop to help those just starting out.

You are most welcome.

I am pleased to
report that I did buy a scope yesterday but it ended up being one that
wasn't on my shortlist. I went in to Telescope House and they helped me
choose a Bresser Messier N203 8" Newtonian reflector
http://www.telescopehouse.co.uk/page...0C0&action=lnk
which along with a basic filter pack and the two axis motordrive ended up
coming to £450 with SPA discount.

Sounds like good value.

The scope seems to bear some resemblance
to the Meade LXD75 range in terms of both mount and according to Telescope
House the optics too although I believe assembly is of course done in China.
Overall I was extremely impressed with the fit and finish and it certainly
felt like a well engineered product for the price, the tripod for example
not dramatically different from that on the LX90. I spent a very enjoyable
few hours putting the scope together and achieved first light around 7.45pm.
It was such a thrill to see how many stars were visible through the scope in
any patch of sky.
I closed in on Mars which by now was starting to approach
my neigbours trees on the South West side of the back garden. I moved
through the eyepieces - 25mm, 15mm, 10mm and then 10mm with 2x Barlow, still
fumbling for the RA and DEC levers in the dark and trying to get used to the
strange motion of my first equatorially mounted experience! One thing I
found very tricky was adjusting the height of the tripod with the scope
attached - I'm presuming this is best accomplished before the scope is
mounted! I ended up either stooped or kneeling most of the time!

Yes, get the height sorted first is the usual way. Somethimes it's
better to have it low down to mitigate the effects of any wind that's
blowing.

Eventually I got Mars nicely centred although did find that at 180x
magnification even adjusting focus caused the planet to move around in the
view. I presume this is normal on a lower end telescope -or should I
tighten the eyepiece screws more?

It is normal on almost any telescope, with practice you should find
that you will become more skilled at focussing.

I was rewarded with an obvious orange
sphere only occasionally exhibiting surface patches. I couldn't see any ice
caps or anything but my goodness it was a thrill!!

If you saw some surface markings you are doing well. The ice caps are
not really visible now anyway. It is also getting quite small, Sky Map
Pro reports it at 11.98" today and many stop observing Mars when it
gets below 10".

I wouldn't say the image
was tack sharp either, but it's hard to know if that was related to the fact
I haven't collimated the scope yet, the quality of the bundled eyepieces or
just the general seeing conditions on the fringes of the M25.

Prabably the seeing, some nights it's just awful but on others it can
be really good. Don't get into trying to collimate it yet, use it for
a few weeks at least first.

I haven't yet connected the motor drive control, I wanted to get a feel for
the manual handling of the scope.

The motor drive makes it much easier to view at high powers, worth
getting it into operation.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the
moon later in the month along with Saturn and Jupiter.

Take a gander at Saturn as soon as you can, it is one of the objects
that make all the money seem worth while.

I'm chuffed to bits
after having an interest in the subject for 30 years (I still have my Hamlyn
Book of Astronomy 1975!) that I finally own my first telescope.

One final query - I know that my 90mm focal length isn't ideal for planetary
observing but the chaps at Telescope House stillreckoned it would produce
better results than the 6 inch reflector with 1200mm focal length. It's
tempting to push the magnification beyond the 10mm Plossl and 2x Barlow with
a 5mm Pplossl which would give me around 360x magnification (approaching the
50x per inch theoretical maximum). The chaps in Telescope House did say
that getting clear images above 200x magnification depended greatly on
seeing conditions and was rarely achievable in practice. Would you chaps
agree with this or would a 5mm give me even greater usable magnification?

Going from 180x to 360x is quite a big jump. Something around the 260x
mark is probably more like it, say a 7mm and a 2x barlow. But use what
you've got for now because you may find that particular eyepieces are
better for you than others; I like the Vixen LV series, for example.

Either way I'm delighted - many many thanks for all advice and a Happy New
Year once again to all of you.

Happy new year and clear skies

- Mike