My first scope, my first night's viewing

I've been posting now and then in the group for a few months, thus far
restricting actual viewing to my binoculars.

I'd toyed with the idea of big binoculars but sage advice pointed out
the absolute need to mount them. So having read various posts and
weighed up costs, and given that i like to have the option to view
terrestrially too, i bought a short tube 80mm f/5 refractor (sky
watcher in this case). It's on an EQ1 mount and came with two
eyepieces (10mm, 25mm) and a 2x barlow.

It was all easy enough to set up, the EQ1 mount isn't that sturdy,
but it's ok for this quite light instrument.

As appears traditional, it was cloudy the first night! Still, i
managed to grab moments in cloud breaks - the seeing wasn't very good.
Having lined up a couple of stars just to get used to it i then
pointed at what i took to be Jupiter (no star charts at hand, but it
seemed bright enough!). Sure enough, a little disk showed up plus 4
tiny specks of light on a plane close by, the four galilean moons i
guess!

Maxxed out (this scope goes up to around x80 with the help of the
barlow) the disk was very clear, no coloring that i could see, just
slightly off-white, but wonderful none the less, the FOV comfortably
encases the four moons with room to spare. I may struggle to pick
much out of saturn, but i'll certainly try. I'm looking forward to
trying this on some of the brighter messiers and the moon.

The ease of use (and the relative lightness of the instrument mounted)
is a definite plus for me. Sure i'll get aperture envy soon enough,
but i can now have many nights of happy viewing while saving up
(sloooooowly) for that 24" dob i saw!

Thanks to various folk here who've given good advice too.

The ease of use (and the relative lightness of the instrument mounted)
is a definite plus for me. Sure i'll get aperture envy soon enough,
but i can now have many nights of happy viewing while saving up
(sloooooowly) for that 24" dob i saw!

Glad you had a good first light with your ST-80. The moon should be an amazing
target.

Even if Aperture envy does hit, this scope will make a good companion for a
larger scope because it can provide those widefield views that are impossible
with a larger scope. And then of course it is a bit easier to setup than a 24
incher, or even an 8 incher.

I have an ST-80 on an EQ-1 mount (Celestron version.) One of the great things
about the ST-80 is that it can double as a spotting scope, watching a small
bird 40 feet away at 16X is pretty amazing. Not going to do that with your 24
inch DOB.

One thing I discovered about the EQ-1 mount (at least the one I have) it that
it doubles very nicely as an Alt-AZ mount for daytime or night time use.
Using an EQ mount in the daytime to look at birds or distant objects is awkward
at best.

All that is necessary to use the EQ-1 in the ALT-AZ mode is to set the polar
axis to 90 degrees, this turns the RA axis into the Azimuth mode and the DEC
into the Altitude mode.

It realy works quite nicely, much better than the standard photo tripod mount
because the scope is balanced like a DOB so it does not want to over-center and
flip over backwards when viewing a target that is not horizontal.

Add what makes this setup super sweet is that it is an ALT-AZ mount with nice
slow motion controls.

I leave mine in the Alt-AZ mode most all the time simply because it means I
never have to rotate the OTA to get the optimal position.

So, it is great you have a new scope, yeah the clouds are mandatory but you can
still use it in the daytime to check out your local bird population, birds
don't mind the clouds for some reason....

Best wishes and clear skies

Jon

PS: Another great thing about the EQ-1 mount is that the mount is heald to the
tripod with a 3/8-16 bolt. This means that the tripod (which is the shaky part
of this operation, adequate for an ST-80, shaky for bigger scopes) can be
replaced with an standard Bogen Tripod. No machining necessary.

(Jon Isaacs) wrote in message ...
The ease of use (and the relative lightness of the instrument mounted)
is a definite plus for me. Sure i'll get aperture envy soon enough,
but i can now have many nights of happy viewing while saving up
(sloooooowly) for that 24" dob i saw!

Glad you had a good first light with your ST-80. The moon should be an amazing
target.

Thanks, i'm looking forward to the moon.

Even if Aperture envy does hit, this scope will make a good companion for a
larger scope because it can provide those widefield views that are impossible
with a larger scope. And then of course it is a bit easier to setup than a 24
incher, or even an 8 incher.

I figured it would last, as others here have exaplined they keep an
ST-80 around alongside their more powerful reflecting telescope/s

I have an ST-80 on an EQ-1 mount (Celestron version.) One of the great things
about the ST-80 is that it can double as a spotting scope, watching a small
bird 40 feet away at 16X is pretty amazing. Not going to do that with your 24
inch DOB.

One thing I discovered about the EQ-1 mount (at least the one I have) it that
it doubles very nicely as an Alt-AZ mount for daytime or night time use.
Using an EQ mount in the daytime to look at birds or distant objects is awkward
at best.

All that is necessary to use the EQ-1 in the ALT-AZ mode is to set the polar
axis to 90 degrees, this turns the RA axis into the Azimuth mode and the DEC
into the Altitude mode.

It realy works quite nicely, much better than the standard photo tripod mount
because the scope is balanced like a DOB so it does not want to over-center and
flip over backwards when viewing a target that is not horizontal.

Add what makes this setup super sweet is that it is an ALT-AZ mount with nice
slow motion controls.

That's a good idea, thanks!


I leave mine in the Alt-AZ mode most all the time simply because it means I
never have to rotate the OTA to get the optimal position.

So, it is great you have a new scope, yeah the clouds are mandatory but you can
still use it in the daytime to check out your local bird population, birds
don't mind the clouds for some reason....

Best wishes and clear skies

Jon

PS: Another great thing about the EQ-1 mount is that the mount is heald to the
tripod with a 3/8-16 bolt. This means that the tripod (which is the shaky part
of this operation, adequate for an ST-80, shaky for bigger scopes) can be
replaced with an standard Bogen Tripod. No machining necessary.