Zarkovic's new scope! Woo Hoo! :-)

Hi my friend, I read your post, and I'm glad for you that all arrived
OK. I thought I'd start a new thread here. :-)

As Starlord has said, you'll most definitely be tested by the weather
gods over the next few days, to even a couple of weeks once the
acquisition of a new telescope occurs. It always seems to be the way, it
never fails! :-(

I myself got a shipment of a new Focuser for one of my scopes today (AP
Traveler), and I'm certain the remnants of the hurricane will be blowing
my way through New Mexico very soon!

I look forward to hear your "first light" report with this scope.

If you need help/advice with Collimation tips, or anything else, all the
good folks here I know will give you a helping hand. Mark D.

Hi Mark and everyone else.
I am honored that you started a new thread, thanks a lot buddy. It's just
sad to let that one go, so much useful info (most of it in my docs now
though).
Ok, so around 2 am last night, I came home with some friends and we looked
at the Moon. First of all, I didn't do anything with my finder scope, like I
didn't align it, so it didn't work out fully. This meant that we had to fish
for the Moon last night, but we got it. It was a lil wierd to get used to
the whole "opposite movement" but it worked out and we got many pieces of
the Moon. I used my filter and my friends were all triped out about the
impacts and so was I! I seen the pics, but there is nothing like watching it
yourself and even hunting for it. All this noise woke up my neighbour and he
also came over and chat with us for a while. He was pretty impressed too, at
first he thought it wasn't real, that we were just projecting some picture
of moon. The clouds were a bother sometimes, and we'd mostly have a 2 min
window before another one came over and blocked the Moon for a min or so.
The Moon seemed to pass very fast and it took some time to adjust to the
whole tracking thing and that's it. Anyhow I used the 10mm 1.25" eyepiece
and we could see a lot of detail, craters, some sort of a valley like thing
and yea, very big craters, some big impact that cracked the surface and
looked like spider web and yea. It was AWESOME. I also didn't have time to
do the colluminating stuff, but it seems to be ok. I checked through the
eyepiece and everything was centered. Now I am just going to play some
soccer and can't wait to come home again and see stuff. Again a bit cloudy,
but I don't know, somehow I don't mind it. Hehe, again thank you all for the
great suggestion, can't wait to get TV plossl 32m, some UO's and so on, for
nebulae. There is so much stuff that I want to get for the scope, it's like
3 times the amount of money to get it. Again, will update you tomorrow on
what's up and what I saw. Thank you.

I do my colluminating mostly at home in daylight, then after unloading the
scope up at my corner I pop in the tool just to check that nothing moved
during the drive. Ofcouse a F8 scope is a lot easyer than your fast scope
too.


--

The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Astronomy Net Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/astronomy_net


"Zarkovic" wrote in message
newsRCEe.24360$s54.4621@pd7tw2no...
Hi Mark and everyone else.
I am honored that you started a new thread, thanks a lot buddy. It's just
sad to let that one go, so much useful info (most of it in my docs now
though).

Last night: a lil dissapointing.
I able to find polaris alright, and the moon, but pretty much nothing else.
I don't know my way around the sky, I need that turn left at orion book. So
I was dissapointed with myself. I used the starry night pro 5.0 from a
friend, and it showed a lot of freaking stars. I didnt' know how to adjust
to see only the stars that are usually visible, at some magnitude, so that
didnt' help either. I think I need to learn a bit the starry night stuff,
and get that book. Otherwise, I saw an incredible amount of stars, almost
all like lil specs of dust, some very bright, and that was very cool. I also
was in the red screen mode for half an hour, and took my scope to cool
outside for half an hour, so that was all good. Any suggestions?
"Zarkovic" wrote in message
newsRCEe.24360$s54.4621@pd7tw2no...
Hi Mark and everyone else.
I am honored that you started a new thread, thanks a lot buddy. It's just
sad to let that one go, so much useful info (most of it in my docs now
though).
Ok, so around 2 am last night, I came home with some friends and we looked
at the Moon. First of all, I didn't do anything with my finder scope, like
I didn't align it, so it didn't work out fully. This meant that we had to
fish for the Moon last night, but we got it. It was a lil wierd to get
used to the whole "opposite movement" but it worked out and we got many
pieces of the Moon. I used my filter and my friends were all triped out
about the impacts and so was I! I seen the pics, but there is nothing like
watching it yourself and even hunting for it. All this noise woke up my
neighbour and he also came over and chat with us for a while. He was
pretty impressed too, at first he thought it wasn't real, that we were
just projecting some picture of moon. The clouds were a bother sometimes,
and we'd mostly have a 2 min window before another one came over and
blocked the Moon for a min or so. The Moon seemed to pass very fast and it
took some time to adjust to the whole tracking thing and that's it. Anyhow
I used the 10mm 1.25" eyepiece and we could see a lot of detail, craters,
some sort of a valley like thing and yea, very big craters, some big
impact that cracked the surface and looked like spider web and yea. It was
AWESOME. I also didn't have time to do the colluminating stuff, but it
seems to be ok. I checked through the eyepiece and everything was
centered. Now I am just going to play some soccer and can't wait to come
home again and see stuff. Again a bit cloudy, but I don't know, somehow I
don't mind it. Hehe, again thank you all for the great suggestion, can't
wait to get TV plossl 32m, some UO's and so on, for nebulae. There is so
much stuff that I want to get for the scope, it's like 3 times the amount
of money to get it. Again, will update you tomorrow on what's up and what
I saw. Thank you.

While I've not used that software, I use a free one, it should have a
fuction where you can set it for your postion and also adjust it for the mag
of stars you can see, that way it'll not display all of the ones.

Is there a magazine store near you? you could use the center foldout star
map of either Sky & Telescope or Astronomy to help you lean the sky while
your wating to get a book or two and an altas to use.

--

The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Astronomy Net Online Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/astronomy_net


"Zarkovic" wrote in message
news:NVPEe.27136$%K2.3189@pd7tw1no...
Last night: a lil dissapointing.
I able to find polaris alright, and the moon, but pretty much nothing
else. I don't know my way around the sky, I need that turn left at orion
book. So I was dissapointed with myself. I used the starry night pro 5.0
from a friend, and it showed a lot of freaking stars. I didnt' know how to
adjust to see only the stars that are usually visible, at some magnitude,
so that didnt' help either. I think I need to learn a bit the starry night
stuff, and get that book. Otherwise, I saw an incredible amount of stars,
almost all like lil specs of dust, some very bright, and that was very
cool. I also was in the red screen mode for half an hour, and took my
scope to cool outside for half an hour, so that was all good. Any
suggestions?

Hi guys!
Ok finally, after a couple of cloudy night, I succesfully aligent my telrad,
and even my finder scope that came with my xt8 classic. Anyhow, finding moon
and checking it out was great, but ever since then, nothing else. I am able
to locate Ursa major, Polaris ( I think) and that's it. Lots of stars, too
many for a beginner to find his way around, I'll tell you that. Anyhow, I
can clearly see major stars in big dipper, but on my telrad, I can't make
out nothing. I can't make out the pattern whether that's the freaking big
dipper or bunch of other ones. I belive that I live in a relativly low light
pollution area, couple of street lamps, but they are blocked for most part
by two big houses and yea. I am thinking of actually going to the pitch dark
provintial park just beside the house to see what the hell is going on,
wheter I can find any stars. I was trying to find M81 or M82, no luck of
course, and I was trying to go right from Ursa major, just like move right
from that trapezoid. Anyhow, will get Nigh****ch book, and turn left at
orion. I looked at the NIgh****ch book and drew a lil diagram where to find
M81 and M82. Again, I couldn't really do any star hopping cauze I couldn't
see anything on my telrad. The red circles were on minimum setting and I
don't what was the problem. As you can probably tell, I am quite
dissapointed at myself, I googled this stuff and I see that many people were
like me, stuggling without the go to thing, until they learned. Any
suggestions. Thanks

Hi Zarkovic, Since the Telrad is a zero power finder, with just a clear
glass window, you should be able to use it, even under fairly light
polluted skies. If memory serves me correctly, the Telrad has a variable
intensity knob, so try to use the dimmest setting you can. Perhaps
truning it up all the way makes it harder for you to see stars.

M81, and M82 are elusive relatively dim Galaxies, not naked eye galaxies
like say Andromeda, and while your 8" scope will show them, they are not
going to visually look anything like photographs of them.

As you gain experience around the heavens, your eyes/brain will become
more accustomed to searching out these dim galaxies, and deep sky
objects.

Star hopping from brighter stars, to Messier, or NGC Catalog objects
takes some practice. Since there is no up, or down is space, it is not
important that a scope be visually corrected to view right side up
images, and this is where it can get confusing, as things can get a bit
backwards.

Provided your Telrad, Finder Scope, and main Scope are all opticlly
aligned, the Telrad should be used just to get you near the ballpark of
an object. Then move onto the optical finder, and then onto using your
lowest power eyepiece to star hop to the desired area-object in the sky.
Hope this answers your questions, Mark

Zarkovic wrote:
Ok finally, after a couple of cloudy night, I succesfully aligent my telrad,
and even my finder scope that came with my xt8 classic. Anyhow, finding moon
and checking it out was great, but ever since then, nothing else.

Zark, you are using the Telrad by looking along the telescope through
the glass, right? Not looking down at the telescope and lining up on
the reflected image.

In the daytime it's useful to look down at a Telrad and line up on a
reflection of the Moon, but at night, you have to put your head behind
the Telrad and look up at the sky through the window.

Just making sure.

Cheers,
Mojo
--
Morris Jones
Monrovia, CA
http://www.whiteoaks.com
Old Town Astronomers: http://www.otastro.org

Hi Mark.
I do use the lowest setting pretty much all the time, and I can see the 3
circles greatly. However, telrad, maybe I am looking too near or far away
from it or from some wierd angle. I don't know, cauze I can see the 3
circles super on minimum setting, and my eye is like a cm away from the
angled glass plate. I keep my box closed, the top surface of it and that's
it. Last night around 2am, half a moon came out and telrad worked super, but
I tried it with stars again, it's just like bunch of reflections, (don't
know where from) and stars are there, just so very faintly. I wish there was
someone in my area with a telrad, I'd love to see if theirs is any
different. Again, thanks man.
"Mark D" wrote in message
...
Hi Zarkovic, Since the Telrad is a zero power finder, with just a clear
glass window, you should be able to use it, even under fairly light
polluted skies. If memory serves me correctly, the Telrad has a variable
intensity knob, so try to use the dimmest setting you can. Perhaps
truning it up all the way makes it harder for you to see stars.

M81, and M82 are elusive relatively dim Galaxies, not naked eye galaxies
like say Andromeda, and while your 8" scope will show them, they are not
going to visually look anything like photographs of them.

As you gain experience around the heavens, your eyes/brain will become
more accustomed to searching out these dim galaxies, and deep sky
objects.

Star hopping from brighter stars, to Messier, or NGC Catalog objects
takes some practice. Since there is no up, or down is space, it is not
important that a scope be visually corrected to view right side up
images, and this is where it can get confusing, as things can get a bit
backwards.

Provided your Telrad, Finder Scope, and main Scope are all opticlly
aligned, the Telrad should be used just to get you near the ballpark of
an object. Then move onto the optical finder, and then onto using your
lowest power eyepiece to star hop to the desired area-object in the sky.
Hope this answers your questions, Mark

I think I might have ****ed up and used telrad all along. According to this
site: http://www.analyticalsci.com/Astrono...rad/Telrad.htm I am supposed
to look along the tube into the angled window, and all this time I was
looking from the top of the angled glass plate. Perhaps that was my problem
all along, please tell me whether I am right this time. I feel like a
baffoon right now, and can't wait to use my telrad again. It's so funny,
it's sad. I am soooo releived.
"Zarkovic" wrote in message
news:sC6Ge.60167$5V4.32020@pd7tw3no...
Hi Mark.
I do use the lowest setting pretty much all the time, and I can see the 3
circles greatly. However, telrad, maybe I am looking too near or far away
from it or from some wierd angle. I don't know, cauze I can see the 3
circles super on minimum setting, and my eye is like a cm away from the
angled glass plate. I keep my box closed, the top surface of it and that's
it. Last night around 2am, half a moon came out and telrad worked super,
but I tried it with stars again, it's just like bunch of reflections,
(don't know where from) and stars are there, just so very faintly. I wish
there was someone in my area with a telrad, I'd love to see if theirs is
any different. Again, thanks man.
"Mark D" wrote in message
...
Hi Zarkovic, Since the Telrad is a zero power finder, with just a clear
glass window, you should be able to use it, even under fairly light
polluted skies. If memory serves me correctly, the Telrad has a variable
intensity knob, so try to use the dimmest setting you can. Perhaps
truning it up all the way makes it harder for you to see stars.

M81, and M82 are elusive relatively dim Galaxies, not naked eye galaxies
like say Andromeda, and while your 8" scope will show them, they are not
going to visually look anything like photographs of them.

As you gain experience around the heavens, your eyes/brain will become
more accustomed to searching out these dim galaxies, and deep sky
objects.

Star hopping from brighter stars, to Messier, or NGC Catalog objects
takes some practice. Since there is no up, or down is space, it is not
important that a scope be visually corrected to view right side up
images, and this is where it can get confusing, as things can get a bit
backwards.

Provided your Telrad, Finder Scope, and main Scope are all opticlly
aligned, the Telrad should be used just to get you near the ballpark of
an object. Then move onto the optical finder, and then onto using your
lowest power eyepiece to star hop to the desired area-object in the sky.
Hope this answers your questions, Mark