Got my 1st scope,what to look at+will there be colour?

Hi everyone!

Always wanted a telescope and as its my 21st soon I now have one on
order!
Have ordered a 8" europa 200 f/6, dual motors and accssory pack (moon
filter, 3 coloured filters, 2* barlow and camera adapter). Also
upgraded the eyepieces to 10mm+26mm superplossells, the finder to a
9x50mm right angle finder and have got the hilux mirror coating.

Was wondering if any of you veterans out there could tell me:

What I will be able to see with the equipment above?
Which bits will I use for deep space observing and which bits for the
moon and planets?
And do you actually see all the bright colours in deep space or are
the pictures in magazines enhanced by special filters and computers?

Also, when buying telescopes do you usually get anything to carry them
in? (getting mine from orion optics)
Thanks

Kevin

kevj writted:
: Hi everyone!

: Always wanted a telescope and as its my 21st soon I now have one on
: order!

Out of curiosity, what did you do with the other twenty?

Hi Kev

You will be able to see a lot.

If you get it soon check out the Ring nebula (M57)
and Hercules Globular cluster (M13) before they
disappear over the horizon.......Then start taking
your time to visit the winter constellations and
objects now starting to come into view. Mars is
now shrinking rapidly, but Saturn is in a good
position by midnight and Jupiter a couple of hours
later. All of the Messier objects (like M57 and
M13) will be viewable over the next 6 months or
so, and it is a great exercise to view each of
them. You will learn what objects you like to
see, and can (perhaps later) specialise. There
are any number of observing lists to take you
beyond Messier. My favourite is the SAA200 list
dreamed up by the folks on the sci.astro.amateur
newsgroup a couple of years ago - you can find it
on Rod Mollise's web site. Get yourself a decent
star atlas to find the objects and look up plenty
of web references such as www.skymaps.com for
monthly viewing recommendations.

Learn how to collimate your scope, and check it
every viewing session its very simple, but
important.

Learn how to polar align - for visual use point
the polar axis of your scope north at Polaris.
Plonking it down in the right direction will be
sufficiently accurate for visual use. For
photography you will have to do much better.

Figure out the magnification given by you
eyepiece/scope combinations. Use the
magnification that gives the best view of any
object - suck it and see. The highest
magnification available using your equipment is
240x. This is on the edge of useable most nights
because of the generally poor "seeing" in the UK.
[Seeing is the term used to describe the
steadiness of the atmosphere - think of looking at
an object at the bottom of a swimming pool when
the water is calm you can see it clearly - when
there are swimmers in the pool the "seeing" will
be bad]

Colours, apart from some stars will not be
visible. But, check out gamma And and Alberio for
a couple of nice coloured doubles.

Have fun. join your local astro society and keep
asking questions.

Adam





"kevj" wrote in message

m...
Hi everyone!

Always wanted a telescope and as its my 21st
soon I now have one on
order!
Have ordered a 8" europa 200 f/6, dual motors
and accssory pack (moon
filter, 3 coloured filters, 2* barlow and camera
adapter). Also
upgraded the eyepieces to 10mm+26mm
superplossells, the finder to a
9x50mm right angle finder and have got the hilux
mirror coating.

Was wondering if any of you veterans out there
could tell me:

What I will be able to see with the equipment
above?
Which bits will I use for deep space observing
and which bits for the
moon and planets?
And do you actually see all the bright colours
in deep space or are
the pictures in magazines enhanced by special
filters and computers?

Also, when buying telescopes do you usually get
anything to carry them
in? (getting mine from orion optics)
Thanks

Kevin