Telescopes
¨ Will I see galaxies and nebulae
with a focal length of 700m and these eyepieces?
¨ Where do I locate Jupiter and Venus
in the night sky?
¨ Is the Meade ETX-70 telescope good?
¨ Free software programs to run Bushnell
telescope
¨ Should I put money into a new telescope or new eyepieces?
¨ Can you control an Autostar telescope
with a laptop?
¨ How can I improve a telescope's focal length?
¨ Power of eyepieces
¨ Are there any 1mm, 2mm or 3mm eyepieces?
¨ Mars looked fuzzy in my telescope. Should I return it?
¨ How do the coordinates work on an equatorial mount?
¨ Websites with pictures of planets taken with beginner or intermediate telescopes
See more questions
Back to Telescopes Index
Return to Q&A Archives
[Links provided here were
valid at the time the question was answered. If you
find a broken link, please Contact Us so we can remove it.]
QUESTION:
Can I see galaxies and nebulaes with a focal length of 700mm with theses eyepieces:
20mm, 18mm, 5mm, 4mm, 2x and 3x Barlow lenses. Where is a good place
to start to find the nearest galaxy or nebulae?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on August 28, 2005:
One of the best target lists to start out with is the "Messier" catalog. It
started out as a listing of night-sky objects that comet hunter Charles Messier
put together to eliminate any confusion between these bright deep-sky objects
and potential comets he was hunting for. The list contains stellar clusters,
galaxies and nebulas. They are all fairly bright and will be visible
with a modest sized telescope of around 4.5" or so (even smaller is fine). You
can see a good listing of the Messier Catalog at http://www.seds.org/messier/ .
Some of my favorites include "M42" which is the Orion Nebula and
the Andromeda Galaxy or "M31".
Various Messier objects are viewable at
different times throughout the year, but in the springtime in the
Northern Hemisphere they are all visible throughout the night. Amateurs
around the world are inspired to participate in the "Messier
Marathon" and trying to find all of them in one night.
For deep-sky objects I strongly recommend
as wide of an eyepiece view as possible, especially while hunting
them down. So, start with the 20mm and if you find what you're
looking for work your way up. Don't worry about using the Barlow. It
will make the image too magnified not to mention nearly impossible
to use to find the objects in the first place.
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
Can you help me locate Jupiter and Venus in my night sky? I can't get
my Autostar telescope to track to objects like it's supposed to. I tried
to find the Moon and the Andromeda Galaxy with it and it didn't work properly.
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 25 August 2005:
Your problems from your telescope tracking may be the result of incorrectly
setting it up to start with. That can be a bit tricky for new users. Ensure
that you're starting from the right place based on what your manual says. Look
up "autostar help" on Google and you'll come back with good hits
with information you probably need.
Both Jupiter and Venus are visible in
the western sky shortly after sunset. You won't need self-tracking
or anything fancy on your telescope. Venus is the extremely
bright 'star-like' object you'll see in the orange sky of the setting
Sun and Jupiter is just to the left and a little up from that. Enjoy!
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
I am about to buy a Meade ETX-70 Astro Telescope with Autostar Hand Controller. It
has a focal length of 350mm. It costs $300.00. Should I buy the
telescope? Is it a good telescope?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 18 August 2005:
There is no "right" answer to this particular question. Sometimes
it's easy to say "NO!" about some telescope purchase questions (like
saying "NO" to nearly any telescope you'll find in your local department
store), but in this case Meade is a well known brand name and is known for
decent quality in their commercially mass-produced telescopes.
My suggestion here would be to:
1. Check out prices on various retailers
websites online, such as http://www.optcorp.com/ or http://www.astronomics.com/ and
see what they are asking for that particular telescope
2. Then visit http://www.scopereviews.com/ or http://www.cloudynights.com/ to
get some user reviews. More websites can be found at: http://astronomylinks.com/telescopes/reviews/
3. Lastly, the ETX line has many user
websites dedicated to it, so visiting some of those would be very
helpful as well. Visit http://astronomylinks.com/telescopes/specific_models/meade/ for
a list of those.
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
Do you know of any free software programs that will let me control a Bushnell
telescope from my computer?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 17 August 2005:
You're probably going to want to refer to any manual you've gotten from Bushnell
or their technical support. There are quite a few 'free' or shareware
plantarium programs that offer telescope control, but they may not work with
many different telescopes on the market. Various Google searches seem
to return results you may be interested in:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=free+telescope+control+software
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=free+planetarium+software
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
Should I put more money into a new telescope or into new eyepieces?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 15 August 2005:
Good question! The best idea, in my opinion, is to buy the best possible
telescope you can afford and add eyepieces as you go. The most important
part of the whole system is the telescope itself. The eyepieces are generally
interchangeable and can be added for much less money at a time. You can't
improve a telescope much after you purchase it.
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
Can you control an Autostar telescope
with a laptop? If so, can you use a local telephone wire to control
the telescope?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 12 August 2005:
The Meade Autostar telescope guidance system uses a proprietary (Meade-specific)
hand controller. After reviewing the description from http://meade.com/autostar/autostars.html it
does appear that it can be connected to a computer and/or laptop via a Serial
Connection (RS-232) using an add-on connector/cable, which is also available
from Meade.
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
How can I improve a telescope's focal length?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 12 August 2005:
The focal length of a telescope is a function of the primary mirror or lens
and where it focuses all of the light that it is collecting on to the plane
of the eyepiece. The only thing you can do to change it is add something
like a Barlow lens into the light path. Otherwise there isn't much you
can do to move the focal length without re-grinding the mirror or changing
to a different lens to produce a different focal length.
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
Can you put these eyepieces from lowest to the highest power magnification:
4mm, 25mm, 12.5mm, 9mm, 18mm plossl, 5mm plossl eyepiece?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 12 August 2005:
Regardless of the type of eyepiece (Plossl vs. Kellner, etc.) the smaller the
given millimeter length the higher the magnification of the image it will produce. So,
from the lowest to highest magnification this list would be 25mm, 18mm, 12.5mm,
9mm, 5mm, 4mm.
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
Are there any 1mm, 2mm or 3mm eyepieces?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 12 August 2005:
I do not believe there are 1mm, 2mm or 3mm eyepieces that are commercially
available. The shortest commercially available eyepiece I've personally
used is 4.8mm. They would not be practical or usable in all but the very
best skies (i.e. very stable air and the best "seeing" possible). I
would not recommend purchasing one if you did happen to find one. They
will not complement any amateur telescope in the real world.
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
I saw Mars in the southeast. It looked like an "orange star". When
I looked at it through my new telescope I couldn't see it clearly with the
18mm Plossl, 5mm Plossl, 9mm, 2x Barlow, and 25mm eyepieces. What should
I do? Should I return it?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 15 August 2005:
This is a good question because expectations are usually very high when looking
through a telescope for the first time, and it never lives up to those desires.
Mars, or the other bright planets easily
visible through starter telescopes such as Venus, Jupiter and Saturn,
are never as good through those telescopes as they are in the pictures
on the telescope's box. Your expectations for viewing Mars
should be that:
a) You'll be able to make out the distinctly
pink/red/orange coloration common in Martian pictures.
b) You may be able to make out some of the polar caps depending on how large
and defined they are, which is dependent on the Martian season you're looking
at.
c) You might be able to clearly make out the 'phase' Mars is in as viewed from
Earth (similar to Moon phases in crescent-like appearance).
d) It is possible, but unlikely you'll see the "canals" that cris-cross
the planet.
The end result of this analysis is that
it probably isn't a problem with the telescope, but a problem with
your expectations.
However, it is POSSIBLE your light path
is out-of-order and some collimation is needed. Additionally,
your view will degrade if you start to magnify the image more than
the atmospheric conditions will allow (i.e. "seeing"). Adding
more and more magnification will simply produce a more blurry image,
and putting the Barlow into the mix will blur it even more. Take
the Barlow out, try again with the 25mm and work your way up. That
should help quite a bit.
Lastly, set your expectations a little
lower - it will NOT be a Hubble picture, but you're seeing it with
your own eyes, which is exciting in its own way.
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
How do you use coordinates to navigate around the stars and planets on an equatorial
mounted telescope?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 12 August 2005:
Learning how to use coordinates in the sky can be tricky. I would suggest
you consult with any manuals that came with your telescope. Since it's
an equatorial mount you'd use what's called Right Accension/Declination or
RA/Dec. It is essentially a system based around the poles of the Earth.
The basics of it are that you would center
the axis of your scope toward the northern axis point of Earth, which
is right next to Polaris (aka the "North Star"). Additionally,
you'll need to make sure that the telescope is set to the correct
angle based on your location's latitude. From there you simply
move your telescope around to the RA/Dec coordinates it shows on
that dial you see and the coordinates of what you want to look at. It's
not impossible, but it's not a 'beginner' kind of thing.
I would encourage you to star hop. It's
a good way to learn the night sky and the stars that are out, and
it's a much less frustrating way for beginners to get around the
night sky.
Return to list of questions
QUESTION:
Is there a website where people show their pics of the planets they took with
their beginner or intermediate telescopes?
ANSWER from Roger Herzler
on 12 August 2005:
These pages seem OK for your purpose:
http://www.petedavis.net/astronomy.html
http://skytour.homestead.com/files/planets.html
Return to list of questions
Return to Q&A Archives
|
