Father-in-law has handed down his telescope as he has no where to put it.
Never had one before so looking for tips on how to get the best out of it and do a bit of star gazing/photography.
It's similar to this, not sure of the exact model:
So, star-gazers, what can I do with it? Have a decent garden, very little light pollution...
Take it outside and look at something through it?
I'd suggest doing it at night, when it's dark, and start with something big and easy to find, like the moon , or Brenda from the high flats.
As perchy says, but also get yourself a copy of 'Turn Left at Orion' which is a great help for those new to the hobby.
Don't point it at the sun.
Look into the future of the UK?
Bedroom window in Louise's house?
Probably best not look at the moon... Even if it is not as bright as the sun, photons still hurt.
Neighbourhood "watch"?
A star map that is easy to use. You should be able to see Galilean moons and saturns rings with that. Moon will be amazing and you should be able to find other planets
Check out the ring of Uranus.
After seeing the title of the thread, I opened just to see what witty responses would be posted up. Is not disappointed.
Probably best not look at the moon… Even if it is not as bright as the sun, photons still hurt.
That’s a joke, right?
No danger in looking at the moon through a telescope.
You'll soon get bored with standing outside on cold dark nights looking at little blobs of white light that you can't identify.
See if you can find some nebula - the Horse Head is a good one. They have lots of colour and shapes of gas clouds. Then get a camera mount and take some stunning pics.
Don't just look at the Pole Star or Jupiter.
I bought one from the auctions last year just to satisfy my curiosity of stargazing. Its amazing how fast objects move across the sky. The moon looks great but those little white blobs still ended up as little white blobs. Anyway it got resold as I eventually got bored of trying to make it work for me.
Jupiter and Saturn are good targets at present. Then learn your way around the moon and maybe pick out the location of some Apollo landing sites. Astrophotography doesn’t have to be expensive, I spent my first year taking pictures through a telescope using an iPhone and got some pretty good results.
The forum Cloudy Nights is a wealth of information.
Have fun!
Ask your father in law..
Look at stars, naked star celebrities or go blind-sky’s the limit really.
An infinite array of uses either this or bin it
Albireo is a good target, a double star, one yellow, the other bright blue.
No problems looking at the moon, but as above, it’s surprising how quickly things move across the sky. https://flic.kr/p/2gFmYyK
How’s next door neighbours cat getting on with its nighttime prowl ?
Probably best not look at the moon… Even if it is not as bright as the sun, photons still hurt.
Bwahahahahahaha!
Please tell me you’re joking. You are joking, right?
Take it outside and look at something through it?
Super, helpful as ever PP 🙂
get yourself a copy of ‘Turn Left at Orion’
F-in-Law has that so will dig it out for me.
Look into the future of the UK?
I did, it's not good..
Bedroom window in Louise’s house?
That's been seen before 😉
A star map that is easy to use.
I've got Google Skymap to try for now.
Check out the ring of Uranus.
It had a brown asteriod belt around it 🙁
See if you can find some nebula – the Horse Head is a good one. They have lots of colour and shapes of gas clouds. Then get a camera mount and take some stunning pics.
That would be cool, have ordered a phone mount for pics.
Jupiter and Saturn are good targets at present. Then learn your way around the moon and maybe pick out the location of some Apollo landing sites.
I'll look out for them 👍
Ask your father in law..
He never really used it
Albireo is a good target, a double star, one yellow, the other bright blue.
Another to add to the 'find list', thanks.
How’s next door neighbours cat getting on with its nighttime prowl ?
Shitting on the drive, as usual 😡
My tuppence worth!
The Moon is an awesome target for beginners, but can actually be quite painfully bright through the scope as someone earlier pointed out ( to a great deal of mocking). I have a bigger version of your scope, a 200mm Skywatcher Reflector and I have a moon filter that screws into the eyepiece to cut out a lot of the glare, without the filter, it's like someone shining a torch in your face.
A lot of stuff can be really disappointing at first glance. Stars are stars, just tiny points of light. Some are different colours, but all you'll see is a point of light. Someone earlier mentioned Nebulae, and in particular the Horse Head? Wow! Is his second name Hubble? Orion's nebula, the biggest and easiest to see in the sky, doesn't really have any colour when observed. You'd need long exposure photography to tease any colour out of it, and for that you'd need a tracking mount on your telescope.
What I'd recommend, and what I do, is research what I'm going to look for next. Be it a star cluster or a galaxy or whatever. I find out stuff about it, and then when I eventually find it (Turn Left At Orion is my go to roadmap), I can say wow! Dinosaurs were still kicking around here when the light that I'm looking at now, left its source.
Have a look for the Dragonfly cluster in Cassiopea. I dare you not to smile when you find it.
See if you can find some nebula – the Horse Head is a good one. They have lots of colour and shapes of gas clouds.
First, the horse head nebula is tiny, even in a big scope. Second, no telescope will show colours in gas clouds. The colours come from camera filters. Telescopes just show nebulae as pale, white smudges, even Andromeda which is massive.
There are plenty of easy targets, nebulae included, but the horsehead is definitely not one for a beginner and a small, cheap telescope.
The Moon is an awesome target for beginners, but can actually be quite painfully bright through the scope as someone earlier pointed out ( to a great deal of mocking). I have a bigger version of your scope, a 200mm Skywatcher
I had a 200mm Skyliner. The moon is a good target - awesome, as you say. I never got bored of looking at the craters. It’s not remotely painful, but will mess up your night vision for quite a while after viewing it, which isn’t great when you want to look for the horsehead nebula. 🤣
Andromeda https://flic.kr/p/2gFWFNs
Jupiter, including the 4 galilean moons, through clouds https://flic.kr/p/2gFXzAm
Albireo, clearly showing the yellow star https://flic.kr/p/2gFWUWX the other star appears bright blue to the naked eye.
I use a skywatcher EQ5 mount, with goto tracking, and a 200mm aperture reflector. Very interesting hobby.
As a couple of people have pointed out, the moon can be very bright, almost painfully so, when it’s been a particularly bright full moon I’ve been able to pick out colour, but what it isn’t is dangerous even through a big ‘scope - it’s very diffused and scattered, it’s just that our satellite is very pale in colour and has a high albedo.
The sun is very dangerous, and has to be treated with the utmost respect with any optical instrument, ask any ant that’s received cruel and unusual punishment from a schoolboy with a magnifying glass!
You’ll see some freaky shit when you zoom in on the moon
You’ll see some freaky shit when you zoom in on the moon
You might even see Wallace and Grommit being chased by a cooker.
Ant assassin
has a high albedo
so do I - thats why I used my telescope to look through Louise's window
so do I – thats why I used my telescope to look through Louise’s window
But did what you saw mess up your night vision, or not?
But did what you saw mess up your night vision, or not?
So, you’re asking did Louise’s albedo mess up mccruiskeen’s libido? How big is Louise to have such a high albedo?
Jupiter is visible at night currently, get an app to spot it and have a look at that (particularly galilean moons). Saturn too.
The moon is obvious and easy to find. Once you've done that, have a look for galaxies and nebulae.
If it's an equatorial mount, look up how to set it up (essentially you point one axis at polaris and therefore only have to move once control to follow things across the night sky as the Earth rotates).
Remember to spend a bit of time adjusting to the light levels, in which you can have a beer and chill out and contemplate your place in the universe.