Telescope help needed.

[Joe Mioux]

Today, while making a delivery I stopped at house where this guy was selling a telescope.

It is a Celestron Firstscope 114, newtonian. This guy bought it for himself 3 years ago.

It was priced at $90 and I commented that it looked like a nice telescope and he said make me an offer! I said $75 and he saild "sold".

I think this was a good price. It looks brand new.

So, now what? How do I learn about looking through this thing. I would welcome some input about making this a fun activity for my kids as well as me. Can any of you creekers help me. If so, thanks in advance.

Joe

[Vaughn McMillan]

Joe, I don't know Jack about telescopes and astronomy, but from what I saw for that model in a quick web search, it looks like you got a heckuva deal on a good starter 'scope.

As far as using it, I'm guessing you point it at the sky and look through the little end. :D Beyond that, I'd suggest finding an astronomy group or club (if there's any such thing near you) and connecting up with them. I'm betting they'll be very willing to bring someone into the fold. (Much like woodworkers are.)

[Dennis Peacock]

Joe,

Congrats on a very nice starter type scope. You, ahem....I mean the kids will get a kick out of looking and experiencing things of the night sky. Shoot, you can put a sun filter on it and allow them to look at the sun, see the sunspots, see the fire off the suns surface. Set it up and look at our moon. See the craters, hills and valleys. What's really cool is to look out there and see Saturn and it's rings and suddenly seeing it's moons circling about as little tiny star type dots floating around the atmosphere around Saturn. Seeing various things like the Milkyway (oh great...now I'm hungry. :rolleyes: ), the Horsehead Nebula....and the list goes on and on. If you and the kids really get into this thing? You can spend even more money, see more things, and learn a TON about our solar system.

The other use of a telescope would be to do bird watching, counting cattle in a field 20 miles away, watching neighbors (never mind that one):p ...and the list could go on.

Just be aware....it's yet another hobby that "can" consume considerable money if you keep upgrading the scope and accessories. But ya know what? What a wonderful time you will have with the wife and kids peaking up into the night sky. Use it as a closer to family time, educational time, and even a time to just sit and wonder how all this hangs in a balance so that we can all exist. :D

All this and $5 will get you a cup of coffee at the local McDonalds. ;)

[Mike Williams]

Joe,

As Dennis said, it looks like you got a great deal. I'm assuming it came with the equatorial tripod, which will be essential for star gazing. If you do a quick search on Google for "Celestron Firstscope 114", you'll quickly get to the Celestron.com website. It has the information for your telescope, including the owner's manual and setup manual.

I bought my son a 6" newtonian reflector 20 years ago to see Halley's Comet, and we had a great time together. One of the first lessons when you initially set up and focus your telescope (looking at a house or tree about 100 yards away) is that the images are up-side down. If you want to use if for ground viewing, you'll have to get an inverter lens adaptor.

If you also Google "Astronomy Children", you'll find some great websites offering advice, tips and clubs for children to get them (and you) started.

[Joe Mioux]

Vaughn I don't either....

Dennis thanks for the your input....

and Mike it does have an equatorial base.

Actually, learning about this stuff has been fun. I hope the kids and me will have fun with it and learn something in the process.

[Ernie Nyvall]

Today, while making a delivery I stopped at house where this guy was selling a telescope.

It is a Celestron Firstscope 114, newtonian. This guy bought it for himself 3 years ago.

It was priced at $90 and I commented that it looked like a nice telescope and he said make me an offer! I said $75 and he saild "sold".

I think this was a good price. It looks brand new.

So, now what? How do I learn about looking through this thing. I would welcome some input about making this a fun activity for my kids as well as me. Can any of you creekers help me. If so, thanks in advance.

Joe

Joe, I'm glad you brought this up. I've wanted one, but know nothing about them. Sounds like I need to talk to Dennis.

[Andy Fox]

Joe, astronomy is one of my seldom-practiced hobbies, and I just use binoculars or my eyes. With 1 kid getting old enough to start learning this stuff though, I might have to buy a scope too.

If you want to look at specific stars or deep space objects (nebulae, etc), then you've gotta learn your way around the sky without a scope first.

See if you can drop in on a local club's star party and peek through other scopes.

Find out what to look for:
http://skytonight.com/observing/ataglance

Check the Clear Sky forecast:
http://cleardarksky.com/csk/

Lots of helpful links here:
http://www.skynewsmagazine.com/pages/observersguide.html

Have fun!

[David Hayes]

Joe,
Check out cloudynights.com - they have a very useful forum and stored articles to help out beginners in astronomy.

My 11 year old got a 4.5" Dobsonian scope for Christmas and we have enjoyed the hobby when the weather and time allows.

Saturn will be up in the East during the late Fall - after November, be sure to look at the Orion nebula.

There is a good beginning magazine, "Night Sky", that is helpful in identifying constellations and learning how to find "faint fuzzies". I highly recommend this mag.

Clear and dark skies to you!

Dave

[Joe Mioux]

Thanks guys,

We took the telescope out tonight and "played" with it. Also took out my 10 x50 hunting binocs. We all had fun trying to locate things.

BTW: The websites you provided are great!

thanks Joe

[Ben Mullin]

Joe,

Looks like you got a pretty darn good deal. I don't have experience with that scope specifically, but hopefully the tripod and equatorial mout are relatively stable (the scope doesn't oscillate wildly at the slightest touch).

I'd second the suggestion to find a local club if available. The club I belong to has many people that are always interested in helping get people acquainted with the night sky.

Also as suggested earlier, www.cloudynights.com (http://www.cloudynights.com) is a good resource with excellent forums similar to SMC here.

Other helpful places to visit on the web are:

http://www.heavens-above.com/
http://www.skytonight.com (home for Sky & Telescope magazine)
http://www.spaceweather.com

For help finding some of those faint fuzzies you can't go wrong with some nice planetarium software

Free:
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/

Not Free:
http://www.starrynight.com/
http://www.bisque.com/Products/TheSky6/

If you have any specific questions that you can't find an answer for feel free to PM me. If I don't know the answer, I can probably help you find the answer.

Have fun and enjoy the night sky with your kids.

Ben

[Frank Hagan]

The Celestron 114mm (4.5") Firstscope was my first telescope, and it served me well. The tripod is heavy enough that it doesn't jiggle too much, so you can certainly get great views of the planets (Jupiter and its moons, that look like stars lined up with it, and especially the jewel of the night sky, Saturn).

You should have gotten some oculars or eyepieces with it. On a clear night, when the stars don't appear to be "twinkling" a lot, you can use 6mm eyepiece for some good views. Going to a higher magnification (which is what happens when you go to a LOWER number on the eyepiece) is troublesome ... you can have trouble focusing it, and the field of view is so narrow that the celestial objects "move" out of view quickly.

There's a marvelous book about viewing with a "small" telescope called "Turn Left at Orion". It gives you about 100 objects you can locate in the night sky by finding first one item ... like the big dipper ... then "star hopping" across the sky using the width of your fingers, hand or stretched out hand. The first time you star hop and find a nebula its like magic.

The equatorial mount can be difficult to learn how to master. You'll notice that it has an angled "pipe" type structure that has an elevation dial on it. Adjust this for your latitude (you can compare your zip code to charts on the Internet ... Google "zip code latitude" for them). Mine is "34". When the pointer is on "34", the equatorial mount is half way there!

You'll also note that the mount can rotate 360 degrees so that angled "pipe" type structure on the mount is pointing different directions. Set up your scope in a clear area, and level it. The open end of the telescope tube should be pointing the same way as the pipe like structure on the mount. Then rotate the mount until the pipe like structure is pointing toward the North Star or Polaris (its not the brightest star in the sky, but this site: http://www.onr.navy.mil/Focus/spacesciences/observingsky/constellations3.htm gives you a little animated video of how to find it.)

Now, with the pipe like structure pointed at the north star, arrange the optical tube so that you can easily see it in the finder, then in the center of the field of view when you have a 25mm (or thereabouts) eyepiece in the scope. Lock down the equatorial mount so it can't rotate.

Now, you can move the tube around, and when you get an object in the field of view, you can use the dials on the cables to move the scope slightly as the earth rotates the item out of your view.

Did you also get the software program that came with it?

[Joe Mioux]

Ben and Frank. Thanks for the info.

Frank, I didn't receive the software. I have two eyepieces, a 10 mm and 20 mm. The telescope did come with Celestron's star map book.

Frank: I am having a hard time getting my telescope polar aligned. I have my Lat set correctly (38.61) , my Dec (longitude ((89.37)) set correctly)( and I have taken a compass out to aim N, but I can't get the North Star sighted thru the tube.

What am I doing wrong?

Joe

[David Hayes]

Joe,
Your compass will get you in the ballpark, but due to magnetic declination, true north (North Star is close) and magnetic North are a little different.
Try finding Polaris (North Star) by following the pointer stars of the big dipper. The two stars that make up the end of the dipper's bowl (opposite of the handle) can be used to imagine a straight line from bottom of the bowl through the top of the bowl and on to Polaris. Get Polaris in your finder scope and then eyepiece.
There are probably other ways to find Polaris, but this has worked for me.
Dave

[Steve Hayes]

How many eyepieces did you get with it? And what power?

[Joe Mioux]

How many eyepieces did you get with it? And what power?

Two, a 10mm and 20mm.

Joe