First telescope questions

Question

I just purchased a Galileo 800mm x 80 mm Reflector telescope kit for my son and have a couple questions. First, the instructions are very vague and I have no idea where to attach the counter weight thing?? Any ideas? Second, when I went out to try it out I finally found something to focus on, there is an "x" shape in the middle of my object that is coming from the front of the telescope. Am I doing something wrong? Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to know a little before I give it to my son for his birthday. Thanks!

Answer 1

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Answer 2

I added a link to an image which shows how to place the counter weight: http://www.buzzillions.com/image.dox?R=2...

Well the is "x" is indeed in front of the reflector. It holds the secondary mirror. For observing follow this procedure:

Take out the scope in daylight.

Put the eyepiece with the largest number e.g. 20mm into in the focuser.

Position the telescope looking through the finderscope to an object not to near at you.

Now look through the eye piece.

Try to get it focussed as sharp as possible.

Exercise a bit and then take your telescope out at night when the moon is shining. It is the easiest nightly target. Go through the same procedure and at the end you should see with your own eyes the maria and craters on the moon.

Answer 3

Weight thing.  It must be on a German equatorial mount.  The weight thing balances out the weight of the scope.  Yeah. I just looked it up.  The photo angle is poor.  The bright telescope is in front, and the boring weight hangs off the pole heading directly away from the camera.

The finder should have cross hairs. When it is properly aligned with the main body of the scope, the object should appear in the middle of the view.  The main scope may be at higher magnification, so this is a feature.

Use the low power eyepieces only.  Anything over 80x will give you dim, grainy images.  The fact that they included an eyepiece and barlow combination that gives you 354x is a bad sign.  Consider returning it, going to a local astronomy club for guidance, and getting a real scope.  You don't have to do this alone.  Drag your son to the meetings.  That's what i do.

But if you are determined, you can see such things as M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, M13, the great cluster in Hercules, M42, the Great Orion nebula, and the craters on the Moon, the phase of Venus, the orangish blob of Mars, Jupiter and 4 moons, Saturn, the rings, and Titan, a whole bunch of double stars, and a few other things.  All from a moderately dark sky site.

After five years in my club, i bought a 10 inch telescope for $800 from Orion. You might consider the 6 inch or 8 inch. Orion has good support (I bought mine via the web, and it was shipped promptly.  A damaged accessory was replaced with zero hassle and promptly.  It matters.)

Here are the 3 P's for picking a telescope.  Price, Performance, and Portability.  Price and portability can be show stoppers.  Price less so, since you may be able to wait until you have more cash. But a scope that doesn't fit in your car is stuck where ever it ends up.  That leaves performance.  For deep space, what you need is as much light gathering as possible.  In your budget, that points to a reflector.

The push-to computer also comes under the category of performance.  Before buying my scope, i joined a local astronomy club and borrowed each of their loaner scopes in turn.  One was a ten inch reflector.  I spent half an hour not finding a fairly bright galaxy in my back yard.  It was too dim for my sky conditions.  Then, i repeated this for another galaxy.  Spending an hour to not find two galaxies is not something that will sustain me in the hobby.  With a push-to computer, i can observe a dozen objects an hour.  In in very short time, i found that very few galaxies can be seen from my heavily light polluted back yard.  And, an oxygen 3 filter lets me see most nebulae.

Back to my scope.  The tube length is 48".  It fits across the back seat of any car.  I had a $1000 budget, so the $800 scope fit.  I bought an oxygen 3 filter (about $89) at the same time.  I might have bought the 12" scope, but the tube is 8" longer, and doesn't fit in my car.  I might have gone with a truss dob with a larger mirror, but at the time, it was over my budget, and there was no computer.

In your budget, you ought to be able to at least get an xt6i - the Intelliscope 6" (150 mm) with computer.

But, join a club.  The $800 i spent would buy me 26 years of family membership at my club.  And they have an observatory with a 12.5" scope on a tracking mount.  And, they have a 22" scope.  I can use all this stuff with someone who can tell me how, and pretty much any time i want (which here in Michigan is about 2 days a month, due to clouds). The last link might get you to a local club.

Answer 4

Hi Ang -

Good answers above. The counterweight slides over the rod that extends from the mount. There should be a set s***w or k**b that tightens it down to the rod, holding it in place. In addition, there should be a secondary "catcher" in case the k**b works loose, so the counterweight cannot slide all the way off. Don't know if your scope has this last feature, most good scopes do.

I have one question regarding the X that you are seeing. Do you have the eyepiece installed in the focuser up near the front of the scope? Are you looking through it and not just into the open focuser? Some folks get confused because they have to look through the eyepiece up near the front of the scope. That's how a reflecting telescope works.

Of course, be careful that you and your son and his friends never point the scope toward the Sun during daylight hours.

Answer 5

Can you take it back?

A number of people have brought Galileo telescopes to my astronomical society to ask for help setting them up and learning how to use them.  

We'll typically spend an hour getting things tweaked as much as possible for them.

Experienced observers find them awkward and frustrating to aim.  The eyepieces are "toy" quality.  

The mirrors are generally reasonably good, but if you decide to keep it, you'll probably appreciate an upgrade to any eyepieces sold at a store that specializes in telescopes.  (Orion, Astronomics, Highpoint Scientific etc)  You're also probably going to want to find a better way to mount it.  

Or for less than $200 you could get an orion Starblast dobsonian and start out with something that's pretty good out of the box.

Joining or at least visiting a local astronomical society is a very good idea.