This is fantastic information, especially for a beginner like myself. As a child, I always drooled over the telescopes in stores that were too expensive for my parents to even consider getting for me. Now at the age of 33, I am finally able to afford a basic reflector scope. Two nights ago, I saw Saturn’s rings for the first time in real life, and I almost shed some tears! I’ve seen countless images of planets. But there’s something different about seeing them in real life!
My family and I all clubbed together to get my dad a Sky-Watcher 130p for Christmas, he has always wanted one but would never buy himself one. We spend Christmas night looking at the Moon together, it was very cloudy but we still got some lovely images. His face is a memory I will never forget.
First day of buying my first ever 102mm Telescope. Very clear UK night, did see some stars and found out that the bright one near the moon was not a satellite but actually Jupiter. Then on my nightshift work break time, I watched this video. The next night I was off, I went out again armed by the info in this video. I finally was able to use the magnifications, focusing and changing barlows correctly! Saw the moon at max zoom with all its craters, Jupiter and its moons, Saturn and its rings, and more! I think this is one of the best video to watch if you are a beginner. Really really highly recommend this. Full of info to get you started correctly! In the end of watching, I had a paper of my calculations for my 102mm Celestron 😄 haha
Same here lol I too at the end of watching this I had the calculations of my AZ 102 mm Celestron. So exciting as a beginner learning this information. It's been a week now into my new hobby.
Dear Sir, I took my second start in 40s and am concerned about the effect of ageing on dilation of pupil, as I can perceive the difference between what I can sense vis a vis what our kids can observe. I am afraid, my pupil is going no further than 6.5mm, thereby limiting the amount of light that I can get from our 16 inch telescope, because I am always constrained to use slightly higher magnification.
I went to my first star party in 1985 and bought my first telescope then. I decided to watch this video as a refresher and am pleased to say if any of you are newer to astronomy, this is the best, most complete video of practical accurate tips I have ever seen in one place. This is a bookmark and refer to when in need video for all of us.
Thank You Very Much GREAT TIPS. Just beginning in this field. It started for me in Vietnam. At night I would always look at the sky and say," My love and I can see the same stars." My way of saying good night to her.
For any telescope, if you use an eyepiece with a focal length (in mm) equal to the f/ratio, the magnification is equal to the aperture (in mm). For example, your 80 mm refractor with 900 mm focal length is f/11 (close enough), so an 11 mm eyepiece gives you 80X. Add a 2X Barlow and you're at the maximum magnification for that telescope. It's just another way of reckoning that I like.
I have just recently upgraded my star diagonal and the effect was roughly a doubling of the image quality. I was surprised but pleased and am now enjoying a scope I had actually some regrets about buying. It made that much difference.
This is great info for beginners and those of us who have been "trying" for a while. Ive watched a lot of how to videos and really appreciate your explanation for how to calculate max magnification. Cheers
@@stevenfoleyuk9404 I have it. I would recommend buying or making a dobsonian. There reallu is little use in an equatorial mount when doing visual observing. And the celestron is absolutely useless when it comes to astrophotography.
You sir you have explained the math and formulas on power and lenses that I for the first time can understand and do the math myself in all the years of having astronomy as a hobby. Being dislexic and adhd made it impossible, so I thought, that I'd never understand the math. I have subscribed to your channel and have been made so happy today in seeing "more" out of astronomy that I longed for all these years besides just "seeing threw the lens".
FINALLY!! I have found someone who explained these topics in a way that I could understand them. Watch this video if you are trying to understand the basics of telescope theory. I promise you won't regret it and help the gentleman out by liking and subscribing since he's taken his time to make and post this video. I'm sure it took longer to make and post this video than it would take us to click the mouse a few times. Thanks Robert for dedicating your personal time to teach us about this fantastic subject.
Found that my new 8” SCT was just slightly off on collimation. Took me a while to tweak it in but now it’s good! That alone made a difference. I have a new star diagonal on order along with eyepieces that are likely to be better than the ones that come with the scope. At least the new eyepieces will be easier to use as they have much more eye relief!
excellent THANK YOU!!! I have been observing Jupiter at the wrong angle for days wonder WTH is wrong with my 10 inch Dob,. what a relief to know its not my scope.... it the operator. lol
@@gameseeker6307 I just got the 8 inch dob in time for warmer weather hopefully from optcorp website. You can also use the code welcome20 to get 20 bucks off so its only 425 dollars for an 8 inch aperature telescope. Good deal.
very good orator speaker thank you, at my age so difficult to understand sometimes people speaking gibberish at 200 kph. I recently reopened my ETX 105 to enjoy with the new family. Forgot so much and 15 yrs of being in a box lots of maintenance was required and looking into upgrades to improve our experience. thank you for your formulas they will be of value to us. We're so excited we ordered another ETX 125 so all can enjoy
One tip that I found very useful is that at dusk if there are cotton candy looking clouds it means it will clear up at dark and the atmosphere will be dry providing great views. Your absolutely right about very short millimeter eye pieces. I have 7 eye pieces which I'm sure you think is to many but the only one I regret buying is a 5 MM plossl because the eye relief is so short I have to press my eye into it to get a view.
Very helpful. Thanks so much. I never understood until now why I needed to know why I needed to calculate the focal length and eyepiece ratio. You made it make sense.
Many thanks for creating this video and sharing you knowledge on telescopes, it was very helpful in aiding me in understand telescope equipment so I can make a informed purchase.
I just got a Celestron Starsense Explorer dx130AZ, this is a very helpfull and well explained video even 7 years later. I had no idea you should acclimatise your scope. Thank you very much.
Thanks for these tips. Would it be possible to show examples of how images change or improve as a result of implementing these ideas? Would be really good to see the effect or improvements that can be realised.
My brand new Celestron 114 mm reflector telescope appeared to be perfectly collimated,however after I used my collimating eye piece, I realized that it needed to be collimated. Once I collimated it i was able to get clear crisp views of Jupiter. I actually saw details on the cloud bands in bad seeing conditions.
Thank you for this very informative post. My sons telescope views are completely blurry, it appears to be the lenses; we’ve had no success with it. Will try out some of these suggestions.
@@willmoran5694 An arc second is a measure of angle. One arc minute is 1/60 of a degree, and one arc second is 1/60 of that. Imagine a pie and divide it into 360 slices, each slice is one degree. Now divide each slice 60 times, and each resulting slice is one arc minute. Divide each of those slices 60 times and each resulting slice is now one arc second. Your pie has been divided into 1,296,000 slices, incidentally. Of course, a pie is much simpler than the sky as it's only sliced in one spacial dimension, but it makes for easier visualization of the concept. In astronomy angular measurement is used to denote apparent size of an object; that is to say how big something appears to be from our viewing point. The further away it is, the smaller it's going to appear. If you lined yourself up so you are facing the leftmost extent of an object and rotated yourself until you were facing the rightmost extent, the amount you had to rotate would give you the apparent size of that object. Since everything in space is generally very very very far away, this amount will usually be tiny, within the realms of the arc second. For the example the OP gives, an object 1mm in size 200 meters away from you would have an apparent size of 1 arc second. A basket ball about 800 meters away from you would be about 1 arc minute. The moon's apparent size is about 30 arc minutes.
Mostly very good useful tips, with one exception: I heard that tip about resting the filter over the eyepiece years ago; when I tried it I lost my filter & never found it, wouldn't really recommend that, but they will screw onto some barlows or like you said diagonals.
One thing I did to improve the quality of a 76 mm reflector telescope was invest in a 125 dollar adjustable lens with a 60 degree field of view. It wasn't much in terms of changes but it allowed me to actually begin seeing things rather than fight with a pinhole lens that came with the telescope (In all fairness, the scope only cost like 50 dollars and was on sale from 99). It allowed me to actually get a good view (For the reflectivity) of the Orion Nebula and to begin resolving some details of the Pleiades
I know that feeling. I guess we need to affirm things for ourselves. Also, it is the technical challenge, especially when doing deep sky imaging/recording.
this was a good one! wow, only 2 filters. have you seen the kits with 8-10 filters and no idea what they will do? i did buy a single lens barlow for ~$15. going to step up a bit and get a better one. been buying mid-grade eyepieces used when i can. my b-i-l has a 7-21mm zoom and it is a bit dark, even though it is mid-grade. it is a continuous adjust model instead of click-stops so you can sort of fine tune it. i wrote the math down. i've been told that 'maximum useable magnification' can be suspect. you might borrow smaller eyepieces and determine exactly where things get distorted. keep looking up!
Allowing time for the scope to normalize to the ambient temperature cannot be overemphasized. Most of the year on the US Gulf Coast we have to let scopes warm up to the outdoor temperature. My 12" Dob adjusts pretty quickly but not in 20 minutes. The 10" Schmidt Cassegrain can take two hours to fully stabilize in the summer or in our brief cold front passages but that's another viewing tip. In humid areas the driest, clearest air is after a cold front passes.
Hello Mr. Dalby, I am new to the telescope world. My daughter bought me a "Solomark Astronomical Telescope F70070EQ". I mentioned to her I wanted to find a way to see the "MILKY WAY" closer than with my camera as a whole. She asked a handful of folks about which model would be good for a beginner and they directed her to the one she bought me. I realize it is a fairly low-grade model and probably easier to learn on. I have no real idea what I am doing except I have it assembled and ready to go. I am normally found behind my Nikon D7200 DSLR camera with a variety of zoom lenses like my Sigma 150-600mm for example. I am not much into knowing the hardware as I am the software if the makes since. Basically, as long as I know how to work it and know some of my settings, I'm a happy camper. Sadly, although I know the mm stands for millimeter, I am not educated much into what the mm means in respect to distance and focal except to say I know that is the range in which my lens focuses and the higher the mm the closer the object gets. Firstly, will I be able to see the Milky Way with this telescope? Secondly, do you have an easy way for me to learn the information I need to know to get the most out of my telescope? I am a visual learner with diagrams and/or photos that I can look at while I listen to your videos. I don't do well with reading or high use of technical jargon. Basically, I'm the gal that needs the explanation for dummies or learning 101. I hope to learn how to use this and start using it soon. I'm also hoping I can see the Milky Way. Thanks so much for your time and attention to my inquiries. I hope to hear your reply soon. Blessings, Renee Lund (IG: @reneelund_2)
This is great information. It would've been really good to have illustrations and pictures or videos demonstrating things you are referring to throughout the video.
These are really... really good tips. And I work for a telescope company in the Tech Support department. Take my word for it? Watch out for that thicc air
I really appreciate these videos. Astronomy has been an interest for me for along time, and with your help I've been able to dive right in as an adult with money to spend lol. Thank you!
Rasta - Same here. I’ve been watching these videos for days. I had been considering buying a scope for a while and just happened to find an iOptron 80mm refractor on a SmartStar mount for $60 at a thrift store. I was watching the moon rise that first night and a few star clusters but was limited to only one 25mm eyepiece. I saw Jupiter and several of its moons (a large bright dot and four smaller dots) and even saw Saturn but it only looked like a yellowish football. I quickly decided I wanted more, and a Meade ETX-90 came home. Still wanted more. Now i have a Celestron 130 with eyepiece and filter kit but no stars tonight. Hopefully things clear up for astronomy club “open to public” gathering tomorrow night in park.
Very good, quick information .... and I didn't have to hear about how you first started observing the planets, what the weather was doing earlier , and what you had for breakfast. :)
I have found my f/11.2 4" Maksutov is a real swiss army knife in this regard....big magnification even with a 12.5mm Plossl, and both Jupiter and Saturn are great ! And the Star Diagonal has a prism :-)
Very good video for beginning backyard astronomers. Includes choices and types of eyepieces, not over powering with too short eyepieces and viewing objects overhead instead of nearer the horizon, letting telescope cool before observing, etc.
Great help. So really then I have a 70mm Celestron so I take it that has a maximum magnification power of 140x. It has a focal length of 400mm. I was using it with a 3x Barlow and a 20mm eyepiece (looking at Jupiter). By the math I understand to get magnification I do (400x3)/20= 120x magnification. I'm still within my scope's range. If I was to use a 10mm eyepiece and pushed it to 140x magnification, that's me on my scopes limit right? I noticed when I put my 4mm eyepiece on I couldn't see anything, even though I was certain Jupiter was centred in my shot. I assumed it was because I was zoomed TOO far into Jupiter, but it's equally possible that shoving 350x down my scope's throat it just couldn't handle it right? Also, even at 120x I couldn't get any proper focus on it. I'm guessing it's just because my scope can't focus like that. Either way, seeing Jupiter was incredible. I hope I can see Saturn's ring in May with it.
Hi there, sorry to be a tad slow in reply (but you know, 3 years is an unresolvable instant from a cosmic perspective). Your maths is a red pen "2 out of 10, See Me, Sir". 1200 divided by 20 is 60 not 120. You'll need your 10mm eyepiece to get 120x out of that instrument when employing a 3x Barlow. But take a step back for a minute; your problem is not the maths but poor to mediocre optical quality of your accessories. If the 3x Balow and eyepieces were all supplied with the telescope then the chances are they are the major cause of your poor views. The 70x400 Celestron is a capable scope but its short focal length produces a measure of false colour and the resolution losses when looking at detailed extended targets, like planets, with the 'economy' accessories supplied with the instrument, can be very noticeable. I think the 10mm and 20mm you have are so called Modified Achromats (MA) and are rather cheaply constructed (with too much shiny black plastic inside) and they cause a significant loss of contrast despite being based on the Kellner design which, when well executed, is usually bright and contrasty. Of the two eyepieces you have the 20mm is serviceable (just) so I recommend that you retire the 10mm MA and purchase at least one good Plossl (my apologies to Herr Plossl and his countrymen for the missing umlaut - two umlauts now!) eyepiece - say a 12.5mm - it will give you good views and work well with a 2x Barlow. The 4mm you have wants to be quietly put in a drawer and then do your best to forget about it as it will do nothing useful with your telescope. The Barlow: if it was supplied with the initial kit, probably has a black plastic body and a single lens - this is not well suited to your challenging short focal length instrument and should be abandoned in favor of a good 2x Barlow (with at least 2 lens elements). If you purchased the 3x separately, and it has an all-metal body, it will almost certainly be achromatic and nominally OK - but I would still recommend you buy a good quality 2x Barlow instead. On the whole you will do better generating smaller bright images with good contrast than larger dimmer ones with poor contrast. The human eye loves contrast - it is the key to resolving detail. I hope you are still looking at the sky after this 'cosmic instant' and you find this useful. KR RJD A&NTV
This man is humbly talking Kellners while i am sitting here with my Explore Scientifics and Ethos.........ONE Ethos.....cuz.....money. Never used good Kellner myself but I hear older Japanese ones are good. Really, truly. The Explore Scientific 6.7mm 82deg eyepiece is amazing. What a wonderful and pleasant eyepiece to use at $150 . Did they go up? Still worth it. 31mm 82deg Explore Scientific. Mostly as good as the 31mm Nagler and I paid half the price. When I put the Moon half in the FOV, it makes my stomach flutter like when you drive too fast over a hump or train tracks in the city. 13mm Ethos? No essential improvements can be made. I expect no less at THAT price. I have plossls strewn here and there included from various Meade and Celestron purchases. All in the 8mm-26mm range with one 40mm that I gave away to a friend. It is only useful on Cassegrains, really. Those plossls are not bad and they are light years better then those plastic barreled throw in .965" kellners and monocentrics that you get with department store and membership club telescope kits. Before anyone goes out and buys the eyepieces I mentioned, they were purchased to power a custom 16" f4.43 Dobsonian. Like the man says, consider your scope before you buy any eyepieces.
Great valuable info and no bloody commercials / ads. Do you happen to have a .pdf with all the recommendations available. Thanks for putting this video together. Much appreciated.
Thanks! I really enjoyed this. I feel like I got a lot more than 5 tips. I especially like the fact that you took you time explaining math to "math-impaired" me. Now that I understand the math, I'll try my 9mm to see the planets instead of just seeing more lights in the sky.
Hi, Your video is excellent! I really enjoyed the explanation of how to reduce problems with the image by being careful of what you are looking over! Your Discussion of lens designs, focal lengths, and the use of a Barlow are spot on. Nice work!
Great. Thanks to share your know-how with us. I did manual colimation and it works very well. I could see Júpiter and hus moons and Saturn and moons and rings for the first time, was astonished! Thanks again, greetings from Brazil, São Paulo
Collimation is Critical. You must make this the first point. I have walked about 1/2 a city block, set the telescope base down, check the collimation and I can see the dot moved within the bubble. Many would say ok,,, and leave it, however there are those that believe In the center " means in the Center!! ... Centered between the inner circle. I have recently found this out the hard way, having wasted good viewing time to only learn the mirror was slightly off centered within the black painted circle. It only takes two minutes or less to ascertain if the mirror is either centered or not. My recent viewing of Jupiter changed dramatically once I properly collimated the mirror. Other factors of course were culprit, however collimation was the key problem.
Good morning, it's the first video of yours that I see, I like astronomy and I'm sesrching for lots and lots of information in all the languages I know, but I'm not that good in english, and I noticed that you say the numbers like "eightteen hundred" but I learned that the number is called "a thousand and eight hundred" it is incredible to see that not everyone in the world speaks the same things in english, where are you from? If you can answer me I'll feel very lucky, because I'd like to know where in the world the people say "eightteen hundred" it is very interesting!!! P.S: very good video, I loved it!
I truly like your videos as an amateur astronomer but, when you talk about accessories, could you post some links to shorten the time to locate a piece?
Hi I recently was given my first telescope ever for my birthday. I've always found astrology fascinating and was blown away when I stumbled upon Saturn and Jupiter my first night just aiming it at what I thought were the first stars visible after sunset which turned out to be planets. I've become obsessed and find these videos very informative and I have learned a lot from your videos. That being said I still get confused especially reading other stuff on the Internet. I really would just like to get some better views of these planets. And was hoping u may e able to provide some guidance. I currently have a 70mm aperture and 700mm focal length. I have the Barlow 2X len. Thanks to your very informative video I realize my maximum magnification should not exceed 140 and have a 10mm eeypiec so I Know I'm tapped out on power.
@@LynxStarAuto Astronomy is a legitimate field of science that can be a great hobby for some. Astrology is an attempt at drawing supernatural parallels between planetary alignments and such with events in our world. It's complete superstition. Astronomy and Astrology are far from being cousins.
Great video I like the part about. Power. I have a 3x power Barlow and use a 9 km eye piece and on some nights I get a awesome view other nights not so good. That's from the atmosphere. I love astronomy gods universe is very beautiful.
A simpler way to check your diagonal. I pointed mine at my white computer screen and wooden desktop. Compare it with the view from your naked eye. It should be almost indistinguishable. The one I had that came with the telescope slightly dimmed the screen and turned the brown desktop almost grey. I bought an SvBONY dielectric and couldn't tell the difference between my eye and looking through the diagonal.
I'm a beginner my self..like all three info I can get ..like your channel. But I got a question , I have a mead 8 inch set with 200mm focal lenth and can't seem to get clear images. What the most usable eyepeace in can use?? I would appreciate any help thanks
WOW AWESOME TYVM!!! i learned a ton!!! 1 question if i buy the Celestron Omni XLT 120 Focal Lenght 1000 the online manual says max. Magnification 283 so use 240 or 283? also would a Barlow X 3 & 10 mm eyepiece so 300 Mag be ok??? TYVM much appreciated!!!
I have celestron 70 AZ powerseeker. But, not able to focus clearly. I can see Only moon properly through it. I will try your tips. Thanks 😊 for teaching the basics.
Greetings from India. Sir, I pray for this generation and the one's in future, to ponder/ understand, the esoteric meaning, of it all. Very informative. Regards ...
Thanks for the video. Last night I managed to see Mars, Jupiter with its 4 Moons, Saturn and its rings plus Arcturus. It was my first night with my Telescope. Subscribed to your channel.
@@RocketPlanet I made plenty of beginner mistakes but the moment I saw Saturn I've got paralyzed and so nervous. I bought a Celestrone StarSense Explorer LT 80mm. Thanks for your videos I'm learning a lot.
Hi.. i love the way you explained it. i am actually trying to connect my dslr with my refractor telescope without star tracker. Can you recommend what kind of stuff would be helpful. Most of videos are using reflector telescope. My main issue is with blurry planets. I am not sure what is wrong i am doing and today i found your video and think8ng my problem would be solved here. I have bought few of following material Camera nikon d5100 + t2 ring + some sort of tube + 5x Barlow Tele: Galileo 700mm x 60mm beginner level with 20mm and 6 mm eyepiece Any reference /help will be appreciated. I am struggling from last 2 months and could not capture a single photo. Thanks Dp
I've just subscribed after watching a couple of videos by A&N. Very interesting and informative. Just got my first Reflector Telescope. Very excited about seeing the Red Planet as more than just an orangey dot in the sky. No matter how I tried I couldn't get it in focus. I did the outside focus tip on a bright star and found that the image was skewed rather than resembling a celestial doughnut, which by all accounts means the collimation is out. I have tried collimating by following the A&N guide but all I seem to have managed is to turn my inverted image of distant trees into a diagonal one. The image is still quite sharp but I'm worried now that I've done something really stupid to my new Telescope. The adjusting screws at the rear are very tight and hard to turn and the Allan screws at the front seem to be very loose indeed. Any advice or help would be appreciated.
This is fantastic information, especially for a beginner like myself. As a child, I always drooled over the telescopes in stores that were too expensive for my parents to even consider getting for me. Now at the age of 33, I am finally able to afford a basic reflector scope. Two nights ago, I saw Saturn’s rings for the first time in real life, and I almost shed some tears! I’ve seen countless images of planets. But there’s something different about seeing them in real life!
Seeing Saturn for the first time really is a spiritual experience, and something that words simply cannot comprehend, good luck and happy stargazing!
I think everyone who sees Saturn for the first time with their own eyes will never forget it!
My family and I all clubbed together to get my dad a Sky-Watcher 130p for Christmas, he has always wanted one but would never buy himself one.
We spend Christmas night looking at the Moon together, it was very cloudy but we still got some lovely images. His face is a memory I will never forget.
I hear ya! FINALLY got my very own brand new outta box for Christmas. Years ago I was blessed to see the rings of Saturn & details on the moon 🤩😍
It’s because the images you’ve seen are cgi but your eyeball through the telescope is the real deal
First day of buying my first ever 102mm Telescope. Very clear UK night, did see some stars and found out that the bright one near the moon was not a satellite but actually Jupiter.
Then on my nightshift work break time, I watched this video.
The next night I was off, I went out again armed by the info in this video.
I finally was able to use the magnifications, focusing and changing barlows correctly!
Saw the moon at max zoom with all its craters, Jupiter and its moons, Saturn and its rings, and more!
I think this is one of the best video to watch if you are a beginner. Really really highly recommend this. Full of info to get you started correctly!
In the end of watching, I had a paper of my calculations for my 102mm Celestron 😄 haha
Same here lol I too at the end of watching this I had the calculations of my AZ 102 mm Celestron. So exciting as a beginner learning this information. It's been a week now into my new hobby.
I really appreciate your videos as I am 67 years old and decided to try to do a little photography again many anvances in the hobby
Dear Sir, I took my second start in 40s and am concerned about the effect of ageing on dilation of pupil, as I can perceive the difference between what I can sense vis a vis what our kids can observe. I am afraid, my pupil is going no further than 6.5mm, thereby limiting the amount of light that I can get from our 16 inch telescope, because I am always constrained to use slightly higher magnification.
That means you're 69 now.
Nice.
@@dominusanuli3595 nice
Wow ur 58 years older than me im 11
I'm starting at 67, too! This is something I've wanted to do since 3rd grade.
I went to my first star party in 1985 and bought my first telescope then. I decided to watch this video as a refresher and am pleased to say if any of you are newer to astronomy, this is the best, most complete video of practical accurate tips I have ever seen in one place. This is a bookmark and refer to when in need video for all of us.
Thank You Very Much GREAT TIPS. Just beginning in this field. It started for me in Vietnam. At night I would always look at the sky and say," My love and I can see the same stars." My way of saying good night to her.
This channel has consistently brilliant content.
Much admired, recommended and missed.
I'm a beginner and this was the most valuable lesson I've watched so far. Big THANK YOU!
Lots of practical info with no sales pitches. Thank you.
For any telescope, if you use an eyepiece with a focal length (in mm) equal to the f/ratio, the magnification is equal to the aperture (in mm). For example, your 80 mm refractor with 900 mm focal length is f/11 (close enough), so an 11 mm eyepiece gives you 80X. Add a 2X Barlow and you're at the maximum magnification for that telescope. It's just another way of reckoning that I like.
Where do i buy high quality lens & especially 45° prism things biggest n bestest what ever u think I'll take
I have just recently upgraded my star diagonal and the effect was roughly a doubling of the image quality. I was surprised but pleased and am now enjoying a scope I had actually some regrets about buying. It made that much difference.
What kind of Telescope ?
Lost you guys for a few years, so glad to have found you again.
This is great info for beginners and those of us who have been "trying" for a while. Ive watched a lot of how to videos and really appreciate your explanation for how to calculate max magnification. Cheers
me, who can't even afford a Telescope: _aight bois, this is interesting.._
yes you can u can easily save up a lil and buy celestron astromaster 130eq
@@thestellarcorpse are they good telescopes ?
You could rather go for a dobsonian, pretty cheap with great aperture. Though manual tracking
@@stevenfoleyuk9404 I have it. I would recommend buying or making a dobsonian. There reallu is little use in an equatorial mount when doing visual observing. And the celestron is absolutely useless when it comes to astrophotography.
You can have *Our* Telescope comrade
Thank you for keeping this video up after all this time. It's extremely informative and very helpful, being new to the field. Great work!
You sir you have explained the math and formulas on power and lenses that I for the first time can understand and do the math myself in all the years of having astronomy as a hobby. Being dislexic and adhd made it impossible, so I thought, that I'd never understand the math. I have subscribed to your channel and have been made so happy today in seeing "more" out of astronomy that I longed for all these years besides just "seeing threw the lens".
FINALLY!! I have found someone who explained these topics in a way that I could understand them. Watch this video if you are trying to understand the basics of telescope theory. I promise you won't regret it and help the gentleman out by liking and subscribing since he's taken his time to make and post this video. I'm sure it took longer to make and post this video than it would take us to click the mouse a few times. Thanks Robert for dedicating your personal time to teach us about this fantastic subject.
Found that my new 8” SCT was just slightly off on collimation. Took me a while to tweak it in but now it’s good! That alone made a difference. I have a new star diagonal on order along with eyepieces that are likely to be better than the ones that come with the scope. At least the new eyepieces will be easier to use as they have much more eye relief!
Whow! I found your channel, coming back to astronomie after 25 years.
Now I have time to watch the sky as long I wish.
excellent THANK YOU!!! I have been observing Jupiter at the wrong angle for days wonder WTH is wrong with my 10 inch Dob,. what a relief to know its not my scope.... it the operator. lol
I just bought the 10" dob, and i read your comment wrong the first time. scared the crap out of me lol
What is it? Is this the "on opposition" thing?
Did you guys order them and if you did, how?
I want to purchase the "Tx8", just to look around the galaxy
@@gameseeker6307 I just got the 8 inch dob in time for warmer weather hopefully from optcorp website. You can also use the code welcome20 to get 20 bucks off so its only 425 dollars for an 8 inch aperature telescope. Good deal.
Yeah just got a used 10” dob and even from 35-80 degrees is a big difference.
very good orator speaker thank you, at my age so difficult to understand sometimes people speaking gibberish at 200 kph. I recently reopened my ETX 105 to enjoy with the new family. Forgot so much and 15 yrs of being in a box lots of maintenance was required and looking into upgrades to improve our experience. thank you for your formulas they will be of value to us. We're so excited we ordered another ETX 125 so all can enjoy
One tip that I found very useful is that at dusk if there are cotton candy looking clouds it means it will clear up at dark and the atmosphere will be dry providing great views. Your absolutely right about very short millimeter eye pieces. I have 7 eye pieces which I'm sure you think is to many but the only one I regret buying is a 5 MM plossl because the eye relief is so short I have to press my eye into it to get a view.
Very helpful. Thanks so much. I never understood until now why I needed to know why I needed to calculate the focal length and eyepiece ratio. You made it make sense.
Many thanks for creating this video and sharing you knowledge on telescopes, it was very helpful in aiding me in understand telescope equipment so I can make a informed purchase.
I just got a Celestron Starsense Explorer dx130AZ, this is a very helpfull and well explained video even 7 years later. I had no idea you should acclimatise your scope. Thank you very much.
Thanks for these tips. Would it be possible to show examples of how images change or improve as a result of implementing these ideas? Would be really good to see the effect or improvements that can be realised.
My brand new Celestron 114 mm reflector telescope appeared to be perfectly collimated,however after I used my collimating eye piece, I realized that it needed to be collimated. Once I collimated it i was able to get clear crisp views of Jupiter. I actually saw details on the cloud bands in bad seeing conditions.
Can you explain to me what does that mean and how to do it
@@chrispz5675 yeah
Excellent info in a short, to the point, video. I am looking at getting into the scene and this video has answered a lot of questions! cheers
Thank you for this very informative post. My sons telescope views are completely blurry, it appears to be the lenses; we’ve had no success with it. Will try out some of these suggestions.
Great video. Many people are not aware that one arc second is about 1 mm at 200 meters distance.
0.9696273622190719871798282047159... mm :)
Do you mind explaining what this means to a beginner?
@@willmoran5694 An arc second is a measure of angle. One arc minute is 1/60 of a degree, and one arc second is 1/60 of that. Imagine a pie and divide it into 360 slices, each slice is one degree. Now divide each slice 60 times, and each resulting slice is one arc minute. Divide each of those slices 60 times and each resulting slice is now one arc second. Your pie has been divided into 1,296,000 slices, incidentally. Of course, a pie is much simpler than the sky as it's only sliced in one spacial dimension, but it makes for easier visualization of the concept.
In astronomy angular measurement is used to denote apparent size of an object; that is to say how big something appears to be from our viewing point. The further away it is, the smaller it's going to appear. If you lined yourself up so you are facing the leftmost extent of an object and rotated yourself until you were facing the rightmost extent, the amount you had to rotate would give you the apparent size of that object. Since everything in space is generally very very very far away, this amount will usually be tiny, within the realms of the arc second.
For the example the OP gives, an object 1mm in size 200 meters away from you would have an apparent size of 1 arc second. A basket ball about 800 meters away from you would be about 1 arc minute. The moon's apparent size is about 30 arc minutes.
@@Loonistrator
Great explanation, thanks 👍
Mostly very good useful tips, with one exception: I heard that tip about resting the filter over the eyepiece years ago; when I tried it I lost my filter & never found it, wouldn't really recommend that, but they will screw onto some barlows or like you said diagonals.
One thing I did to improve the quality of a 76 mm reflector telescope was invest in a 125 dollar adjustable lens with a 60 degree field of view. It wasn't much in terms of changes but it allowed me to actually begin seeing things rather than fight with a pinhole lens that came with the telescope (In all fairness, the scope only cost like 50 dollars and was on sale from 99). It allowed me to actually get a good view (For the reflectivity) of the Orion Nebula and to begin resolving some details of the Pleiades
It is funny we see pictures of Saturn and Jupitar all the time, but we still want to see it through the eye of our little toy. Good video, thank you!
I know that feeling. I guess we need to affirm things for ourselves. Also, it is the technical challenge, especially when doing deep sky imaging/recording.
Well I want to see them on my terms 😉.
"Close enough for government work" ... Classic !!
this was a good one! wow, only 2 filters. have you seen the kits with 8-10 filters and no idea what they
will do?
i did buy a single lens barlow for ~$15. going to step up a bit and get a better one.
been buying mid-grade eyepieces used when i can. my b-i-l has a 7-21mm zoom and it is a bit dark, even
though it is mid-grade. it is a continuous adjust model instead of click-stops so you can sort of fine tune it.
i wrote the math down. i've been told that 'maximum useable magnification' can be suspect. you might borrow smaller eyepieces and determine exactly where things get distorted.
keep looking up!
Thank you Robert this is the best tutorial vid I have ever seen
Very good Sir. I will check my collimation more often. Thank you.
I had my best ever view of Jupiter low to the horizon the atmosphere brought out amazing reds and browns a truly beautiful view
Good points that not everyone might have considered. Keep up the good work (and I would love to see more regular uploads from you guys)!
Allowing time for the scope to normalize to the ambient temperature cannot be overemphasized. Most of the year on the US Gulf Coast we have to let scopes warm up to the outdoor temperature. My 12" Dob adjusts pretty quickly but not in 20 minutes. The 10" Schmidt Cassegrain can take two hours to fully stabilize in the summer or in our brief cold front passages but that's another viewing tip. In humid areas the driest, clearest air is after a cold front passes.
That's how it's done! Thank you very much for a very informative video. I'm going out to buy my first telescope.
Hello Mr. Dalby, I am new to the telescope world. My daughter bought me a "Solomark Astronomical Telescope F70070EQ". I mentioned to her I wanted to find a way to see the "MILKY WAY" closer than with my camera as a whole. She asked a handful of folks about which model would be good for a beginner and they directed her to the one she bought me. I realize it is a fairly low-grade model and probably easier to learn on.
I have no real idea what I am doing except I have it assembled and ready to go. I am normally found behind my Nikon D7200 DSLR camera with a variety of zoom lenses like my Sigma 150-600mm for example. I am not much into knowing the hardware as I am the software if the makes since. Basically, as long as I know how to work it and know some of my settings, I'm a happy camper. Sadly, although I know the mm stands for millimeter, I am not educated much into what the mm means in respect to distance and focal except to say I know that is the range in which my lens focuses and the higher the mm the closer the object gets.
Firstly, will I be able to see the Milky Way with this telescope? Secondly, do you have an easy way for me to learn the information I need to know to get the most out of my telescope? I am a visual learner with diagrams and/or photos that I can look at while I listen to your videos. I don't do well with reading or high use of technical jargon. Basically, I'm the gal that needs the explanation for dummies or learning 101.
I hope to learn how to use this and start using it soon. I'm also hoping I can see the Milky Way. Thanks so much for your time and attention to my inquiries. I hope to hear your reply soon.
Blessings,
Renee Lund (IG: @reneelund_2)
This is great information. It would've been really good to have illustrations and pictures or videos demonstrating things you are referring to throughout the video.
These are really... really good tips. And I work for a telescope company in the Tech Support department. Take my word for it? Watch out for that thicc air
Thank you for explaining that. No one else has explained it that way before I really appreciate all the time you gave to us thank you
I really appreciate these videos. Astronomy has been an interest for me for along time, and with your help I've been able to dive right in as an adult with money to spend lol. Thank you!
Rasta - Same here. I’ve been watching these videos for days. I had been considering buying a scope for a while and just happened to find an iOptron 80mm refractor on a SmartStar mount for $60 at a thrift store. I was watching the moon rise that first night and a few star clusters but was limited to only one 25mm eyepiece. I saw Jupiter and several of its moons (a large bright dot and four smaller dots) and even saw Saturn but it only looked like a yellowish football. I quickly decided I wanted more, and a Meade ETX-90 came home. Still wanted more. Now i have a Celestron 130 with eyepiece and filter kit but no stars tonight. Hopefully things clear up for astronomy club “open to public” gathering tomorrow night in park.
Excellent video, one of the best I've seen, understandable, concise and hits the main points for planetary viewing.
As a beginner i learned a lot of things from this video. The telescope that im using is a 3 inch reflecting telescope
i think i learnt at least 3 new things in this video...thanks for helping us beginners!
That filter tip is really useful for me because i have it and didnt used it 😂
Very good, quick information .... and I didn't have to hear about how you first started observing the planets, what the weather was doing earlier , and what you had for breakfast. :)
Boiled eggs and toast, if it helps? :) KR RJD A&NTV
I have found my f/11.2 4" Maksutov is a real swiss army knife in this regard....big magnification even with a 12.5mm Plossl, and both Jupiter and Saturn are great ! And the Star Diagonal has a prism :-)
Very informative video, thanks.
You videos have turned me from a beginner to an amateur.
Keep up the great work.
LOL
do you know what amateur means
I’m laughing so much
@@Your_Daily_Scroll I may be wromg, but im thinking thats the joke. I'm gullible as well.
The collimation of your telescope, when it was brand new, was done by the shipping company that delivered it to you!
Or perhaps De-Collimation… LOL
A lot of useful information in this video, especially for a beginner. Please can I get links to other videos from the same source.
Very good video for beginning backyard astronomers. Includes choices and types of eyepieces, not over powering with too short eyepieces and viewing objects overhead instead of nearer the horizon, letting telescope cool before observing, etc.
Upgrade! My mind is awash with images of shiny new optics and beautiful aluminum cases filled with photon collecting treasures!
Great information even for an experienced astronomers.
Great help. So really then I have a 70mm Celestron so I take it that has a maximum magnification power of 140x.
It has a focal length of 400mm. I was using it with a 3x Barlow and a 20mm eyepiece (looking at Jupiter). By the math I understand to get magnification I do
(400x3)/20= 120x magnification.
I'm still within my scope's range. If I was to use a 10mm eyepiece and pushed it to 140x magnification, that's me on my scopes limit right?
I noticed when I put my 4mm eyepiece on I couldn't see anything, even though I was certain Jupiter was centred in my shot. I assumed it was because I was zoomed TOO far into Jupiter, but it's equally possible that shoving 350x down my scope's throat it just couldn't handle it right?
Also, even at 120x I couldn't get any proper focus on it. I'm guessing it's just because my scope can't focus like that.
Either way, seeing Jupiter was incredible. I hope I can see Saturn's ring in May with it.
I love how u say shoving down my scopes throat xD
Lol true
Ruzzy F I have a 70/700 by skywatchers it's damn amazing
The higher the magnification, the harder to aim it. You probably just don't have the object in view.
Hi there, sorry to be a tad slow in reply (but you know, 3 years is an unresolvable instant from a cosmic perspective). Your maths is a red pen "2 out of 10, See Me, Sir". 1200 divided by 20 is 60 not 120. You'll need your 10mm eyepiece to get 120x out of that instrument when employing a 3x Barlow. But take a step back for a minute; your problem is not the maths but poor to mediocre optical quality of your accessories. If the 3x Balow and eyepieces were all supplied with the telescope then the chances are they are the major cause of your poor views. The 70x400 Celestron is a capable scope but its short focal length produces a measure of false colour and the resolution losses when looking at detailed extended targets, like planets, with the 'economy' accessories supplied with the instrument, can be very noticeable. I think the 10mm and 20mm you have are so called Modified Achromats (MA) and are rather cheaply constructed (with too much shiny black plastic inside) and they cause a significant loss of contrast despite being based on the Kellner design which, when well executed, is usually bright and contrasty. Of the two eyepieces you have the 20mm is serviceable (just) so I recommend that you retire the 10mm MA and purchase at least one good Plossl (my apologies to Herr Plossl and his countrymen for the missing umlaut - two umlauts now!) eyepiece - say a 12.5mm - it will give you good views and work well with a 2x Barlow. The 4mm you have wants to be quietly put in a drawer and then do your best to forget about it as it will do nothing useful with your telescope. The Barlow: if it was supplied with the initial kit, probably has a black plastic body and a single lens - this is not well suited to your challenging short focal length instrument and should be abandoned in favor of a good 2x Barlow (with at least 2 lens elements). If you purchased the 3x separately, and it has an all-metal body, it will almost certainly be achromatic and nominally OK - but I would still recommend you buy a good quality 2x Barlow instead. On the whole you will do better generating smaller bright images with good contrast than larger dimmer ones with poor contrast. The human eye loves contrast - it is the key to resolving detail. I hope you are still looking at the sky after this 'cosmic instant' and you find this useful. KR RJD A&NTV
Great tips Mr Dalby.
Especially the one on elevation of object above the horizons effect on image quality, and poor diagonals degrading the image
I have about 15 eye pieces but am most thrilled with my older 1.25" set of Omcon plossls. They are great quality. It is a set of 7.
I hate clouds
Sauce same
every astronomer /amateur astronomer hates clouds :)!
Same. When it's clear outside and I feel up to it, I bring out my telescope. I have an 8 inch reflector.
Xsauce Cloudy Nights = when to do everything else!
Xsauce, Clouds are formed by, Andromeda galaxy, No clouds, no rain. No rain, no tomatoes. No tomatoes, NO SAUCE...
This man is humbly talking Kellners while i am sitting here with my Explore Scientifics and Ethos.........ONE Ethos.....cuz.....money. Never used good Kellner myself but I hear older Japanese ones are good. Really, truly. The Explore Scientific 6.7mm 82deg eyepiece is amazing. What a wonderful and pleasant eyepiece to use at $150 . Did they go up? Still worth it. 31mm 82deg Explore Scientific. Mostly as good as the 31mm Nagler and I paid half the price. When I put the Moon half in the FOV, it makes my stomach flutter like when you drive too fast over a hump or train tracks in the city. 13mm Ethos? No essential improvements can be made. I expect no less at THAT price. I have plossls strewn here and there included from various Meade and Celestron purchases. All in the 8mm-26mm range with one 40mm that I gave away to a friend. It is only useful on Cassegrains, really. Those plossls are not bad and they are light years better then those plastic barreled throw in .965" kellners and monocentrics that you get with department store and membership club telescope kits.
Before anyone goes out and buys the eyepieces I mentioned, they were purchased to power a custom 16" f4.43 Dobsonian. Like the man says, consider your scope before you buy any eyepieces.
I love the astronomy stuff but when are you going to make a video about your watch collection?
This video is gold, for a beginner like me. Thanks !
Great valuable info and no bloody commercials / ads. Do you happen to have a .pdf with all the recommendations available. Thanks for putting this video together. Much appreciated.
Spot on friend. My star diag had an imperfection. I purchased a new one, and light years better quality. Excuse the pun
A very nice and well-thought out commentary.
Thanks! I really enjoyed this. I feel like I got a lot more than 5 tips. I especially like the fact that you took you time explaining math to "math-impaired" me. Now that I understand the math, I'll try my 9mm to see the planets instead of just seeing more lights in the sky.
Hi,
Your video is excellent! I really enjoyed the explanation of how to reduce problems with the image by being careful of what you are looking over! Your Discussion of lens designs, focal lengths, and the use of a Barlow are spot on. Nice work!
Nice video. Definitely going to use the Barlow lens.
Great. Thanks to share your know-how with us. I did manual colimation and it works very well. I could see Júpiter and hus moons and Saturn and moons and rings for the first time, was astonished! Thanks again, greetings from Brazil, São Paulo
Great video - I'm an amateur and bought a cheap telescope. Your video has explained a bunch of stuff I had no idea about :)
You Sir are simply stellar, I have my first telescope and this video is absolutely brilliant !!
Collimation is Critical. You must make this the first point. I have walked about 1/2 a city block, set the telescope base down, check the collimation and I can see the dot moved within the bubble. Many would say ok,,, and leave it, however there are those that believe In the center " means in the Center!! ... Centered between the inner circle. I have recently found this out the hard way, having wasted good viewing time to only learn the mirror was slightly off centered within the black painted circle. It only takes two minutes or less to ascertain if the mirror is either centered or not. My recent viewing of Jupiter changed dramatically once I properly collimated the mirror. Other factors of course were culprit, however collimation was the key problem.
Good morning, it's the first video of yours that I see, I like astronomy and I'm sesrching for lots and lots of information in all the languages I know, but I'm not that good in english, and I noticed that you say the numbers like "eightteen hundred" but I learned that the number is called "a thousand and eight hundred" it is incredible to see that not everyone in the world speaks the same things in english, where are you from? If you can answer me I'll feel very lucky, because I'd like to know where in the world the people say "eightteen hundred" it is very interesting!!! P.S: very good video, I loved it!
I truly like your videos as an amateur astronomer but, when you talk about accessories, could you post some links to shorten the time to locate a piece?
Hi I recently was given my first telescope ever for my birthday. I've always found astrology fascinating and was blown away when I stumbled upon Saturn and Jupiter my first night just aiming it at what I thought were the first stars visible after sunset which turned out to be planets. I've become obsessed and find these videos very informative and I have learned a lot from your videos. That being said I still get confused especially reading other stuff on the Internet. I really would just like to get some better views of these planets. And was hoping u may e able to provide some guidance. I currently have a 70mm aperture and 700mm focal length. I have the Barlow 2X len. Thanks to your very informative video I realize my maximum magnification should not exceed 140 and have a 10mm eeypiec so I Know I'm tapped out on power.
It's astronomy, not astrology.
Lol honest mistake, plus the two are cousins
@@LynxStarAuto This is one of the most disheartening things I've read this year. With the added bonus of just being wrong. :(
@@LynxStarAuto Astronomy is a legitimate field of science that can be a great hobby for some. Astrology is an attempt at drawing supernatural parallels between planetary alignments and such with events in our world. It's complete superstition. Astronomy and Astrology are far from being cousins.
Great video I like the part about. Power. I have a 3x power Barlow and use a 9 km eye piece and on some nights I get a awesome view other nights not so good. That's from the atmosphere. I love astronomy gods universe is very beautiful.
A simpler way to check your diagonal. I pointed mine at my white computer screen and wooden desktop. Compare it with the view from your naked eye. It should be almost indistinguishable. The one I had that came with the telescope slightly dimmed the screen and turned the brown desktop almost grey. I bought an SvBONY dielectric and couldn't tell the difference between my eye and looking through the diagonal.
Greetings from Ireland.
Alrite bud
One of the best video”s !!! Thanks
I'm a beginner my self..like all three info I can get ..like your channel. But I got a question , I have a mead 8 inch set with 200mm focal lenth and can't seem to get clear images. What the most usable eyepeace in can use?? I would appreciate any help thanks
WOW AWESOME TYVM!!! i learned a ton!!! 1 question if i buy the Celestron Omni XLT 120 Focal Lenght 1000 the online manual says max. Magnification 283 so use 240 or 283? also would a Barlow X 3 & 10 mm eyepiece so 300 Mag be ok??? TYVM much appreciated!!!
I have celestron 70 AZ powerseeker. But, not able to focus clearly. I can see Only moon properly through it. I will try your tips. Thanks 😊 for teaching the basics.
That was simply amazingly helpful. Thank you!
Greetings from India. Sir, I pray for this generation and the one's in future, to ponder/ understand, the esoteric meaning, of it all. Very informative. Regards ...
I must question this comments relevance
@@beardieblighter9905 after a year??
Great video..
The Lost History Channel TKTC hey what are you doing here ...lol i love your channel! 💪
thanx for not making it simple , to get started. going to do this now!!
Excellent vidoe. So much information so easily explained. Learnt just so much from this video.
Thank you for the great advice. Very good information that's extremely valuable.
Very informative and encouraging. Thanks.
Excellent information, Thank so much.
Thanks for this video I've learn alot abt my my telescope the Meade NG-60SM as this all new to me
Yep great video. I enjoyed the part about not over powering your scope. Thanks.
Thanks for the video. Last night I managed to see Mars, Jupiter with its 4 Moons, Saturn and its rings plus Arcturus. It was my first night with my Telescope. Subscribed to your channel.
Hi there, not a bad haul for First Light - well done and thanks for posting. KR RJD A&NTV
@@RocketPlanet I made plenty of beginner mistakes but the moment I saw Saturn I've got paralyzed and so nervous. I bought a Celestrone StarSense Explorer LT 80mm. Thanks for your videos I'm learning a lot.
Hi.. i love the way you explained it. i am actually trying to connect my dslr with my refractor telescope without star tracker. Can you recommend what kind of stuff would be helpful. Most of videos are using reflector telescope. My main issue is with blurry planets. I am not sure what is wrong i am doing and today i found your video and think8ng my problem would be solved here.
I have bought few of following material
Camera nikon d5100 + t2 ring + some sort of tube + 5x Barlow
Tele: Galileo 700mm x 60mm beginner level with 20mm and 6 mm eyepiece
Any reference /help will be appreciated. I am struggling from last 2 months and could not capture a single photo.
Thanks
Dp
I've just subscribed after watching a couple of videos by A&N. Very interesting and informative.
Just got my first Reflector Telescope. Very excited about seeing the Red Planet as more than just an orangey dot in the sky. No matter how I tried I couldn't get it in focus.
I did the outside focus tip on a bright star and found that the image was skewed rather than resembling a celestial doughnut, which by all accounts means the collimation is out.
I have tried collimating by following the A&N guide but all I seem to have managed is to turn my inverted image of distant trees into a diagonal one.
The image is still quite sharp but I'm worried now that I've done something really stupid to my new Telescope.
The adjusting screws at the rear are very tight and hard to turn and the Allan screws at the front seem to be very loose indeed.
Any advice or help would be appreciated.
Have a telescope for the lads Christmas, some good tips for me to think about. Cheers
thanks so much. I have the nexstar 6se and this proved useful!
This is just what I needed. Great advice. Many thanks.