Finally got my new Celestron Omni XLT150 Newtonian! After some struggle, assembled the tripod-mount-scope on the top deck of a multistorey car park next to my block just in time to watch Venus before it disappeared behind trees. Last evening was a bit cloudy and may not have been the best for star gazing, but I guess in Singapore you can't expect much better.
Initially, the going was not so easy. Found it difficult to capture objects even in the finder scope! After a while, things got a bit easier as I started getting the hang of the controls.
Venus appeared as a bright Shiny disc (could'nt notice any moon like phase, though), Mars was a faint tiny disc. Saturn was lovely, specially after the sky cleared. The rings appeared as a clear straight line cutting across the disc. Also managed to get a decent view with a 5mm eyepiece and 2x barlow combo (300x), although getting it in the frame and continuing to track it manually was a bit of a nightmare! I tried to set up the scope to a very rough polar alignment. Looking at Google earth, I found that the car part is pretty much at NS-EW bearing so I used the parking lot markings to set the tripod legs such that the tripod north leg approximately pointed north. Then I fixed the telescope altitude approx 1 deg (used a Vixen half pillar).
Cant see much of south side because of the buildings. Nevertheless, it was an interesting beginning to my star gazing. The car park is not the best of spots for star gazing (plenty of stray light making its way into the eye pieces. But its good enough to get used to setting up, getting used to the controls and making a few basic observations. Had originally planned to get up early morning to watch the Jupiter, but will do it some other day since it was pretty late by the time we packed up the stuff and got back home.
After some more practice closer to home, I hope to be able to bring my scope for the next obs session (MB in 2 wks?, right). Cheers!
Omni XLT 150 Newt
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Airconvent
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Congrats Bharat,
You've taken your first step! let the enthusiasm flow through.
I personally dislike equatorial mounts as you need to do "non-linear" adjustments. Alt-azi was more logical for me.
In anycase, you may want to try Uranus and Jupiter later in the evening as the former is easier to spot as it is near Jupiter.![[smilie=cool.gif]](./images/smilies/cool.gif "cool")
You've taken your first step! let the enthusiasm flow through.
I personally dislike equatorial mounts as you need to do "non-linear" adjustments. Alt-azi was more logical for me.
In anycase, you may want to try Uranus and Jupiter later in the evening as the former is easier to spot as it is near Jupiter.
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United Federation of the Planets
Captain, RSS Enterprise NCC1701R
United Federation of the Planets
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Clifford60
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orly_andico
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timatworksg
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Congrats Bharat!! Welcome to the world of 'weird' EQ mount syndrome and set everything up and clouds roll in!! haha!
Yes, initial moments with an EQ mount is niggling as it doesn't move the way a normal tripod (Alt Az or up/dwn & side to side) would. But with a little practice of swinging both axis to find something, it becomes way easy! Also the whole process of set up with an EQ is a process in itself! Level, point north/south, balance scope, etc etc.
As for the Finder, normally after set up, I point the scope and look towards a building roof apex, or lit window,etc, center that in the eyepiece. I then look through the Finder scope and center that object on the crosshair/red dot. Now when u point your finder, the eyepiece should have the star within view.
Also, it can be difficult with nearby lights, when looking through the finder and at the sky the same time. Takes practice and soon your eyes will accomodate and adapt. It's like learning to ride a bicycle. Finder scopes with magnification do help. I use a red dot plastic type finder,..more for light weight purpose really.
Start with a larger eyepiece (32mm, etc) then when you've found what your looking for, center it and then change eyepieces or add barlow. Note that when you increase mag stars move faster! If your lucky you may see a star like object run across your eyepiece view....hehe, satellite!
Read up on aligning processes and it's all practise. I'm still at it especially drift alignment. But more you do it, the more you figure it out! Same goes with the seeing! Looking through the eyepiece, you start to understand how everything looks out there! Lots and lots of stars!! Especially around the milky way, east to SE!! Best areas are between Sirius and the Crux, but they come into view now more west side and most are almost passed when it gets nicely dark. It's also with practice and allowing your eyes to get dark adapted to see better through the eyepiece. An eye patch really helps, so you won't get a half faced cramped trying to squint one eye!! haha! Some star clusters like open clusters are fairly easy to spot. Globular clusters take some practice and you may miss alot! They appear like very soft cotton like balls,..and with SG skies, sometimes hardly visible. But once you get navigation and bearings down roughly you'd know where you are within a constellation!
Lastly,...I mostly Ob at the roof top of my next door multi storey car park too! Yes those lights are everywhere. Which is good for security cos I ob alone..gulp** but take an old black t-shirt or dark colored towel where you can shroud your head over the scope. But don't get suprised when you un shroud yourself and get a shock when someone appears infront of you!!! Or at least put stuff and bags near your feet so you know their there when shrouded!
Well hope that helps...I'm no expert, but just my 2c experience. Have fun!!!
Yes, initial moments with an EQ mount is niggling as it doesn't move the way a normal tripod (Alt Az or up/dwn & side to side) would. But with a little practice of swinging both axis to find something, it becomes way easy! Also the whole process of set up with an EQ is a process in itself! Level, point north/south, balance scope, etc etc.
As for the Finder, normally after set up, I point the scope and look towards a building roof apex, or lit window,etc, center that in the eyepiece. I then look through the Finder scope and center that object on the crosshair/red dot. Now when u point your finder, the eyepiece should have the star within view.
Also, it can be difficult with nearby lights, when looking through the finder and at the sky the same time. Takes practice and soon your eyes will accomodate and adapt. It's like learning to ride a bicycle. Finder scopes with magnification do help. I use a red dot plastic type finder,..more for light weight purpose really.
Start with a larger eyepiece (32mm, etc) then when you've found what your looking for, center it and then change eyepieces or add barlow. Note that when you increase mag stars move faster! If your lucky you may see a star like object run across your eyepiece view....hehe, satellite!
Read up on aligning processes and it's all practise. I'm still at it especially drift alignment. But more you do it, the more you figure it out! Same goes with the seeing! Looking through the eyepiece, you start to understand how everything looks out there! Lots and lots of stars!! Especially around the milky way, east to SE!! Best areas are between Sirius and the Crux, but they come into view now more west side and most are almost passed when it gets nicely dark. It's also with practice and allowing your eyes to get dark adapted to see better through the eyepiece. An eye patch really helps, so you won't get a half faced cramped trying to squint one eye!! haha! Some star clusters like open clusters are fairly easy to spot. Globular clusters take some practice and you may miss alot! They appear like very soft cotton like balls,..and with SG skies, sometimes hardly visible. But once you get navigation and bearings down roughly you'd know where you are within a constellation!
Lastly,...I mostly Ob at the roof top of my next door multi storey car park too! Yes those lights are everywhere. Which is good for security cos I ob alone..gulp** but take an old black t-shirt or dark colored towel where you can shroud your head over the scope. But don't get suprised when you un shroud yourself and get a shock when someone appears infront of you!!! Or at least put stuff and bags near your feet so you know their there when shrouded!
Well hope that helps...I'm no expert, but just my 2c experience. Have fun!!!
My wife never complained about how much time, effort & money I spent on my Astronomy hobby!................suddenly I met her!!!
Vixen half pillar is not a part of Celestron's standard package but Astro Scientific include this as a part of their package. They say they are giving it "free" but from my perspective, they have already built in its price in their offer. Remember the good old saying - there is no such thing as free lunch in this world!.orly_andico wrote:hi Bharat,
where did you purchase the vixen half-pillar? or did it come with the Omni XLT? thanks...
Thanks for your tips, Tim. After a couple of viewing sessions, I felt at a good accurate polar alignment could make viewing much easier, particularly, to avoid the frustration of not being able to track objects at high mag! So, instead of being in a hurry to watch interesting objects in the sky, I feel it may be worthwhile to spend some time trying to learning the drift star alignment method.timatworksg wrote:Congrats Bharat!! Welcome to the world of 'weird' EQ mount syndrome and set everything up and clouds roll in!! haha!
Read up on aligning processes and it's all practise.
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orly_andico
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