You're welcome. But thanks for starting up the thread in the 1st place.
Spent the week in Breckenridge in a seminar, took my scope up with me. However, the week's weather did not cooperate. Cloudy and snow on top of the ski mountain after the 1st evening. Rain turning to snow the next day, Then MORE snow the next day. I left last night at about 9:00 AM, of course the sky was perfect, unfortunately I had to get my butt home, just couldn't stop to do it, it would have meant getting home way too late.
The ETX will come with Autostar and the tripod. Also it will come with the 26 MM plossl lens which is pretty decent. Didn't I see a special on buying the scope? Take advantage of that, $50, I would put that toward a hard case for the scope. Also, check-out ebay, that's where I got the cost basis from before I bought from a local supplier (camera shop)(he gave me a little better deal) I have a set of lenses from 6 MM up through 40 MM. 6MM is higher magnification, however there becomes a point of deminishing returns with magnification. The ETX 125 has a focal length of 1900 MM, Mag is figured by dividing the focal length by the lens size so with the standard 26 MM lens you get 1900/26 = 73 x magnification. I'll use down to a 12mm ( 1900/12 = 158 x mag) I think a 6 mm just blurrs the image too much for the 125. I'll also use the 40 mm for viewing a star cluster like Pleiades But you'll be very happy with the 26 starting out. The only other accessory that I would be after right away would be a filter for viewing the moon. I use a polarizing filter, with that I can adjust according to the moon phase:
hardinoptical.com
Otherwise it's just too bright to observe (the moon), don't use it to look at the sun.
I have had 2 people now have me show them how to use there meades, both had had them for a while and didn't know how to use the autostar function. The manual with the scope is so-so in showing you how to REALLY use it. I had to figure it out by trial and error. I would be more than happy to guide you through the "how-to's". Once you get going, there is a function on the system that's called "tonights best" which will take you through the "best" in the sky at any time of viewing. You can see more in a half hour than you've probably ever seen before in years of viewing. The only thing about that is there are some better things out there if you know what you want to see.
Good-luck pursuading missus Myst!
Jim |
