Help with telescopes

[cantab]

It's so-so. Could be better, could be worse.

40mm Plossl eyepiece: Suffers from the field of view being restricted by the 1.25" eyepiece size.

17 and 10mm Plossls: Fine.

7.5 and 6.3 mm Plossls: You might have eye relief problems with these. But if you're OK with the short eye relief then they'll give nice views. You won't know until you try.

Barlow: Should be OK.

Moon filter: Maybe useful, the Moon can be OMG bright in a telescope. Though expert lunar observers usually prefer not using a filter.

Coloured filters: Of limited use. Some people like these filters, others don't. Regard them as a bonus and not much of the value of the set.

Case: Really useful, though similar cases aren't too expensive to buy separately.

So overall I'd say two good eyepieces, 3 questionable ones (I wouldn't buy them individually myself), and some extras.

Edited May 4, 2016 by cantab

[kookoo_gr]

If you buy the the xt8 it will give you pretty nice images. I have the Skywatcher dob 8'' (same tube specs) and it hasn't disapointed me for the last 8 years i use it for observation. As for the eyepieces i would hold back from buying the case with all those eyepieces and instead i would buy seperate eyepieces. It is better to get your bearings first with the factory eyepieces and then decide what eyepieces you need and any other accesories. Your scope comes with two eyepieces a 25mm and a 35mm which are good for deep sky targets since they give you low magnification and a large field of view. For planets you will need another eyepiece, a 10mm should be fine for planets. I also have a 5mm skywatcher wide angle but i rarely use it since the seeing conditions rarely allow me for that high magnification. The scope i have comes with a 25mm and a 10mm super plossl eyepieces and they provide very good images. I have the same barlow that the xt8 provides but under the skywatcher brand and it gives very good images, i also have bought a second barlow 2x (a televue one), a barlow 3x and a powermate 5x mostly for planetary imaging but they too provide very good images with the eyepieces when seeing conditions allow it.

(seeing is how stable is the atmosphere allowing you to see more planetary details in high magnification)

In a nutshell here are my recomendations

1. Don't buy yet another eyepiece, learn your scope with the factory eyepieces, if you must buy another eyepiece for planets i suggest a 10mm super plosl, super plosl eyepieces are relatively cheap and they give good images.

2. For now keep the factory barlow it will serve you very well with this scope, later you could buy a 3x or a higher magnification eyepiece for planets. Keep in mind though that high magnifications have a smaller field of view, you need to manually follow the target over shorter periods of time, the image is dimmer and if seeing is bad you can't see many details. In most cases half of the scope's maximum magnification is used.

3. For filters buy a moon filter since the moon's brightness near full moon is overwellming for the eye. Red, green, blue filtres aka planetary filters are rarely used in order to enhance some planetary features so you can skip those. You can however invest in filters for deep sky observing like a Ha, OIII or a UHC-S in order to make nebulae more visible through the eyepice, these filters are more expensive than a planetary one

4. Buy a telrad finder and use it in conjuction with a star map like the pocket sky atlas http://www.amazon.com/Sky-Telescopes-Pocket-Atlas/dp/1931559317 or you can find free star charts that will help you with stargazing.

5. For the maintenance of your scope at some point i suggest to buy a chessire eyepiece. It is a zero magnification eyepiece with a crosshair that allows you to collimate (align) the mirrors of the scope. You will find instructions for collimating a newton scope at the scope's manual or you can google it or watch some youtube videos. A collimated scope will give you much better images than a non collimated one.

6. Before buying the scope, if possible, go to a star party or contact a star club near your area, i believe they will help you with any questions you may have and allow you to watch from their scopes.

At this site http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fovcalc.php you can have an idea what magnification and field of view you will have with certain eyepieces and barlows. Simply enter the specs of the equipment at the requierd fields and from the top down menus select a target and the mode to eyepiece. Even though the images at this site are coloured in reality you will see the images in grey hues.

 

[Deadpangod3]

Alright sorry it took me so long to respond I've been busy with schoolwork

I measured the two lenses that I have for my current telescope and they are 10mm and 5-6mm I think, assuming the part you look through is the right part I was susposed to measure and according to the site that kookoo_gr linked they should give good views of the moon  so I've decided to see if they are sufficient and if not then order better ones later.

Thanks all for helping everyone