TheSkySearchers

I just got a telescope someone gave to me, RP-300, seems like a decent beginner telescope.
I have tried it out last 4 nights, everything just looks like dot, basically what you see with naked eye. Been no moon to try and see, I also tried looking at Mars last night, just looks like star. Telescope came with K20 and K9 eyepiece, used both. Should I get new eyepieces, or a Barlow lens?
Not sure what I'm doing, I am fascinated with space, I would like to see more than white dots. Is it just not a good telescope?

Hi and Welcome to the TSS Forums.

Is this your telescope?

https://carson.com/product/rp-300-newto ... telescope/

Most stars look like bright dots, it is true. Mars now is not very close at the moment to earth so its disk will be very small.

With practice, things will improve.

Hello Darkskywalker and welcome to the Forum.

There are a lot of very knowledgeable people on the Forum who will be only too pleased to help you get the best from your optical equipment :smile:

Welcome on board Darkskywalker! What you need is a nice guide book, which would provide you step by step instructions on how to find interesting targets and how they should look. I would recommend "Turn Left at Orion"

Bigzmey wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 8:13 pm Welcome on board Darkskywalker! What you need is a nice guide book, which would provide you step by step instructions on how to find interesting targets and how they should look. I would recommend "Turn Left at Orion"

I have that book too. It is an excellent suggestion :smile:

Welcome to TSS Darkskywalker!
Thanks for joining us

I also highly recommend "Left Turn at Orion", great book, it's very easy to read and it is like our "Bible".

Stars do appear as a single point of light, many will show colour.
Some are doubles, you may have already seen some doubles and did not even realize it.
They appear as a single star to your eye, but your scope splits them.

Don't over look the Moon, it gives up fine details, once you see Saturn and Jupiter you will be hooked

Hi, welcome!

get a copy of Stellarium for your computer. It's a free planetarium program. Set it up for your location and it will show you your night sky. It's like a sky atlas that updates in real time. Very handy!

Here's a link : stellarium.org

Happy observing

Stellarium can even be installed on a smartphone as an app to help you navigate the sky it's no substitute for the book, but it's a fantastic App

Join this club and take your scope to the next star party/out reach. Astronomy hobbyist are very friendly and helpful.

https://www.cvastro.org/

Darkskywalker wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 6:30 pm I just got a telescope someone gave to me, RP-300, seems like a decent beginner telescope.

Hello DarkSkyWalker

My first telescope was a 114mm Newtonian. Whilst you're waiting for the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn to come round you might want to try and find some globular clusters. There's a couple of very nice ones in Hercules which you will find quite easily after spending some time playing with Stellarium and then spending some time just looking at the night sky.

Welcome to the forum.

Regards

Graeme

helicon wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:55 pm Hi and Welcome to the TSS Forums.

Is this your telescope?

https://carson.com/product/rp-300-newto ... telescope/

Most stars look like bright dots, it is true. Mars now is not very close at the moment to earth so its disk will be very small.

With practice, things will improve.

Yes that is my telescope, will be getting a new one when I learn more about the hobby, don't know much about telescopes yet.
Looking at maybe so more eyepieces for now

Hi Darkskywalker and welcome.
Learning to use a telescope is sort of like learning to ride a bicycle. It will take some practice, and you’ll have some challenges and frustrations, but once you get the hang of it you’ll have lots of fun.

Do take the advice above and buy the book and join the club. If your scope is like the one Helicon linked to, learning to set and use the equatorial mount can be a bit confusing at first. It needs to be set just right and it’s often easier to get the hang of it if someone shows you how rather than just reading about it. It might be good to contact someone in the club ahead of a star party and see if they can hook you up with a mentor. This might be better than just showing up. The reason I say this is that some folks have limited observing time and have specific goals when they go out and might not be able to spend as much time with you as you might need. (I’ve had a couple of times at our public events when 20 people were lined up behind my scope and I just couldn’t break away to help a beginner.)

Also, another challenge for the beginner is finding your targets. Be sure your finder is properly aligned; you’ll need to check this every time you set up. After that, finding things is a matter of practice.

I find observing much more fun if I know something about what I’m looking at. How far away it is, how big, what type (globular cluster, double star, galaxy, etc.), and the history of its discovery and, if also naked eye object, the mythology connected to it. The app I use is SkySafari and it contains info panels that help with this in the field.

And finally, the darker the sky the better. Get away from the city lights as best you can.

Darkskywalker wrote: ↑Wed Jun 09, 2021 1:04 am

helicon wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:55 pm Hi and Welcome to the TSS Forums.

Is this your telescope?

https://carson.com/product/rp-300-newto ... telescope/

Most stars look like bright dots, it is true. Mars now is not very close at the moment to earth so its disk will be very small.

With practice, things will improve.

Yes that is my telescope, will be getting a new one when I learn more about the hobby, don't know much about telescopes yet.
Looking at maybe so more eyepieces for now

Hi and welcome! Lots of good advice above: especially joining a group and going to one of their star parties and getting a good intro book.
Your scope is a tried and true design that has been around since the 60's (under "Tasco" and other brands). Generally they have good to excellent optics, but the trickiest thing is getting used to the mount (as suggested above). Don't stress too much with getting the mount perfectly aligned, simply set the polar axis to your latitude, and point it to the north. A couple of degrees out is not going to affect you much for visual use. Make sure everything is nice and tight though, especially the tripod screws and joints, so that you have minimal wobbling. If you are having trouble finding things with the finder scope, then it is best to check its alignment during the day by looking at a distant object like a light pole.

If you have found Mars then it sounds like you have the finder scope aligned OK, so you should be able to go for other objects like the globular clusters mentioned. Many hundreds of objects are within the range of your scope. In fact some of the first DSO's I looked at with a very similar scope were Eta Carina (I am in the Southern Hemisphere), M42 in Orion, and a number of galaxies. In particular I remember seeing the "Leo Trio" really well. I even used a similar scope to view the impacts of Comet Shoemaker-Levy on Jupiter, and I can remember seeing detail in some of the larger impacts. Potentially a good 114mm reflector like yours can see objects as well as much more expensive 80-100mm APO refractors, so don't be too quick to dismiss it!

I wouldn't rush to get new eyepieces if I were you: 45x (the K20) and 100x (the K9) are a good starting point, and the Kellner design usually results in nice sharp images, but with a relatively narrow FOV. The Kellner has only 3 glass elements, and even the cheaper ones have a good light through-put as a result. Get used to using the scope and what it can show you (I think you will love the views of the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn even with those eyepieces), and then have a chat to others before you invest in other eyepieces: because then you will be more likely to know what you want...

Good luck, and have fun!!!

- Dean

I don't understand the fuzz about EQ-mounts. As if they couldn't be used just like ALT-AZ mounts.
It's just, the better you polar-align it, the better it "tracks", meaning that to follow a target, you don't need to touch the altitude (ALT/DEC) adjustment.

Those 2 eyepieces are indeed a fine start

If you are itching to get a new EP (eyepiece) go for a lower power one, this will give a wider field and make it even easier to locate stuff.
I would recommend a 32 mm.

Here are some options for eyepieces exported as pdf from my excel. I, too, suggest a low power one as a first addition. Maybe one with wider angle (bigger AFOV) - maybe 62° or 68°.
With F/8 the coma is probably unnoticeable, and it's not too fast for practically any eyepiece.

The maximum magnification is the technical limit. In general, you probably don't get that much out of an eyepiece with power higher than half the max, so you should keep below 115x (= 8 mm or longer).

[edit]
Here's the excel. You can play with that.

Refractordude wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 9:45 pm Join this club and take your scope to the next star party/out reach. Astronomy hobbyist are very friendly and helpful.

https://www.cvastro.org/

I did join this club, but they have no upcoming events
Hopefully they will soon

Bigzmey wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 8:13 pm Welcome on board Darkskywalker! What you need is a nice guide book, which would provide you step by step instructions on how to find interesting targets and how they should look. I would recommend "Turn Left at Orion"

I looked at that book on Amazon, but I ordered Stargazing for Dummies.
I will order this book, it has been recommended by several people.
I also subscribed to Sky and Telescope Magazine

Before we get too far into recommending eyepieces, does anyone know what barrel diameter the focuser on that scope takes? If its the .965 then the options are fewer.