TheSkySearchers

I am new to this and will have tons of questions. So, please be patient with me. My wife and I live in the St. Francois Mountain Range, a part of the Ozark Mountains. I purchased a Celestron 130SLT this past Black Friday and have yet to use it. Spent December and a good part of January studying and learning. Once I felt like I was comfortable with the 130 and was ready to give it a go, it's been cloudy every night. So, that's me in a nutshell. Looking forward to many nights of stargazing.

Hi and welcome to the forums!

Welcome to TSS KLA58!

Hi KLA58 and welcome to TSS Questions are always welcomed, and as for the weather, I hear you and so do a lot of others!

Hope it clears up for you and all the best,

Hello KLA58

Welcome to the forum.

Regards

Graeme

Hi KLA58 and welcome to TSS!

Looking forward to your experiences with the 130SLT.
The 130SLT was my first telescope and I had an absolutely great time with it for years. Still use it every now and then (maybe 1-2x/year) to check out double stars (my favorite visual targets).
I used it to view 91 Messier objects from my Bortle 7 backyard, several comets, and a few nebulae.
SLT is quite capable as a goto mount and usually puts me very close to the selected target. It is very light and easy to transport, but is also very prone to vibration, so it would help to dangle a weighed bag or object from the hook underneath the accessories tray. Just be patient and allow things to settle after focusing and it will allow good views.
The tube is pretty nice and I have viewed some very tough targets with it especially when mounted on my EQ mount.

You will want to invest in a good illuminated reticle eyepiece (for alignment) and a collimation tool.

Best of success and looking forward to your posts!

Welcome to the forum.

Hi KLA58, and welcome here to the Forum!

smp

Hello and welcome to TSS. Glad you joined us.
Cheers,

welcome in .

Welcome to the forums KLA58

Thanks Juno. I don't fully understand the collimation process or why I need a tool and illuminated eyepiece. Maybe you can explain a little.

Juno16 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 9:31 pm Hi KLA58 and welcome to TSS!

Looking forward to your experiences with the 130SLT.
The 130SLT was my first telescope and I had an absolutely great time with it for years. Still use it every now and then (maybe 1-2x/year) to check out double stars (my favorite visual targets).
I used it to view 91 Messier objects from my Bortle 7 backyard, several comets, and a few nebulae.
SLT is quite capable as a goto mount and usually puts me very close to the selected target. It is very light and easy to transport, but is also very prone to vibration, so it would help to dangle a weighed bag or object from the hook underneath the accessories tray. Just be patient and allow things to settle after focusing and it will allow good views.
The tube is pretty nice and I have viewed some very tough targets with it especially when mounted on my EQ mount.

You will want to invest in a good illuminated reticle eyepiece (for alignment) and a collimation tool.

Best of success and looking forward to your posts!

When you do a star alignment, you find bright stars that are widely separated in your sky view. When you manually slew to the star and center it in the finder, you then locate the star in the scope eyepiece. If you cannot find the star in the eyepiece, you will need to manually scan around to find it, then use the screws on the finder to align it in the finder also so that they are pointing the same.
Then you center the star in the eyepiece. If you don't have a reference in the eyepiece to center the star, you will have to guess. Another way is to defocus the star until it becomes a large ring (donut) and you will be able to reasonably center it more accurately. I used the defocus method for awhile, but the illuminated reticle is much easier and faster to use.
Or, you can get an inexpensive illuminated reticle eyepiece. It will have cross hairs and variable illumination (to see the cross hairs easily). With a reticle eyepiece, you can accurately center the stars that you use for alignment. It is much faster and accurate than the defocused star method of centering the star.

As far as collimation, this article gives you some information: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-r ... telescope/
I use a very simple Cheshire eyepiece.

I am an imager and rarely do visual (even though I really enjoy it when I do it!), so maybe some visual guys will have better suggestions.

Have fun!

Welcome to TSS. We will look forward to reading any observing reports you may post.

Welcome and I hope you enjoy the challenges that lie ahead exploring the night skies.

Joe

Welcome to TSS

Welcome from cloudy Ohio.