beginner question

Hi....first post!,
My wife has been interested in astronomy for years and last week decided that for her birthday i would buy her a starter scope. After a bit of consultation i bought her a celestron 90EQ as it was recommended as a good started scope.

There is a problem with the EQ mount so i will be returning it to the shop tomorrow. As i now have a bit of a bug for sky watching, being a man i may want to go for an all singing version (now that im interested i may 'find' a bit more cash to throw at it!)

We have been looking at a few things over the last few nights and although fantastic, i dont know exactly if what i am looking at is right. i know veiwng conditons are not great but when looking at venus tonight, the image was pretty small, when expanded and losing clarity i was frustrated at not seeing detail at that size.

Is it all based on the light, is the scope good enough to get some decent usage out of before upgrading.
I dont want to fork out a few hundred more to get a glorified version of what i already have.

Any assitance would be good as i want to sort this out tomorrow. for the record my wife is delighted with the scope and thinks spending more money before we are more experienced is ridiculous, she just wants some binos and barlow lenses to compliment what she has already
cheers
Dolalu

Hi Dolalu.
By all means bring the scope back to the shop if it's not working and
get one of the three 'R''s that a shop has to oblige you with if it's
a new item and isn't working (Repair, Replace or Refund)

The Celestron 90 EQ is a grand starter scope and I think your wife is
talking sense when she says spending more money before we are more experienced is ridiculous.

You say you observed Venus tonight.
Venus at the moment a morning object (from Ireland) and rises at around 5AM so I wonder what you were looking at?

Did you mean Mars?
If so your not going to get much detail except from the likes of an 8'' up under high mag. and good seeing conditions.

Go with a good pair of Binos. They will serve you both well for many years.
As for barlows, with the scope you have low powered eyepieces are best.

If I were you, I'd get the mount sorted, pick up a good pair of binos; (at least 10 x 50's) and spend some time getting familiar with the scope and sky.
Once you are more experienced (shouldnt take too long) you will be better informed
to make a good decision on a bigger scope that you wont regret buying.

You know what they say about making a big purchase.
Listen to the salesperson. Take it all in then take a walk out - for 24 hours.
Best of luck.

Dolalu

Welcome to the forum. You have a wise wife, so listen to what she is saying. Learn the sky, invest in a good pair of binoculars and a planisphere, join your local astronomy club, ask lots of questions on this website and get some use from the telescope you already have. There is nothing easier than forking out a fortune on equipment and then not using or needing it. We've all done it. Eventually, you will be able to upgrade from a position of experience and knowledge.
As for Venus, it is very difficult to see any features on the planet, it is completely covered in cloud. Really, the only thing you can do is to follow the changes in its phase as it orbits the sun. Saturn is now visible for most of the night, as is Mars, Orion, Comet Holmes is visible in Perseus, and lots more. You'll get much more fun observing those.
Best of Luck.

When looking at venus tonight, the image was pretty small, when expanded and losing clarity i was frustrated at not seeing detail at that size.

Hi and welcome to the boards (and the hobby)

From that bit of your post, it kinda sounds to me like you were defocussing the image to make it look bigger? I might be wrong here, just sounds that way to me. You must make the object look as small and sharp as possible to see the best detail. You can make it look bigger by using a higher power eyepiece. That make sense to you?

Otherwise what the other guys said is spot on. What is the problem with the scope? Any chance its an understanding issue rather than a real problem? Tells us about it and we can advise. Might save you a trip to the retailer.

Thanks for that guys.
The problem with the scope is the the mount is misaligned, so that when you try and turn the adjusting knob, it just dosent turn. You can see the rotating piece is skewed and does not turn properly.

She is wise and i think we will stick with what we have until we are more experienced ith the sky ( See, 'saw venus tonight'!)

It wasnt venus we saw last night? Damn, got pretty excited about that. I'm sure it was a planet though, it was pretty high up around 7pm in the east and was so bright it was amazing.

So when looking into scope, are all images pretty much the same size as when you view with the naked eye? the are obviously crisper in the scope. We have a 10mm and 20mm eyepiece will a smaller one make much differeance? Should a barlow lense make much diff?

We are going to have alot of questions, so thanks in advance for,your patience and help.

It wasnt venus we saw last night? Damn, got pretty excited about that. I'm sure it was a planet though, it was pretty high up around 7pm in the east and was so bright it was amazing.

I just checked on Stellarium and it was Mars. You might be interested in downloading and installing Stellarium, it's great for figuring out what's where ... and it looks dead cool too You can get it from www.stellarium.org/ and it works in Windows, Mac & Linux, so everyone can play :)

Bart.