Newbie here with questions

[Dave Smith]

Hi.... I am a new member. My name is Dave Smith and I have  a couple of questions... I have just purchased a starter telescope off of Cloudy Skies, and I would like to get some opinions on what I have selected...

I bought a 2 yr old Celestron  Telstar 4 SE with a bunch of extras. It comes with a 35mm Eyepiece, Dew Shield, etc.. I have purchased the following for it.....

A Celestron 8-24mm zoom eyepiece..

A TalentCell  Rechargeable 12v, 6000 mah DC  Lithium Battery Pack.

 I did not want to get to deep into this, until I find out if I like it...

Any help or opinions would be appreciated...

Dave

[Sean McDonald]

Hello Dave Newbie Smith,
   Lots and lots of people love astronomy,  but only a small percentage of them take it to the next level and purchase aTelescope. So you  are now in an Elite group of people who want to discover the cosmos and see it for themselves.
  This hobby requires that you progress your knowledge, you have to learn certain things before you can move on to bigger and better equipment  all the while chasing the wow factor      For a first Telescope, the 4SE is a good choice because the nexstar SE series is fairly easy to learn and those scopes are very accurate   My buddies George and Ron both have 8SE scopes (along with other scopes LOL) and they love them.
  Youre six  amp hour battery is fine, better than using a bunch of D cell batteries, but if you stick with this you’ll want a bigger battery, something along 12 or 14 AH.
 This zoom lens is fun, I recommend that you use it to figure out  at what power of magnification you enjoy the most, and purchase an Eyepiece, with a field of view  somewhere around 68 to 82° is preferred.  Eyepieces are brighter than zoom lenses for some reason, and more brightness equals better seeing.
  Once you master the set up and can sleuth to any object you desire, then you’ll find out that you want more aperture, to help you see more of these faint distant objects,  if you have trouble getting started post another rip reply asking for help but I’m sure some of us will jump right in Dave!

[Dave Smith]

Sean...

Thank you for the reply....

Dave

[Ed McDonough]

Hi Dave:
I actually work for Celestron and echo everything Sean says. The Nexstar 4 SE is a great beginner telescope. Actually for many it's a second telescope when they realize that the first one they purchased was a mistake. So you are ahead of the game. Having a 35mm eyepiece is particularly wonderful for low power and bright wide fields views. You can use the zoom eyepiece and like Sean says, play around with the various magnification options. Do not expect to see Hubble like images. You will be viewing actual objects in "real time" which to me is where the rubber meets the road. Imaging comes later with more elaborate equipment and the accompanying learning curve.

Bring it along to one of the sidewalk events or to Crowley and rest assured that someone will be sure to show you the ropes. Welcome to the group.

Ed McDonough

[George B Grimm]

Hello Dave,

I have an SE scope. Before you go outside you can setup some of the key parameters and actually watch it slew about on it's own.
In order to be setup for goto operation you must enter your latitude and longitude of where you are viewing from and the current time in 24 hour format. The latitude and longitude will be maintained in memory even after you turn off the power. The time must be entered each time you power on. Currently in the east the stars Vega and Arcturus are excellent choices for a two star alignment. However you must know about where they are in the sky. There a several cellphone free apps for depicting the sky and naming the objects you point the cellphone at .... the most famous is Google Skymap for andriod devices and iOS has similar apps for the iphone. Point the app at a star and it will show its name.

Around 1030pm Jupiter is now really popping in the East. You can do a less accurate Solar System align on that but viewing it will be awesome. Look for it's moons also.

The latiutude for Sarasota is 27.3364° N ..... it's Longitude is 82.5307° W. As an optional method you may scroll down to the Time entry and hit the BACK button and you can walk thru menus to enter you location as a CITY .....

Everything you need to know is available from the Nexstar site https://www.nexstarsite.com/

I always recommend a 2-star alignment but you have to know the stars you see above you. There are other options to align that require little knowledge .... here is that procedure I copied from the Nexstar site. I do feel however that knowing the major stars in the sky above you at any given time is just a part of astronomy not to overlook ...

Introduced with NexStar hand control version 4 (first included with the CPC) and available in all newer versions, SkyAlign is an entirely new approach to aligning an alt-az mounted telescope.  SkyAlign requires no knowledge of the night sky and as such is designed for beginning backyard astronomers.  In a nutshell, you set up the telescope, provide your location and the date and time and center 3 bright objects (you don't even need to know their names) in the eyepiece.  The scope is now aligned and ready to Go(To).

I have the same zoom eyepiece and it is just great for general viewing.

Email me at gbgrimm@gmail.com if stuck .....

[Dave Smith]

Thanks for all the help...

Dave

[Dave Deitz]

Hi Dave, welcome to the club!  Congratulations on your new equipment,  we now know who to blame for the next week of clouds...just kidding. This is the most incredible hobby with the most helpful members that have become some of my best friends.  Your only regret will be that you didn't get involved before now. Oh, by the way, the name Dave is already taken by me so you can choose from Biff, Darren or Billy Bob. LOL

Looking forward to meet you Dave,
Dave

[Julio Cruz]

Welcome and congrats! Newb here myself!