telescope upgrade

[jasonpply]

Hey all!!! My wife just gave me a new telescope upgrade for christmas. Unfortunately I haven't had a clear sky yet for observations. I have gone from a 3" relfector to a 8" dob. size difference is unbelievable. Just wondering if this is big enough for me to do galaxy hunting. As the 3" was no good for this. Also is my old barlow lens from my old scope convertable will i be able to use it on this new scope. the eye piece size is the same. just it only came with 2 eyepices and a 2" convertor. should I buy 2" lenses? anyways any advice will be nice. I am very excited about this scope and look forward to using it. Just hope i dont get aperature fever. lol. thanks alot jason. also looking forward to using my new filter kit santa brought as well

 

[MeteorWayne]

This belongs in Ask the Astronomer, so I'll move it there.

 

[jasonpply]

sorry ty

 

[MeteorWayne]

NP

To answer your questions, that's a nice upgrade. It's a whole different sky with 8 inches. Your Barlow should work just fine with the new scope if it is a 2" Barlow. I assume your dob (what kind did you get BTW?) uses 2" eyepieces. So you should indeed buy 2" eyepieces when you can afford to. In the meantime, if you have a converter, smaller ones will due for now. You can start working on your lifetime Messier object list!

 

[jasonpply]

I got a skywatcher 8 dob. it is made in china, but from what i have read not a bad buy for the price. ty I had started my messier object hunt on my old scope but got frustrated easily when everything was either to hard to find or to fuzzy to see in a small scope. it also came with a filter kit but they are only colored filters ie; yellow, green, blue, red, orange, a polarizer, and a crystalview skyglow filter. i have no idea what all of em are for but will start on some obvious spots ie; the moon, jupiter and some nebulaes that are easy to spot. i think the crystalview cuts back on light pollution. which is good as i live in a city of about 400k people.

 

[MeteorWayne]

LOL, well the disease you will catch other than aperture fever is dark sky fever Still, the filters will help.

I should say, I am not a scope expert, after all I am Meteor Wayne, which means most of the time I watch the whole sky with just my eyes. I use my scopes rarely, usually for special events, like comets, eclipses, occultations, transits, etc. There are a handful (a small handful at that) of telescopic meteor observers worldwide; what they sacrifice by not watching the whole sky, they make up in being able to see fainter meteors. That's a niche within a niche

At the NJAA, I have access to better scopes and more knowledgable users, so they give me plenty to look at!

Wayne

 

[MeteorWayne]

Hey all!!! My wife just gave me a new telescope upgrade for christmas. Unfortunately I haven't had a clear sky yet for observations.

BTW, this is known as Murphy's Law of New Telescopes. It happens to everyone :lol: