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Hi from Exmoor


Scouse Lee

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Hello, my name's Lee and as you can probably guess from my user name I am originally from Liverpool but live up on Exmoor now. I am, or should probably say was, a self employed tree surgeon but haven't worked for 18 months due to ill health and probably won't again, BUT, this gives me time to enjoy the wonderful surroundings here on the farm we live on and the surrounding countryside. One of the things I've noticed here is the fantastic clear skies we get with no light pollution at all which has led me to buy my first telescope the other day, (when I say mine I bought it for my son but he'll have to fight me for it :laugh:  ), I opted for a cheap one to start with and purchased a Celestron Astromaster 70AZ which we used for the 1st time last night, no moon out unfortunately but the amount of stars was unbelievable, in the short time we used it I saw 2 shooting stars through it and something that was really strange, it looked like a star to the naked eye but when I zoomed in it was a series of bright rings, couldn't tell how many and it didn't seem to have a planet or anything in the middle so I don't think it was Saturn. Anyway I'm sure me & my son will have loads of questions to ask once we've figured out how to get the best out of the telescope, haven't quite sussed it yet.

Cheers

Lee

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Hi Lee - Welcome. I'm near South Molton soknow what you mean about the skies here. I know its an astro telescoppe and things look upside down and round the wrong way but the best way to get to know your scope (and mount) is to do some daytime observing of the landscape around you. Not the sun!!

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Hi Lee, and a warm welcome to the forum.  The rings you mention was surely because you were out of focus, the 'focuser' is a focuser on the telescope, not a zoom, and you probably got concentric rings, called an 'Airey Disc', this is common when you look at a bright star and then twist out of focus.

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Thanks guys........JamesF I'm up near Lynton, astromerlin yes I've downloaded Stellarium already, fwm891 I've tried looking through it in the day but things look a little too bright, not sure I have it set up right yet though plus reckon I may change the diagonal & get better eyepieces if possible, (I'll have a look through the site 1st and see what advice there is before I buy anything though), rwilkey......out of focus?, you mean I haven't discovered a new planet?  :huh:  :tongue:

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Thanks guys........JamesF I'm up near Lynton, astromerlin yes I've downloaded Stellarium already, fwm891 I've tried looking through it in the day but things look a little too bright, not sure I have it set up right yet though plus reckon I may change the diagonal & get better eyepieces if possible, (I'll have a look through the site 1st and see what advice there is before I buy anything though), rwilkey......out of focus?, you mean I haven't discovered a new planet?  :huh:  :tongue:

Not a new planet I am afraid haha!  The Airey Disc is used as a means to see if a telescope is 'in collimation' (the optics are aligned) - if you got a good 'Airey Disc' then you have good optics as follows:

post-3528-0-62255600-1410885286.jpg

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Not a new planet I am afraid haha!  The Airey Disc is used as a means to see if a telescope is 'in collimation' (the optics are aligned) - if you got a good 'Airey Disc' then you have good optics as follows:

attachicon.gifAiry_disk.jpg

ah right, well it was pretty much like that in your pic but to be honest we couldn't actually make a disc out in the middle but I'm sure one was there

Hi Lee, I live in Mynydd Isa in North Wales and I`m surrounded by scousers, they`re the salt of the earth. Welcome to sgl

cheers Dave, yep true scousers are nice people that will do anything for you but unfortunately there are a few wrong 'uns around and it's these that have given us a bad name in the past

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Ha, those rings... They are diffraction rings indeed! They are round because of the round edge of the front lens.

They are normal. All telescopes show them when the magnification gets high enough. You see only one or two rings when the scope is in focus, and quite a few more out of focus.

When the rings are concentric your telescope optics are well aligned.

Welcome to the lounge.

:hello:

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Hi Lee and welcome to SGL. With your lovely dark skies, the scope you are using should reveal much more of the sky than someone using the same instrument, living in a City. You and your Son would, however, do well to obtain a copy of "Turn Left At Orion" which was written with the small scope in mind and is one, if not the most popular book, obtained by newcomers to the hobby in recent years, enjoy :)

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