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Hello..


Davgt5

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I suppose I better start with telling you what I actually know about astronomy. I can recognize The Big Dipper (The Plough (UK), when I see it. Sometimes I can point to the Pole star. Orions Belt, yep I'd recognize that too, stuff I learned at school decades ago and the Discovery channel. That about sums it up lol

So what am I doing here, well coming up to my 50th birthday my wife asked what I'd like as a present and I gave it a lot of thought and decided that I'd quite like a telescope, absolutely mad but it's something I've often thought of when at night looking up at beautiful clear skies just wondering..

My other hobby is I'm a very keen amateur photographer so my plan is to enjoy the sky at night but to combine the two eventually, so with this in mind and some homework we went and bought a Celestron C8 Edge-HD Advance VX GOTO and a few other bits and bobs.

In photography we have a term 'all the gear and no idea' which isn't really a compliment but this is where I am at the moment lol

Hope to learn fast

Davy

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Hi Davey,

Welcome to SGL, make yourself at home and ask questions but contribute as well :grin: . Congratulations on your new scope. You have picked well, certainly for visual. Maybe not so well for imaging, but that depends on what you wish to image. If it is doubles, the moon  and planets you are laughing. If it is DSOs, not so good due to the long focal length of the scope  -f/10. Do not get too deflated by that bit. You will have loads of enjoyment visually.

Ian

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Hi Davey,

Welcome to SGL, make yourself at home and ask questions but contribute as well :grin: . Congratulations on your new scope. You have picked well, certainly for visual. Maybe not so well for imaging, but that depends on what you wish to image. If it is doubles, the moon  and planets you are laughing. If it is DSOs, not so good due to the long focal length of the scope  -f/10. Do not get too deflated by that bit. You will have loads of enjoyment visually.

Ian

Thank you for the welcome :)

Ian

Yes I realise that the scope is a trade off with what I can do but I want to see more just now and photograph less at least to begin with. I also got a .7 focal length reducer to give me a little more flexibility

Davy

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Hi Davy and welcome to SGL - If you think that combining your interest in photography will be happening, then get hold of the book 'Making every photon count' - This is something of a DSO imagers bible. Read it once.... twice and thrice ...... then you can part with your pennies specifically for imaging. Until that time, keep your hands firmly in your pockets!!! From reading the book you will have a good understanding of what you need and why to start taking decent astro images. I think many of us have a copy of this book somewhere!
 
Most of all, enjoy what you are doing :D

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Welcome Davey

I have the same set-up, which I bought just last July.  I'm sure you will be very pleased with it, as am I.

I share exactly the same interests as you as I'm also a keen photographer and make part of my living from it.  I carefully chose the Edge 8" as the ideal "future-proof" 'scope as it offers three different configurations of focal length, should I want to go that route, whilst producing a really nice piece of kit for observing.

It can be a bit of a learning curve if new to all this.  Although I'd had ricketty old 'scopes for many years I knew little or nothing.  I saw more in the first hour with the Edge 8" than I had in my whole life before - a joy to use on a nice night.

Two pieces of advice:

  • Join a local astro club - mine is £18 a year, small but very friendly.  You'll find a mine of practical information and advice
  • Please email me anytime if you need to pick my brains on any aspect of the 'scope - There is probably little you can do, mess-up or get wrong that I haven't already managed to do myself.  It can be frustrating the first few times.  I can get it all put together in five minutes, and polar aligned and working in about another ten.  If you need any help I'll happily give you my 'phone number 

Enjoy!

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Hi, Davy, a warm welcome to SGL - and to the worlds of amateur astronomy! Although you have "GoTo" on your set up (nice scope, by the way!)  If you are interested in finding your way around the night sky you can do a lot worse than by using the free planetarium software "Stellarium" which will not only show you what is available from your location, but also what it will look like through the eyepiece. Downloadable here: http://stellarium.org/en_GB

Hope that helps,

Martin

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Hi Davy and welcome to SGL. Nice scope you have, "but all the gear no idea", how many times have we come across that I wonder, but that is why you joined the forum and I am sure it will not be long before it will be past history. Whatever difficulty you run into in the future, just post your inquiry into the relevant sub sections of the forum, hopefully, help will be on its way, enjoy :)

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The Edge HD is a smashing setup - it'll provide you with years of observing and imaging if you decide to get into that. With F10 you will be able to make amazing photos of the moon, planets, galaxies and planetary nebulae. As for DSO - still possible, but more difficult and tricky. Still, it's a great all-rounder so if you don't want to focus yourself on just one thing - you can't go wrong with the Edge.

Welcome to SGL, and enjoy your new hobby :)

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Wow, so many replies, thank you.

I'm in the Cairngorms at the moment and it has just stopped snowing, that's a good thing for the skiers though lol. I wont be home till Saturday so hopefully the weather will improve for the weekend and I can get her fired up. I'll let you know how I get on :)

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