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Late entry to the Astronomy world

Christinea

By Christinea
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Christinea

Christinea

Posted
Posted

Hello.

My husband and I are new to the whole scene of Astronomy and are looking forward to many hours of our retirement star gazing. 

We live near Spalding in Lincolnshire and would love to hear about any groups fairly local to our area that would welcome total novices.

We shall, hopefully, be looking to purchase telescope(s) in the near future but at present are reading all we can about the subject.

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Sirius Starwatcher

Sirius Starwatcher

Posted
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Hello Christinea and welcome to SGL You have picked a very absorbing and interesting hobby and now your retired you will be able to stay up late and star gaze. the later you stay up the lest chance of light pollution !. There's plenty of info on this website to get you started. A couple of monthy mags to consider would be The Sky at Night BBC publication or Astronomy Now. Good reading and plenty of info on what to look for each month. To get an early start do not dismiss a pair of binoculars before you buy you're scope. They are great for a quick look, learning the constellations and general observing 10 X 50 are a good start.

Best of luck with your new hobby Enjoy.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Christinea  welcome to SGL to you and your Husband, Spalding appears to have an Astronomy club in Pinchbeck...  www.solags.co.uk/  It would probably be worthwhile to pay them a visit, as they will be able advise you directly on the subject in general, enjoy the forum :)

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Christinea (hubby too!) and welcome to the forum.

Good idea to research as much as possible before making any purchase and in particular attending any local outreach event (public stargazing event) which will give you both the opportunity to look through different types and size of gear along with different eyepieces too. We all have expectations of what we would like to see and getting your eye in at the eyepiece is the only way of making sense of all the scope specifications and whether they will deliver what the both of you feel you need. As a rough starting point, I can advise that the best value for money scope will be a dobsonian, a newtonian reflector that sits on a lazy susan type of alt-azimuth mount. With this type of scope most of your money will have gone into a good size mirror rather than being shared between the scope, the mount and gizmos like 'Goto' which can certainly help you find many thousands of objects, but which in many cases cannot be viewed because the aperture of the scope that came with this technology cannot collect enough light to resolve them. Budget naturally plays an important role in negotiating compromises and for your information the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P is the U.K's best selling scope, primarily because it supplies you with an 8" mirror that will resolve plenty of detail on may objects and also because it is quick to set up and easy to use. If later on your desire the benefits of 'Goto' then you can of course mount this scope on an appropriate mount to take advantage of combining technology and resolution. The word 'aperture' will feature in many future discussions you will have and in essence refers to the amount of light a telescope can collect, which translates as to the amount of information that a scope can muster through the eyepiece. Every scope has advantages and disadvantages and the price reflects those conflicts of interest. 

As your research deepens I would suggest that you keep asking as many questions as you like within the appropriate sections in order that you make the right choice for you. When seeking out specific scope recommendations I would suggest that you also include some idea of budget as as it will help keep the possible suggestions down to a minimum.

Wishing you both clear skies and I hope my comments prove of some help to you both in your quest.

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swag72

swag72

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Hi and welcome both of you to SGL. A quick Google search should highlight any local clubs for you to visit. An excellent idea to get a feel for the various scopes, sizes etc.

Look forward to seeing you around :)

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Christinea

Christinea

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Thank you Bright Giant for the link to the Spalding group.

Alas I have received a reply, after using the link provided to message, telling me that the Spalding group disbanded in December 2014. The person that sent me the email is called Jeff Powell.

I am assuming that this was an official reply - I have now asked Mr Powell if he knows of any other group in the area but I have not, as yet, had any further communication from him.

Thank you again.

Christine

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