A clear sky finally arrived so I got my telescope and went into the back garden hopeful to see wonderful things.

I set everything up, put an eyepiece in and nothing. I pointed my finder to the moon, looked through the main scope and all I could see was a yellowish blob, I was very disappointed (You can tell i'm new to this). I didn't get another chance to try it out again until yesterday when I went my local astronomy group meeting.

After 2 hours of talks (which were very interesting and informative) and a bit of waiting around until it got dark I finally got outside with my scope. The seeing conditions weren't too good to start with there were only a few breaks in the cloud, but eventually it all disappeared and the sky was perfectly clear! The people at the group were so friendly and very helpful! I found out that my collimation was out by just a bit and also my finder wasn't at all aligned with the main scope. After everything was sorted thanks to the lovely people in the group, I saw fantastic views of Jupiter and its 4 moons. I was also lucky enough to see one of its moons go behind the planet which was a fantastic sight.

Looking through my telescope last night didn't seem real at all! Its strange to think that you're looking out into the solar system/universe, the sights are just breathtaking.

I got a pretty good view of many things in the sky last night with several different scopes and I also got to try out different eyepieces which was good.

If possible I strongly recommend joining your local astronomical group, it's amazing how many things you find out in just one night of being there and also they offer a lot of help and advice for new astronomers.

Justine.