So, having bought my telescope and set it up in the front room in order to learn how to use it, my thoughts turn to what I might buy next. A new eyepiece? Some filters? Maybe start saving for an equatorial mount?

Once it starts to get a bit darker, I set up outside and give SkyAlign a go. Point at the Moon, point at bright star 1, point at bright star 2. Nothing. No match found. A couple more attempts using various combinations of stars but nothing matches apparently. Hmm, I must be doing something wrong.

Back inside and a quick search online and a few forum posts recommending Auto Two Star Align instead. That's fine, I can point my phone at the sky and identify the Pole star and Altair. Unfortunately, after aligning my first star, the scope slews to a seemingly random part of the sky, almost flipping over in the process! This just isn't working.

Giving up for the night, I ask on a forum if anyone else has had the same problem. It turns out that with all my playing about with my new toy during the day, I've managed to run down the AA batteries I was using to the point where the mount would stop functioning properly. A change of batteries for my next session and everything is finally working perfectly and alignment is a doddle.

After all my imaginary shopping lists of fancy astronomy gear, it turns out that my next purchase would be a big battery. Being new to the hobby, I wanted to make sure I would get something that would work so I ordered a Skywatcher 17ah Powertank from FLO. Almost certainly more power than I need but I'm hoping that it will allow me to power a few more gadgets in the future. The powertank seems to last forever and I've not had any problems with my telescope since. It's also allowed me to take my kit away camping as I'm not tethered to a mains socket so it has definitely been a worth while purchase for me.

Now I really can start thinking about buying something new and fancy!