dharma66

So there is was last night, gazing up at an amazingly clea sky for the first time since I bought my scope. The stars were barely even twinkling. I've never seen anything like it for years. Unfortunately, my scope was 180 miles away. Oh well.

Source: 300p Ethos 13mm 0.5 light report

The steps really cool. When I can be bothered doing some computering, I might try to figure out how to post a picture. I think i decided on my first upgrade eyepiece. Everyone says the 10m that comes with Skywatcher scopes is only so-so, and I really wanted something a bit shorter as well. I'd like some of my favourite globs to fill the eyepiece when the viewing allows. So it looks like its going to be a 13mm Ethos and a 2x Powermate. I need to sell a few things to fund these (I promised the wife I'd find astronomy by selling off some old hobbies and collections), but I'm hoping to raise the finds in the next few days.

One thing that was very apparent when Pat and I visited OpticStar was that she wasn't going to be able t reach the eyepiece anywhere from above about 10 degrees from zenith. Maybe a little more. As she's showing a lot of interest in the scope, I want to make sure she gets as muc out of it as I do, and so I've order a caravan step from Amazon. The one I ordered is "Milenco Aluminium Single Step Rubber Top". The reason for my choice is that it's a single step with a pretty broad platform. It's 8 inches high which should be plenty, but at the same time it's no so high she'll feel unsteady. Finally, it has bottom rails, rather than feet. This should go some way to ensuring it doesn't sink in soft ground! At around £20 with delivery, I'm hoping it'll be just the job!

Hello, my name is Phil. I'm 45 years old, and work in IT management for a large financial institution. I spent many years programming in various languages, including Java, C++, Ruby, Smalltalk etc. When I was about 25 (?) I bought a small Tal-1 reflector, as I'd been interested in astronomy as long as I remember. It cost well over £100, which 20 years ago was a not insignificant amount. I looked through the scope a handful of times, seeing the crescent of Venus, M42, Saturn (though could never make out the rings - I'd never heard of collimation, and the scope came with instructions n Russian!). After that, it had to be moved into the loft to make space over winter. After all, I wouldn't be outside using it in the freezing cold, when the nights in summer were nice and warm! So it moved to the loft, and it stayed there for about 20 years, untouched. In the meanwhile, I bought a few occasional copies of Astonomy Now or Sky and Telescope, and began to realise a few things. Firstly, of course, that Autumn and Winter were actually the best times for observing, and secondly that I wasn't really going to see a huge amount through my 4.5" scope beyond tiny planets and faint fuzzies. So I started to lust over the Meade and Celestron SCT's in the big adverts, but they were many thousands of pounds. I figured if I lived in Arizona, I'd be prepared to spend that amount. But not in Manchester. So I stuck with following stuff in AN and New Scientists now and then, resigned myself to not having a telescope, and the poor Tal languished in the loft. Then last year two things happened. First, I found SGL, and I realised that actually, a 4.5" Newt, whilst small, could actually be quite an exciting little instrument. And secondly, I noticed the Dobsonian aperture revolution that had occurred in the 20 years since I bought my scope. An 8" scope for well under £500??? A 10" for well under a grand!!! Inconceivable! Scopes that size cost half a years wages 20 years ago. Now they were costing less than a weeks wage!?!? Two things followed from this. I began a rebuild of my Tal, with the intention being to alter it to accept 1.25" eyepieces (I had lost the 0.96" eyepieces it came with), and I began to research the purchase of a bigger scope. The Tal rebuild came to a halt when my wife threw out the tube. Someone offered me a replacement, and I need to dig out that old post, because I'm realising now how generous that was. The scope research took a year. In this year I've spent a lot of te reading AN, SAN magazines, books, and probably best of all, SGL. So I know a little bit more now than I did a year a go, and WAY more than I did 20 years ago...but it's still 20 years since I last looked through a scope, and so I count myself as a complete beginner. In the year spent researching the scope options, I made a few decisions. The first was to avoid astrophotgraphy. Had this still involved hypered Velvia, then maybe I would have been interested, but the thought of coming home from 12 hours wrestling with computers, to then spend more time wrestling with computers, filled me with dread. As much as I'd love to give it a go in ideal world (and if I win the lottery, I'll have an AP rig to shame a few minor UN states), in reality, I just can't face it. So that meant I could really benefit from the Dob revolution. Second was goto. I know this stirs conflicting opinions on an almost religious scale. However, the reality again is that if I spend 12 hours in the office, 2 hours driving, 6 hours sleeping, an hour eating and saying hello to missus, and 2 hours 45 minutes watching the rain, I want to spend the remaining 15 minutes seeing things, not looking for them (figures given are averaged). Your view may vary. The third decision was budget. Having a fairly decent job, and a very understanding wife (who is looking forwards to the new scope as much as me), means this is much less of an issue than I had feared. This means I was able to consider some largish scopes, and some decent eyepieces and accessories. After looking around, I eventually started to settle on a flextube, in the 10-14" range. One of these would fit in our car (when there is just the two of us - i.e. 90%+ of the time), give good views, and leave budget for other stuff. A visit to Opticstar in Sale to view a 12" Auto finally convinced me this was big enough, and the 14" probably a step too far. So, I took the missus down for her to see the scope, and whilst she was fairly surprised at the size, her first reaction was to start planning storage and transportation logistics! Result! Her second reaction was to say "So are you going to order it now, whilst we are here?"! Stunning result! Now, I knew Opticstar didn't have any in stock, and that neither did OVL. But I did know that at least a couple of others did have what I wanted ready to despatch (this was around the middle of May). However, on my two visits to Opticstar, the staff had been so helpful, enthusiastic, patient and generally brilliant, that I decided I'd rather buy from them, as my local (ish) physical shop. This seemed oth more fair, and in the long run better for me in supporting a local shop, than take their advice for free, but then take my money and go elsewhere. I knew it would mean waiting, and Sathya did say to me several times before I placed the order that it would be some weeks - middle of June earliest. Having him deliberately give me the opportunity to shop elsewhere, after all the help they had given, just made me more determined to order from them. So, there's the situation. I've ordered a Skywatcher Skyliner 300p Flextube SynScan GoTo Dobsonian, and I'm awaiting delivery. Latest estimate is that the shipment makes landfall in the UK on 20th June. We all know from FLO's wonderful transparency that it can take some time after landfall before the shipment makes it to OVL, so I'm not yet holding my breath. In the meanwhile, I bought a Cheshire, and I've read just about every guide to collimation I can find online (including the one by SGL's very own AstroBaby, of course!). The purpose of this blog will be to document, as it describes itself, the fumbling steps of a beginner. Perhaps some of the information I post, and descriptions of the mistakes I make, may help other beginners. Maybe it will give more experienced people a chuckle. I'll be every pleased if I achieve either of these things!