Jump to content

Narrowband

PaulyV

Members
  • Posts

    11
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by PaulyV

  1. Starguider 8mm and 25mm incoming. Hoping they arrive before my trip to the Cairngorms on Thursday. Will update if they do. Thank you for the welcomes.
  2. Aha, thank you. I think you missed out 'cables'. This could all be so easily sidestepped if our eyes had shutter speeds.
  3. Dumb but genuine question from one new to astronomy - what is an 'AP setup' please?
  4. Final night of the holiday, and yet another clear one - just a little mist. A quick scan around the sky really. Located Andromeda just below Cassiopeia - a promising smudge - who know's what is going on in there either right now or at the time the light left it to head towards Earth. A few larger stars and a wonderful 15 minutes spent with the telescope straight up using that terrific stand design to scan around the Milky Way with the 25mm eyepiece. Now it is ready for a trip back to London tomorrow, but will be coming with me to Scotland, lockdowns allowing, in 2 weeks. Saw the sponsorship of this site by First Light Optics and dropped them an email for eyepiece recommendations. What nice people. Got some good ideas from them given my budget and the fact I wear glasses so can foresee another purchase of 3 better quality glass items in the coming weeks...in fact ideally before I set off to Scotland. Hope some of you saw what you were looking for this evening. Take care. Paul
  5. PaulyV

    New guy

    Welcome indeed from someone who joined last night immediately after my first night out with a brand new telescope. SO pleased to hear you are enjoying it all.
  6. Hello again everyone. Yes Pixies - I can imagine they do not provide the best eyepieces with a telescope such as this - the money only goes so far and a profit needs to be made. I will read up on what 1.25 optics I can get and what people recommend. Another colder evening out tonight, windy so so just a little movement on the scope and it clouded up 15 minutes ago, however I spent a good amount of time looking at Jupiter and then Saturn as they are so close together. Saturn looked excellent and it's so easy to pan across with this stand. I can see some sort of filter will be required so Jupiter is not quite so bright and I can make out the stripes which could be seen but the orb of the planet was relatively bright. Also had a satellite cross my field of view - how fortuitous and surprising. Night everyone - stay warm. Paul
  7. It's going to be fun for us both Night1885. There's plenty of people more experienced than us on here but we are all rendered equal by the clouds!
  8. Good for you. I joined the community within the past 24 hours also and look forward to hearing your starry tales. Yes, do tell us about your scope. I like nothing more than a good second-hand purchase which yields success.
  9. The beer is invaluable to the overall experience I find Starwatcher2001, and I feel more knowledgable after a couple of them. Good use of paving slabs there Neil H. I pressed one into service only last night as you can see. I can understand how things would spiral a little with purchases but I have to be careful as I am no stranger to hobbies and pass times - I am very much into synthesizers and classic cars, neither of which is inexpensive...I really should have taken up pencil drawing. Night1885 - you are clearly my astronomy twin and I hope you will be scanning the skies this evening too. I look forward to hearing how you progress with your new 'toy'. You are quite right...the world of telescopes was more complex than I expected in so much as even picking a 'recommended' one appeared to be fraught with differing opinions and viewpoints that all depended upon the type of viewing required. In some ways I am pleased I did this 'on a whim' otherwise I would still be looking down at my computer rather than up at the stars. I figured that if it didn't work out I could return it to Amazon so no harm done, but I think I got lucky. I do recall from previous experience of my friends that getting the wrong telescope, or a poor one, will put you off stargazing for years. I have some history of being very interested in 'SPACE'. As a child I received something called 'The Big Book Of Space' back in 1980 which had plenty of facts about galaxies and the cosmos as a whole. I recall watching the first shuttle launch live in our living room, and have frequented several planetariums. I've also been lucky enough to have extended some work trips allowing me to see a couple of shuttles, albeit in their grounded state. Perhaps you can just make one of them out in the image below over my shoulder. Last year I was in Arizona for work and visited Flagstaff and the Lowell Observatory. What an experience that was - they had loads of people there, clear skies and plenty of different telescopes available to use. I saw Uranus very clearly with my own eyes which warped my mind a little. It'll be some planetary viewing tonight then, amongst other things. I spent some time oggling Mars last night, but it was relatively low in the sky and directly above the house we are renting for the holiday so was interfered with by heat haze. I'll use some different eyepieces (see, I know all the words) and the 3x barlow in turn and see how they affect the view. The eyepieces I have are the 25mm, a 10mm and also a 4mm but all kit glass so not premium. Keen also to buy a large solar filter for the front of the scope. Anyway, I have rattled on - thanks for being so welcoming.
  10. Thank you everyone - it's great to meet you here. Last night was indeed a great experience. Not too cold, very quiet and lots of stars although there was a little high mist so I know we can do better. Tonight is looking clearer out here in Wiltshire, so we shall see what is visible. I have been very impressed with the telescope for the outlay involved. It cost not an inconsiderable sum yet is certainly at the lower end of what is available but I found it to be solidly built and easy to use and position whilst leaving plenty of room for improvement with eyepieces and the like. thank you for any recommendations in the thread. I am going to aim for a couple of galaxies tonight if any are visible.
  11. Hello there. A pleasure to meet you. My name is Paul and I have just crept into bed after 2 hours spent with my new Zhumell Z130 telescope. What a great evening it has been and I have kept the evening going by joining this wonderful-looking forum. I grew up in Lincolnshire so am used to great night skies and spent many evenings out in the field behind our house with my sister and my late father who was a keen amateur stargazer himself. We'd freeze in the cold as we looked at Vega, Jupiter, the Moon and of course oggled the Milky Way through his excellent, albeit heavy, East German binoculars. I even clearly remember seeing Halley's Comet in the back garden back in 1986. Fast forward many years and myself and my partner are currently on holiday with her parents in a cottage in darkest Wiltshire near Trowbridge. The night skies have been fantastic for several evenings so I thought 'sod it' - I am going to Amazon Prime a telescope and view the stars tomorrow. This of course resulted in 2 things - endless hours looking at which telescope to buy, the first requirement being not that it was the best available at my price point but that it had to be available for next-day delivery, and the arrival of cloudy skies on the day it was scheduled to arrive. I read many forum posts and reviews and settled on the Zhumell Z130...even if it isn't the best for my price it'll be miles better than anything I am used to. Order placed I awaited delivery today. It arrived, as it did the misty cloud. I spent an hour unpacking it and popping a paving stone atop a steel garden table so I could firmly position the Dobsonian stand. The clouds remained in place until 10.30 when I peeked out to see a few welcome stars. It's midnight now and I have just returned in after a wonderful 90 minutes reacquainting myself with Mars, Vega, Pleiades, and the Milky Way among many others. What a great telescope this is. The stand is terrific and gives me such control to skim around the sky. I bought a barlow lens but in all honesty I am learning very quickly that it isn't all about magnification - the 25mm lens has been far more interesting than the supplied 10mm on this first evening, giving me a clear, well-focused and deep view of the heavens. I could rattle on, but safe to say I am immediately hooked again and look forward to spending time with this telescope and getting to know some of you on this forum also. I live in Central London, so precious little opportunities for gazing, although I did see the Space X trails of satellites some months ago and often see a few stars and the ISS. We are in holiday again in 2 weeks however, up in the North of Scotland so the Zhumell will be accompanying us in the car and I look forward to even better skies there as long as it gets dark enough. I am sure it will be fine. If anyone here is reading the forum with an eye to purchasing a first telescope I would urge you to go ahead. It has been a really good evening. Paul
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.