CMR

Just bought my copy, which I’ll likely give to my niece... who am I kidding, I’ll probably learn a lot from it as well! I’ll read it first and then gift it

It’s a toss up now as to whether this book or my first ever telescope will get delivered the fastest! Hopefully the book so I have a bit of an idea of what I’m looking up at.

All the best to Aston and getting his first telescope! 

I’m waiting for a van to deliver my first ever telescope... was originally leaning towards a Skyliner 150p or 200p but after considering moving it around from place to place I went for the Explorer 150p instead. Just need it to be delivered so I can get started!

1 hour ago, Jamgood said:

I'm in a Bortle 8 with a car park full of light behind me and street lights both sides. You just do what you do to make things work. I only image though. I've never used an eyepiece as yet.

Can I ask why you don’t look through the eyepiece?

37 minutes ago, Dark Vader said:

I never have problems finding eyepieces in the dark!🤪

Glad you’re looking on the ‘bright’ side... couldn’t resist that pun!

Sounds like I should be ok all in all then. Thanks for the info!

12 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Hello and welcome to the forum.

If you're not familiar with the way these communities work, the first thing you might want to know is that information that is important or widely relevant is sometimes turned into a "sticky" post that remains in a prominent position. I presume you already found the guidelines? And I would also recommend reading this one (or at least the article at the top) to set your expectations.

If you're not in any hurry to buy a telescope you could do a lot worse than having a run through some of the threads in the 'Welcome' section - there are quite a few from new starters asking for advice on choosing or buying. There's also a guide here , and a glossary of terms here. Astrophotography is a whole extra can of worms, be prepared for a serious learning curve if you want to get straight into that (and put your credit card on standby).

If you haven't already, it's worth getting hold of a 'planisphere', either physical or software (like "Stellarium"). You can use it to show what constellations are up and when, and then see how many you can recognise (I'm assuming you're not already familiar with this, and it will be useful when you start observing). There are also some great apps for phones, like Skysafari.

Yeah, I’ve read up a fair bit on telescopes and the terminology and did skim read the CoC. I’ve also chosen a telescope to potentially buy but didn’t know about the apps like Skysafari so I’ll give that a go, thanks

2 minutes ago, Paz said:

Dark skies are better than light polluted skies but light pollutes skies are not a barrier to observing

Sounds like I’ll be spending some cash soon then!

Yeah, they are bright street lights 😕

The front garden faces West.

Sounds like the immediate surroundings are more likely to interfere than overall general light pollution of the geographical area?

Ok, here goes. First ever question asked online... basically I’ve read up on telescopes and looked at a lot of potential first purchases and to cut a long story short, I’ve decided on the Skywatcher Skyliner 150p or the 200p. Primarily I want to use it in my front and back garden but also travel to dark sites on occasion... I imagine 90% of the time, I’d use it at home.

The first thing that concerns me is that while I live in fairly rural area, looking at light pollution maps, I’m still in a fairly ‘bright’ area. I can tell you that on clear nights it’s easy to see plenty of stars and constellations and I can definitely see some planets shining even with the naked eye... So, I’d like to know if any other ‘garden observers’ have any issues with observing when their property is relatively close to bright street lights?

(If street lights nearby ruin it, I can’t be on with carting a bulky telescope over the back field, especially when all the wine and toilet facilities are at home!)

I’ll add a picture of my front garden/driveway from the position I’d like to use the telescope and hopefully that’ll help you to inform me as to whether it’ll be too bright or perhaps just what effect it might have in general... Any and all info on this issue would be gratefully received. Obviously I wouldn’t be pointing the telescope directly at the street light and I won’t include the back garden as it’s definitely darker than the front.

Basically, I don’t want to buy a good beginners telescope to find that my garden is too ‘polluted’ and I’m always disappointed with what I’m looking at and effectively not seeing. Furthermore, I’d hate for the telescope to become an ornament or clothes horse.

Thanks in advance.

Christian.

Hello everyone  I’m totally new to this hobby and actually haven’t even got a telescope yet. I’m also completely new to online communities and, as such, haven’t ever posted anything like this so I don’t know exactly how it all works yet.

Anyway, I’ve always been fascinated by the universe and would love to see the things in it more closely and with some detail. Of course I am aware that it’s not going to be like the colourful photos sent from the Hubble and it’ll also take time to learn how to get clearer images from the equipment but I have decided to start with a decent telescope that won’t kill the hobby from day one. Speaking of which, I have a question related to light pollution but I’ll ask that question in the ‘getting started with observing’ forum, which I’ve been told is the appropriate thing to do on these online communities! 

Well, I hope everyone has a great evening!