I’m new here and my first post. My 9 yr old daughter is astronomy mad and wanted a telescope for Christmas. But because of the shortage I couldn’t get what we wanted. Ended up with a Skywatcher skyhawk 1145p. Really wanted something with a little bigger primary mirror and simpler to use. Still, we were lucky to get that and at a reasonable price!
Started off looking at the moon but have only had 4 clear nights since Christmas. And one of those was working out how to polar align and getting use to everything.
This is our first picture of anything in the nights sky. My iPhone 12 was literally gaffer taped to the eyepiece. The stock 10mm. Just pressed the shutter for (I think) a 5 second exposure. All I could do without too much star trailing. Then a little noddy “processing” in Camera+ in order to reduce the light pollution. We are in a city, Southampton, England, so it’s no exactly ideal. Still, when my daughter saw the result she was literally jumping up and down. I known it’s far from perfect but still pleased for a first attempt.
Nice as it’s something we can both do. I hope that she won’t get bored too quickly. The biggest issue at the moment is the lack of clear sky. We now have a phone mount, a couple of better eyepieces and a cheap motor drive. Much to learn!