First Light..

[Keano]

Hi folks finally managed to get a few minutes with my new scope last night and thought i'd share my experiance, exciting in some ways but a little disapointing in others.

First i gota get it off my chest "I SAW SATURN, WHOOT!"

it was quite small but i was only using 25mm and 10mm with no barlow but for about 30 secs it was crystal clear before the clouds rollled back in,hard to get a good focus due to the blumming horrendous r&p focuser with kept moving the scope evrytime i tried to focus (bit of movement there and you could lay bricks with the **** they lube it with) but im still chuffed dispite the niggles.

Tried the moon with the 25mm celestron x-cel(courtesy of flo) looked good if a little unclear due to whisps o cloud, faffed about a bit then went back to try the 10mm and maybe 5mm but missed the opportunity due to the moon being so low in the sky and the neighbours thoughtlessly planting a big bush in the way.

All in all despite only getting 2 mins of actually looking through my new shiny toy i was pretty happy, but it has made me very aware of some things that i need to address though, so heres an few things for anyone who happens to be as dim as me to consider.

1, A moses eyepiece(a nifty bit o kit that im suprised flo doesnt sell, they'd make a fortune).Works on red seas AND clouds.

2,Familiarize yourself with your mount, i have no idea how to use a an eq mount( thought i did, but i was wrong),polar alignment im ok with but the way the mount moves i.e. the positions its meant to be in for looking south etc defeats me.If im looking south which side should the ota be on? does it matter? ep positions are another, i didnt realize that id have to swivel the diagonal about to get it vertical ( am i right in thinking the diagonal needs to be swivel'd or is it the scope in the rings?).

3, Get a red torch, very basic piece of kit i simply forgot about, for those who may not know astronomy is done in the dark and the thing about darkness is that you cant see, hence you tend to fall over things,several times , namely garden hosepipes that a certain elderly gentleman left lying about.

4, A case for your ep's etc, 5 mins into the session i had bits of kit everywhere.I'd looked at the thread on sgl where people showed off their case's and ep collections (how ostentatious i thought) definatly not, protects and organizes,will be very usefull when i nip down to maplins today.

Heres hoping someone with more experiance can enlighten me.

P.s dont know why the txt is so small,apologies to anyone who goes blind reading it.

[Dave]

Glad to hear you have had a good taster of more to come.

[Telrad]

Thanks for the 1st light report. Good stuff

[Adamski]

Well done with your first light on a new scope. Isn't it annoying to get a glimpse of something and then it disappears on you. I've had that problem for nearly 6 weeks cos of the weather. I've lost count of the amount of times i've set up and packed away lately. I've decided to leave it packed away until better conditions are here.BOOHOO

[MorningMajor]

Nice report - I got a case quite recently and now everythings all over the place in the case as opposed to the outside table! - at least they're safe from rolling off!

Text size can be controlled by using the "go advanced" option in the reply box - your size looks fine btw

[Astro Imp]

Hi Keano,

Great report, brings back all the frustrations I had at the start of the year, but believe me it does get bettter.

That first time out with your new kit and you've decided all the things you want to see and poof!! you don't know where to start or how to get where you want to be.

I suggest you set your scope up during daylight and just fiddle about until you get the hang of it.

Hopefully the weather will improve some time soon and we will all enjoy our scopes again.

Good luck and clear skies.

[g0ibi]

Glad you've started, me too! Sorted moving the mount about (practiced indoors!) but cannot understand the setting circles etc. ok on alt/az adjustment but then what? Its what makes this hobby what it is I suppose!!

Clear skies to you and yours

Ron

[crazyjedi]

All the high's and lows of our hobby in just one night eh? Most frustrating thing that ever happened to me was finding the dumb bell nebula and spending a good hour spell bound and then never finding it again doh! - that and falling asleep in the garden in a chair next to my scope whilst having a short break to enjoy a beer, only to doze off and drop and smash my favourite pint glass... Double DOH!!!

[tom33pr]

Keep it up - good report!!! Things will only get better from now on

[Keano]

thnx folks, really appreciate the encouragement, end of the day its like anything i suppose, practice makes perfect. Was hoping to get another session tonight to show a friend saturn and some moon craters but judging by the weather its a no go:mad:

[steelfixer]

nice one Keano.

You have raised an interesting point there.

Does it make any difference what side the tube is when using an EQ mount.

Any experts care to shed some light on his one.

clear skies all

[Keano]

Thnx to digz in your thread we now know it depends what side of the meridian your target is, but what side is the 64k question.Although im still not sure if it matters for purely visual use. Keep checking each others threads to see the answer:D