Hello EMS from Chellaston

[MattSett]

Hi all,

I've posted a hello on the 'welcome' forum, and was pointed this way. I have a sky watcher explorer 150p still packaged til Christmas unfortunately, can't wait to get my hands on it! How portable is it? I can't really tell because of the 2 big boxes it's in. I've found what I think are a couple of good viewing spots. One unfortunately may soon be built on though.

Anyway it's great to have found what looks to be a great site, with a lot of East Midlanders!

See you in the dark soon

Matt

[damnut]

Hi Matt,

Glad you found us, we have two dark sites one near Bleper and the other just off J24 of the M1.When the weather is clear (!) we occasionally meet up for viewing or a pint!.

The new scope will give you a good start, what you need now is the Pocket Sky Atlas so that you can learn where to point it when you get it out of the box. Also have a look at Turn Left At Orion which is also a good starhoppers guide.

Cheers

[Dude]

Hi Matt, and welcome!

[red dwalf]

Hi mat, not far from me, I'm in sandiacre.

The 150 is a very nice useable scope, you'll have great fun with it, try downloading stellarium, It's a free download that shows you what's in the sky in your area, very usefull, hope to see you down the dark site soon.

[Rusty Strings]

Hi Matt and welcome to EMS

[BigTfromNotts]

Hi Matt

I also have the 150P explorer. I have a very small car (no back seats and a small boot) and I can get the scope, mount, tripod and my accessories in the car. I find it a very portable scope.

Cheers

Tony

[CJBooth]

Hello!

[heathenwoods]

Hi from Belper! I used live just up the road from you in Shelton Lock. I bet the short path to Robin Wood would be a pretty good darkish sky viewing spot for you.

Enjoy your scope

[BAZ Senior]

Hi Matt, welcome to EMS.

Nice scope, clear skies for when you open the box's .

[brantuk]

Hi Matt and welcome to EMS

I used to have a 150P - my frst scope - breaks down into three major parts (plus weights) - it's light and very portable. I doubt there's a car it won't go in

[MattSett]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the warm welcome!

The path to Robin Wood was one of the spots I had in mind. It's high up and has a long unbroken horizon. You can see the airport and Nottingham so I guess there'll be a bit of light pollution. The other spot was Chellaston hilltop. Again a big southern horizon, but some light from the A50 junction.

As for a pocket sky atlas, what would be the best buy? I know my way around most of the constellations, but not having had a scope before, will need a lot of help with deep sky stuff!

Cheers for your help,

Matt

[CJBooth]

I got bought the Colins GEM Star Atlas today, it looks prett good.

[heathenwoods]

Have you seen Stellarium? I've found it really helpful but then I'm yet to pick up a star atlas so can't advise with that