Baby Dob is a success!!

[Matt 82]

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Heritage 76 Mini Dobsonian

So since I'm a newb I decided to buy the Skywatcher mini-dobsonian with the idea that I wouldn't be looking at deep sky nebulae or Pluto and if it turns out I'm not as interested in stargazing as I thought I might be that I could punt it without any harm done.

Turns out it's great! I don't really know what I'm doing as far as constellations go so I aimed it at the brightest object in the sky that I thought might be Jupiter and it was! I can see it pretty clearly and can see 3 moons around it, which is WAY more than I ever thought I'd see.

Anyway I only nipped in to share my discovery with you all since the house is empty and the dog doesn't care.

[Astro Imp]

Nice that your pleased with your scope.

To help you find your way around Stellarium is a great free planatarium program.

Enjoy.

[rory]

nice going matt. astrimp is right stellarium is a great FREE download,that you can use for learning the sky and locating objects.

[stephenwilliamwatts]

Welcome to the dark side!

[Capricorn]

Reckon a small cheap scope is the best way to start, that way if it doesn't suit then no great loss and it gives you a feel for what is involved.

Glad that it seems to have dragged you in, use the 76 to get some idea of the next step. Be warned it can get expensive.

[Tinker1947]

So whens the order for the 16" going in....

[Catweazel]

Nice to hear a happy story! Congrats on your scope, and I hope you get a lot of enjoyment from it

[assasincz]

These are door openers

[MrsR]

Great to hear your happy start x

[paul schofield]

Well done it makes sense starting off small because if it becomes a major hobby the market is limitless. Better than spending out hundreds then flea baying it in a couple of months. Hope you stick with it though. Good luck and happy gazing.

[Sierra Golf Mike]

I bought one of these for my Daughter-in-law to be for her Christmas and had a sneaky look through it before my wife wrapped it up and I was impressed with juat what is visible. Hope it gives you many happy hours veiwing.

Cheers

[Matt 82]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Stellarium has been downloaded and installed so I'll get a look at that in a bit.

My first night is now on a break. There's a fair bit of cloud cover coming in and the 'scope was getting a nice coat of dew. With it being cold enough that the car is covered in frost, I decided to bring it inside to let it dry off before it developed icicles. Any tips for avoiding that? Was it just too cold or could I have ploughed on? Should I just grab a hairdryer and give it a blast for 5 or 10 mins?

Anyway I was very impress with what I could see. My garden has good views to the North and South but limited East and West. I think I may have briefly seen another planet pop up for a few minutes between a couple of trees but it disappeared just as quickly again.

Stuck the video camera up against the eye piece to see what I could get and got a relatively decent shot of what I was looking at so I'll upload that to Youtube for your viewing pleasure shortly!

[Matt 82]

That is Jupiter, right?

[stephenwilliamwatts]

Well I can just see what looks like moons so I would say yes,

[Steve777]

Keep it up, mate!

[Matt 82]

Not sure if you can embed videos on this site but here's the Youtube link. Stick it up to 720p and it's like Star Wars!