A newbs first light (8 inch Dob)

[flyte]

OK so I thought I'd post a thread on my new scope from a newbs prospective, who knew nothing about astronomy up to about 6 months ago. So my first experience of star gazing was looking up at the moon one night about 2 years ago and wondering why on earth I had never bothered look up before, ( I saw the sky in a new light that night) So i went and bit the bullet and bought a cheap pair of 20 x 70 Orion bins and a copy of turn left at Orion, and form there I just kept going. 2 weeks ago I decided that it was time to move up to something bigger and to get that little closer to the stars, so I went onto here and did a bit of research on the various scopes available for my prize range and one scope that really stood out among the masses; the Skywatcher 200p Dobsonian.

So here I am two weeks later on a frosty morning writing these ramblings about my first light last night. The scope arrived later than expected due to professor Brian Cox I was told (thanks for that ). Anyway the scope came the next day once it had been sent which was excellent, assembling took a little longer than normal and had to ask my farther for some help with putting the base together but the instructions were generally good. The next stage was to get it outside to align the finder scope! I had a little trouble with this as I live in a built up area meaning finding a far off item to align it on was a struggle, but eventually 2 days later I managed to align it on the moon and wow the thing nearly blinded me, I quickly stuck in the 10mm eyepiece and was amazed and how detailed it was, going from bins to this was a massive step and a knew it would look differently but I never imaged I would see this much detail on a scope that cost only £270.00, god knows what people must see through a expensive scope. After drifting through the stars for a while I came across what I'm sure was Jupiter, I could see a small grey circle with two bands around it and two what im sure were moons very close together on its right hand side. After watching this for around half an hour I began to become tired (I suffer form illness) and retired inside to watch Sherlock holmes dvds .

I'm so amazed and what you can see in such a cheap scope and I'm so glad that I found this forum and the beauty of the stars.

If you have managed to understand these ramblings of an excited newb then thanks for reading

Just a couple of questions I have though that mabey someone could answer for me

1. The finder scope that comes with the scope gives my neck and back a real work out and leaves me feeling like I've been training as a contortionist, Whats the best type of right angled finder scope or Lazar scope thingy (technical term) that some would recommend that would not break the bank?
   

• Well Jupiter was amazing idd love to see it bigger as it was only the size of a pea, is there any way of magnifying it? maybe a new eyepiece, I only have the 10mm and 25mm that came with the scope, if so what eyepiece would you recommend?
  

• 
  I haven't collimated the scope yet and I see that some stars are sort of distorted like there stretched into an oval sometimes, does this mean that it needs collimating? if so what's the best way without buying a collimation kit, the scope didn't come with and collimating devices I don't think
  

And lastly a special thanks to all those who helped me in my journey towards buying this scope

Sam.

[skygazer]

Bought mine last week, very happy. So I'm in the same boat as you and so far most people recommend a 2x Barlow and to replace the 10mm EP as its lack of quality shows when Barlowed up.

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

[skygazer]

Also your scope will need collimating and easyiest way is with a laser collimater or punch a hole in the center of a lens cover and follow the instructions in manual bit hard to get right until you've do it a few times.

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[sunshine185]

2 things you cannot beat for value for money, 200p dob and Sherlock homes boxset ( basil rathbone)

[Damo636]

Nice write up Sam, congrats on an excellent scope. I would recommend one of these http://www.firstlightoptics.com/collimation/cheshire-collimating-eyepiece.html

Its the only collimation aid you will ever need and would be the first thing i would recommend buying.