Wow!

[Citizen]

Finally, after receiving my new scope on Saturday (Celestron Nexstar 6SE if you are interested) the clouds actually cleared and I got an hour window after work before it all covered over again (SW London)

Quickly got the scope out and tried the 3 star alignment. It failed. Did an auto two star alignment using Rigel and Aldebaran (as prompted by the scope's handset). This appeared successful but when slewing to chosen objects it always seem a degree or two out and I had to manually align the object. Will need to read more about this elsewhere obviously. The point of the GOTO is to find places that I don't know how to find yet, surely.

Anyway I went manual on a few objects, as I was so excited to be out in the garden with my first ever grown up telescope! Took a gander at Jupiter and saw 3 of the moons and some faint detail on the planet itself. Then managed to check out Venus before it got too low. The moon was a nightmare, although stunning in itself and I also managed to clock the Orion Nebula. Like an excited child I was. This was all with the 25mm eyepiece that came with the scope.

No doubt I'll be back with loads of questions regards eyepieces, alignment, slewing, storage etc and hope I don't bug all the more experienced heads on here

Cheers

[Black Knight]

Certainly sounds like you enjoyed it

[Dunkster]

Congratulations on your new 6SE! Don't let the alignment get to you, enjoy your scope