Meade ETX 90 PE - first light from a beginner.

[prasadka]

Folks,

On th experience

The weather in the UK opened up for me to have a first glimpse of the sky through my new telescope. I could not get the GPS system working, as I always ended up aligning the wrong stars. So ended up using the scope as a manual one rotating the scope in all directions and try to align with anything pretty in the sky really. Spotted some thing in the south western direction, from my back yard. After about ten minutes of struggle to point at the bright object, I finally succeeded, I could see clear, sharp, bright images of jupiter lucid with its tiny moons (four of them could clearly be spotted moving around jupiter. The moon had not yet risen above the barriers around my house so, I was waiting patiently, whiling away my time looking at some constellations. plough was one that I could easily spot. There was an intermittent cloud cover that briefly disrupted the viewing. After about an hours wait, the moon came out for the first time in the last one week. Now another ten minutes of struggle with the two axes and the focusser- yes it took me as much time to focus on the moon, as it dfid for jupiter! I was finally rewarded with a great view of the moon. It was a half moon and was a bit too bright to my liking - feels like staring into a white headed torch. However, since it was my first experience looking at the craters, mountains, and the rugged surface of the moon, the excitement helped overcome the visual struggle.

On the apparatus

The Meade etx 90 PE seems to be an extremel portable scope. I could not get the auto alignment right the first time. I have so far only looked at th stars and the brighter planets. Have not been able to try out any DSO's in this scope. I will try and poit sample pictres, once I think I have been able to master it usage.

Cheers,

Prasad

[geppetto]

Pleased that you were able to get out and play with your new scope.

You'll get used to setting it up after a few goes, here's to many more

clear skies

[peonic]

Pras,

Glad you managed to get out at last!

Firstly, with regards to having issues with the allignment. First off - make sure you allign the red dot finder during the daytime if you can. Find somewhere you can see something at least a mile in the distance (the big chimney at Ipswich Hospital is a good bet!) and adjust the screws on the rdf so that something on the dot in the RDF is centred in the eyepiece. Get it as precise as you can, will really save time when trying to find stuff at night. Secondly, get your hands on some star charts, or - if you have a laptop, download a copy of Stellarium (it's free!). This will really help you make sure the stars that you're alligning the telescope too are actually the stars you think they are!

Peonic

[Kenny_10_Bellys]

I second that, go play with Stellarium to get used to the night sky in your area and learn the basic bright stars around you. It makes setting up the Go-To on the ETXs so much easier if you know what it's talking about. It may be a go-to, but without that basic knowledge you'll have no idea if it's way out. Also make sure you've got the date and time and location accurately set, it took me ages to get my ETX105 to accept the basics correctly.

[barkis]

Nice one Pras,

We all suffer frustrations at time, it's part and parcel of the hobby. There is so much to enjoy though, you will eventually learn to cope with most of the glitches that come your way. The main thing is, you are up and running, and you will get better and better with time.

Anything comes along that you can't solve, then just let someone on SGL fix it, that's what we are here for.

Good luck, and enjoyment.

Ron.

[Whippy]

Good report Prasad, I had a one of 'those' nights as well. It happens. If you're planning to give the moon some of your observing time, get yourself a moon filter. All it does is darkens the image in the eyepiece so you can see it without losing your night vision.

Peonic, my Brother lives right in front of Ipswich Hospital. We was round his for a BBQ a couple of weeks back and it makes for an 'interesting' view...

Tony..

[prasadka]

Thanks Tony.. I am in touch with Peonic- he has been kind enough to lend me his spare toucam pro which has seen some light as well. I am now hoping to upgrade soon, and buy a used mount sound enough for imaging- may be an EQ 5, and yes.. my wife isn't happy about it.. How do you guys manage to dodge your better half's eyes while buying.. or is it just me?? :?

Cheers,

Prasad

[russ]

Excellent first light report. Sounds like you are pleased with your purchase. ETX 90 has cracking optics. I know Rob is over the moon with his.

Hope my old Toucam Pro does the job for you

Russ