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An Idiots tale

Philip.

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Philip.

Philip.

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Posted

Wednesday lunch time the call came from home, my Skywatcher Explorer 130 had arrived. After the longest afternoon ever at work I got home and excitedly began to unpack the scope. With all the parts neatly spread over the floor I began to assemble it.

What does this knob do, what does that do, what does this do I wondered, never mind I thought in my excitement, I'll work it out when I get outside, the sky was clear that night and I was eager to try out my 130.

With it fully built my thing of beauty looked in fine working order, now to wait for darkness.

Fast forward about 3 hours and I'm outside having reassembled the scope and there shining down at me in all her glory was the Moon. I lined up the Red Dot Finder, removed scope cover and eyepiece cover, looked down the eypiece........and saw nothing, so I changed eyepiece still nothing, tried every combination of eyepiece and Barlow with no luck.

After an hour of fumbling around in the dark I gave up, thoroughly despondent and wondering what I was doing wrong. After putting my 130 to bed I made a cup of coffee and started to work out my next move.

Then it hit me, the manual, the one us men never read, could that be my saviour?

I read and re-read it and actually found out what every knob, screw etc did, what happened if I turned it, I learned what cooling down was and got an understaning of eyepieces and Barlows.

The following 2 nights (it was cloudy) I learned how to balance the 130, how to set the latitude, that you should align with the Pole Star, it was incrediible the knowledge I gained. I also found out that the best way to calibrate the RDF was in daylight.

So this morning armed with a new found confidence I calibrated my RDF in about 10 minutes, so much easier than doing it the dark!

My 130 and I are now ready for action, bring on the clear skies.

I felt such a fool on Wednesday, and if there is a moral to this story, it's READ THE B#><%Y MANUAL before you do anything.

I'm not normally so stupid but my excitement got the better of me this time, I promise you it will never happen again.:)

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S1m0n

S1m0n

Posted
Posted
Wednesday lunch time the call came from home, my Skywatcher Explorer 130 had arrived. After the longest afternoon ever at work I got home and excitedly began to unpack the scope. With all the parts neatly spread over the floor I began to assemble it.

What does this knob do, what does that do, what does this do I wondered, never mind I thought in my excitement, I'll work it out when I get outside, the sky was clear that night and I was eager to try out my 130.

With it fully built my thing of beauty looked in fine working order, now to wait for darkness.

Fast forward about 3 hours and I'm outside having reassembled the scope and there shining down at me in all her glory was the Moon. I lined up the Red Dot Finder, removed scope cover and eyepiece cover, looked down the eypiece........and saw nothing, so I changed eyepiece still nothing, tried every combination of eyepiece and Barlow with no luck.

After an hour of fumbling around in the dark I gave up, thoroughly despondent and wondering what I was doing wrong. After putting my 130 to bed I made a cup of coffee and started to work out my next move.

Then it hit me, the manual, the one us men never read, could that be my saviour?

I read and re-read it and actually found out what every knob, screw etc did, what happened if I turned it, I learned what cooling down was and got an understaning of eyepieces and Barlows.

The following 2 nights (it was cloudy) I learned how to balance the 130, how to set the latitude, that you should align with the Pole Star, it was incrediible the knowledge I gained. I also found out that the best way to calibrate the RDF was in daylight.

So this morning armed with a new found confidence I calibrated my RDF in about 10 minutes, so much easier than doing it the dark!

My 130 and I are now ready for action, bring on the clear skies.

I felt such a fool on Wednesday, and if there is a moral to this story, it's READ THE B#><%Y MANUAL before you do anything.

I'm not normally so stupid but my excitement got the better of me this time, I promise you it will never happen again.:D

i wouldnt worry not many people know the finder scope needs to be tuned and best to do it in the day. :) I think alot of eagar starters think it just goes in the slot and its ready :hello2: plus as we are men we dont need instructions LOL :D

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MikeP

MikeP

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You will do very well. Not everyone sits back and thinks about what might be wrong and takes action accordingly. If you have problems next time out, you'll be able to ask much more informed questions and get sorted that much quicker.

Welcome to the forum by the way.

Mike

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Sam

Sam

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Good story and one I think many of us have had some experience in doing, or not doing when it comes to reading the manual. I can mostly say I've learned my lesson about reading manuals after not doing it many times and being stuck. I'm glad you got it all sorted in the end.:)

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Jon Sales

Jon Sales

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Hope the skies are clear where you are tonight. You'll love using the scope. :)

Just had a quick hour with my girlfriends frac before the clouds ruined it again. Was surprised at how much I could see through her small scope.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on :hello2:

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S1m0n

S1m0n

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yea i say the mistakes you make are not mistakes but a learning point !!! when ever you start a new task in life by your self you are more than likley to make a mistake.

One of the main things is people tend not to read instructions :) im one of them :hello2: most of the time you are fine but once in a while you need those instructions :D

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