First light - sort of

[johnboy999]

Tal 150p

Weather started clearing a bit but still pretty hazy could see Mars Venus and Jupiter as well as a few specs of light so thought i'd be impatient and try new scope out.

Still not sure its collimated right and cant see anything through the viewfinder yet, very hard to look through the viewfinder anyway have to stoop right down.

Spent ages trying to get Mars into view but still learning how this mount works so had no luck.

decided to position at the end of the garden and look at Venus & Jupiter, problem is I have trainline at the back of my garden and the road on the other side of the tracks is full of street lights .

anyway managed to get jupiter in the eyepiece on the widest setting (baader zoom) and tried to get it focused.

when I got it as clear as possible it was tiny but could see all moons so I tried to zoom in, the view got bigger but no detail.

Best thing was the slow motion controls worked great and i was able to track comfortably.

Decided to call it a night with the following thoughts,

The conditions were really quite poor and street lights were a pain, and at least I managed to see something in the eyepiece.

i'm a total learner so with more practise and better conditions

I hope things will improve.

[paul schofield]

Do not despair, your new scope will be a different animal with clear conditions and good collimation, Good luck.