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Long time lurker, just got my first scope!

BigDeadPixel

By BigDeadPixel
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BigDeadPixel

BigDeadPixel

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Hey guys. Feels kind of strange introducing myself because I have been visiting these forums for a long while. I have had an interest in astronomy for a long time now and have been saving up to buy a telescope.

I live at the southern tip of Africa so any decent equipment comes at a greatly inflated price! That being said, I finally took the plunge and ordered a sky-watcher 8" truss dobsonian and it arrived 2 days ago!

So I raced home from the office, drunk with the thought of tearing open my new toy. Well, let me tell you... the thing is beautiful! Before assembling anything, I looked through the eyepieces, twisted all the knobs and let my daughter play "pirates" with the straight through 9x50 finder scope. I was in geek heaven.

Fast forward an hour and the base was assembled and ready to go! A quick alignment check proved that the collimation was still near perfect! not bad when receiving sensitive equipment in Africa!

Okay, being a long time lurker here I always snigger a little when people talk about new telescope curses; that is until that first night. A large blanket of clouds rolled in from absolutely nowhere and stuck around the entire night! The next day at work was pure torture!

Racing home again, I was excited but apprehensive.

  1. Bath the kid
  2. help make supper
  3. get child ready for bed
  4. observation time!

So I haul this puppy outside into the garden (pretty weighty I might add) and there it was, the clearest, darkest sky I had seen in a long time. By some divine providence the neighbours on both sides of us were away and there houses completely dark, wonderful!

First thing I did was switch on google skymap on my phone and scan the heavens. First object of interest was mars, excitement! So i plopped in the 25mm eyepiece that came with the scope and aimed the finder at the red (well orange) dot in the sky. Oops, the finder was COMPLETELY off. After 5 minutes of swinging the scope randomly i finally caught it. Tiny, orange and beautiful.

Quickly shoving in the accompanying 10mm piece before losing the planet, I keenly stared at it once more in even greater detail, still tiny but still beatiful, a glowing orange orb on a black satin sheet.

I excitedly rushed to call the wife for a glimpse and she slowly hobbled outside, wrapped from head to toe in a huge woolen blanket. I bit my lip as she stared into the eyepiece.

"what, is that it?" she said, "It is so tiny. What a waste of money."

My excitement died like frog in a blender. She quickly retreated back inside and I, undaunted, continued my journey of our little slice of dark sky.

After 20 or so minutes of awesome mars-ness, I jumped back to skymap. What's this?, saturn peeking out over the neighbours roof! So, I swung the scope around and discovered probably one of the most breathtaking views I have seen in my life! This was truly the jewel of the sky, and through this scope she was brighter than I ever imagined.

Again I called the wife and after a bit of coaxing she finally joined me outside for a view of the ringed planet. Once again she looked through the eyepiece and once again I bit my lip.

"oh WOW!"

That was enough for me. She spent the next 20 minutes staring at saturn while I had to gently push the scope for her every 30 or so seconds. She finally went back inside (I think my impatient pacing scared her away).

I must have spent the next 2 or so hours following Saturn through the sky until the cold got the better of me.

TL;DR : First night with new scope was a revalation. only saw 2 objects but I can't wait to get back!

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JamesF

JamesF

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Yo,welcome, superb scope with lovely optics.Keep at it and look forward to Autumn and the start of the long nights, nice.

Nick.

In South Africa, that'll be now, surely?

James

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi BDP and welcome to SGL, love your first light report, I can just see some animal lovers cringing at your very vivid metaphor of frog in a blender and I hope it does not upset anyone of a sensitive nature, but that certainly would deflate anyones excitement. You must have some lovely dark skies in Africa and with you 8" Dob you will have a whole new world to look at, enjoy your Astronomy :)

John.

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BigDeadPixel

BigDeadPixel

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Thanks for the replies everyone! Glad to finally be an active member of this community. It is near the end of autumn now in south africa, so the long nights are starting. Yes, the skies are beautiful here. Slight light pollution around the sunurbs, but not far at all to wonderful dark sky sites.

Really enjoying the scope I must say :)

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. Great story by the way but not surprised by the first reaction of your other half - mine says the usual, ".....yes dear, lovely dear" and that's before she's got to the eyepiece!

Glad you finally decided to join in here. Most of us don't bite and those that do will make themselves known. Clear skies, keep us informed of the next instalment and most of all, enjoy the forum.

James

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Glen

Glen

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Fair play and great post! It's good to see a family get interested in astro, especially seeing things for the first time like you have..

most importantly remember it's your kit, you've got to watch out for those f..

Oh look clear skies..

j/k Welcome aboard :);)

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Albenn

Albenn

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Welcome to the forum.

Well presented and interesting report. I feel a little envious of your skies as here in the UK the weather has been awful for observing.

Saturn. What a fantastic and beautiful sight to see in your first scope. I saw her for my first time about 2 weeks ago and the image is still with me and like you, I spent the rest of the viewing session just looking in awe at her. By the way, my wife is of the 'yes dear, very nice' brigade but her reaction to Saturn was just the same as yours.

I thought I was over-enthusing about Saturn at my local Astronomy Club but everyone said that they had the same experience when they first saw her. In fact, the president of the club said that he had been in the hobby for 20 years and mentioned that no matter what else you discover in the night sky, nothing gets to you like Saturn does.

IMHO all the Hubble images and NASA pics don't do it justice.

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