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greetings from a newbee

lensman57

By lensman57
in Welcome

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lensman57

lensman57

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Hi to everyone,

As a child I was always fascinated by the sky and used to use my late father's binoculars to look around the sky. In the early nineties after having watched the Sky At Night program for quite a while I eventually purchased a second hand Bosh and Lomb 4" schmidt cassegrain scope from the telescope house in London. I had a lot of fun with this for a couple of years but as life changed so did my hobby and observing the sky was forgotten.

Last Dec, Sir Patrick Moore passed away and I suddenly got the urge to take the old scope out again and have a look around with it.

I was in for a shock, the Aluminium coating on the secondary mirror had all but disapeared and that was the end of that telescope.

I have now got a Skywatcher Synscan 127, not the same build qualityas the B&L and made in China not The USA but the optics seem to be good. Last night was the only night that I managed to take the scope out to my heavily light polluted back garden ( I live about 5 miles from the Manchester airport ) but I still manged to get a very nice view of the Jupiter ( I easily made out two cloud bands and a small elongated narrow band) and its moons using EPs of 40 mm through 20 mm with a 2.5X ED barlow and it was like seeing and old friend, Orion nebula looked majestic with the 25mm wide EP. I then tried for the Pleiades but the clouds had returned with vengeance and that was the end of the session. I am back at work tomorrow morning and hope to get a clear sky sometime in the evening as it is the only night that I am home ( I work funny hours during day and night ). Look forward to sharing my observations with you.

Regards,

A.G

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SnakeyJ

SnakeyJ

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Hi Lensman,

Welcome to SGL and great to here that you had a good night for first light with the Skymak 127, but sad to hear that the Bausch and Lomb mirror has gone (I think these were quite well rated instruments, now sadly history).

Lets hope the skies clear again soon and we can all get some more observing in and look forward to future reports.

Jake

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JAG007

JAG007

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Hello there A.G, welcome to the group, it sounds like you had a nice evening with the scope, please keep us updated to how you go on with the views, and hopefully get the mirror re coated on the older scope. I saw Jupiter on Saturday night and Orion as well as a double double star in ursa major. This was at the Todmorden observatory , I definitely recommend the trip over, you won't be disappointed.

John.

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lensman57

lensman57

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Hello there A.G, welcome to the group, it sounds like you had a nice evening with the scope, please keep us updated to how you go on with the views, and hopefully get the mirror re coated on the older scope. I saw Jupiter on Saturday night and Orion as well as a double double star in ursa major. This was at the Todmorden observatory , I definitely recommend the trip over, you won't be disappointed.

John.

Hi John,

Many thanks for your warm welcome, I really did have a good session even though it was short. I will enquire about the mirror recoating as soon as I pay for the new scope, credit card payment I am afraid. Years ago I went to Bacup to look for the observatory but I had to come back as my children were getting restless, perhaps this time around I will have better luck and no children to bother me, grown up now, just the wife.

Regards,

A.G

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lensman57

lensman57

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Welcome to SGL

The 127 Mak is a very nice little scope and you should get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

James

Hi to James and all of the good people of the forum,

May I just say my thanks for your warm welcome and wish you all clear skies and happy observing.

Regards,

A.G

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Rich MedRev

Rich MedRev

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Welcome aboard AG

the B&L sounds like a nice little project to bring back to former glories.

The little Mak you now have is a cracker, particularly on solar system. Synta make decent optics and modern coatings usually well exceed older offerings so the fact it's from China is nothing to worry about. In fact well respected (long standing) manufacturers such as TeleVue are sourcing optics from there these days. US assembled and quality assured though.

Enjoy astronomy and dont hesitate to ask away with your questions - SGL is a very friendly place to be :icon_salut:

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