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Greetings from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire


Rustinho

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Hi there folks!

Only just realised that having been a member for a few days I hadn't got around to posting an introduction anywhere on the forum!

So, here I am. I'm Rusty. I've been interested in astronomy since I was a kid and over the years I never quite managed to end up buying a telescope. Right from when I was young I used to use my older brothers ancient Helios refractor (I'm not sure what size it is but roughly 4 inch) which weighs a ton! It certainly seemed ridiculously heavy when I was a kid.

Now I'm approaching 40 and have a son who was expressing an interest in the night sky I finally had the perfect excuse to buy a telescope. On a somewhat tight budget (I had to give up a career in teaching to become full time carer to my disabled wife and our son) I managed to pick up a Tasco Galaxsee 4.5 inch reflector from a second hand shop for the grand total of £6.50!

It isn't the worlds greatest starter telescope by any means but I can hardly grumble for the price I bought it for. It was missing any eyepieces and a finder scope, both cheaply sourced from fleabay, so for just under £30 I was up & running.

I'm currently in the process of trying to get an old webcam working with the telescope (without much success so far due to limited funds & a possible judgement error in using a translucent 35mm film canister rather than a black one - it was all I could get my hands on!) so my 4 year old son will find it a wee bit easier to see what is going on through the 'scope rather than trying to look through an eyepiece.

Generally I'm pretty happy with the performance of the Tasco. It is obviously a fairly cheap telescope in terms of build quality, etc, but while I save up for something substantially better it is certainly much much better than having nothing and, rather surprisingly to me, better than my brothers old Helios. It certainly weighs a hell of a lot less and is much easier to use once you get used to the equatorial mount (which took me a while to get straight in my head!) than the big old heavy refractor.

Focussing is a little awkward because of the "flexi-tripod & mount" it stands on and the slightly firm single rate focus knob making the whole thing wobble. I've had some cracking views of Jupiter & its 4 Galilean moons with good contrasting cloud bands as well as getting better resolution than I expected between binary stars like Capella, especially given the mega-cheap eyepieces I'm using at the moment (set of 4 Huygenians ranging from 4-20mm)

I'm familiar with my local astronomy society (hi there any NSAS members reading this!) and they have been absolutely brilliant in helping me get started by collimating the 'scope for me after I had been having problems getting a reasonable image of even the moon. Home commitments have unfortunately prevented me from attending any observation nights at their dark site as yet but hopefully next month should be fine, just in time for comet Panstarrs.

I suspect that I've probably rambled on more than long enough introducing myself. I look forward to getting to know some of you folks out there.

Cheers,

Rusty. :)

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Hi Rusty welcome to SGL, everyone has to start somewhere and it sounds like you got a little bargain there, ok you know its not the best but it gets you and your son outhere and learning the sky (clouds permitting) untill you can upgrade.

keep looking up.

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Hi Rusty, welcome to SGL. I remember my first scope 30 years ago, a 3 inch refractor, your post there brought back some great memories. At my observatory here in Cornwall i teach a lot of astro imaging from converting and using webcams for lunar and planetary imaging,(mainly Jupiter and Saturn) to the SBIG STT 8300 CCD for deep sky imaging. We all started there at some point. There are some really good second hand scopes and equipment about on the market today, but always ask advice before buying anything second hand, or indeed new. There are a lot of knowlegable people on here that are really eager to help out wherever they can. Once you do get the focus and "black" empty 35mm film case.(I have loads of them if you are having problems obtaining one) Never be afraid to post any of the images you and your son take on this forum, you will get great feed back and some tips on how to enhance your images.

I wish you clear skies.

Grant...

Cornwall....

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Hi Rusty,

Another Stoke-on-Trent dweller here. I've got a spare xbox webcam that's been converted if you want it (no charge). It's got a clear film canister but I've not had a problem with it letting in light as i have it all the way in the focuser. I'm up at Alsagers Bank (Newcastle) . If you want it PM me to organise a drop off or whatever.

Oh yeah, and welcome to SGL.

Scott

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Hi there.

I have just joined up and want to get involved with the astronomy world.

I live in light polluted London and own a 10 inch orion dob, a 100 mm Flourite skywatcher equinox (which i want to sell).

Yesterday at the astronomy exhibition i bought a skymax 150.

I think i need to concentrate more on planetary observing as I am limited to the deep sky observation on account of moderate light polution.

Hope i made the right decision in going for the skymax.

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Welcome aboard Rusty, thank you for your excellent introduction! I started myself with a 60mm Tasco frac back in the 70's which served me well for a couple of years.

Enjoy the forum

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

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