First light in Targoviste/Romania

[sabin0707]

Hello,

When I joined this forum I got a lot of questions if we still have dark sky in Romania. Then answer seems to be yes. After a lot of reading I decided to purchase a 90/900 mm Refractor from Skywatcher. The main reason fr my choice was speed of setup. I do not have a lot of time to wait for the scope to be ready. I wanted to start with a reasonable priced equipment to see if this hobby is for me or not.

So last Friday I took the scope out about 5 km away from the city on a top of a hill without any public light or houses around. The sky was perfect. I had my 4 year kid with me. It took me 5 minutes to prepare the scope, point to Jupiter (Google Sky Map on a Samsung Phone seems to be the best map for me) and there it was in the scope. We used a 8mm eyepiece and the view was perfect. Radu (my son) spent 2 minutes looking. Because I did not believed he saw anything I asked him to draw what he saw. And he did (a big circle and 3 dots - Jupiter + moons).

Then we turned the scope to Orion Nebula. It was clear in the scope but I think my scope is damaged: it only work black and white (this is Radu's comment and I really liked it).

After that we struggled a bit to find Crab Nebula and then we had to leave.

Now I realize I made the perfect choice with a refractor in my case because everything took 40 minutes from the moment I stopped the car until we had to leave.

Also the scope came with a EQ2 mount but I found that for now it is easier for me to put it at 90 degrees and use it as an ALTAZ. This makes it easy to observe and tracking is not that difficult.

I hope I will manage to get a lot more nights like that. It was a lot more then what I expected from a reasonable priced equipment (aprox 230 EUR with 1 barlow, 3 eyepieces -2 from kit and 1 Vixen Possl of 8mm I purchase and one T-ring for Nikon for some wildlife photography).

I do not have aperture fever but from start I wanted a 150/1200 mm Refractor. Which one would you recommend? I want to buy myself a present in about 4 months .

[Steep]

That sounds like a great first night, you need to tell your son that he has to save all his pocket money for many years to see Orion in colour

[Superdavo]

That sounds like a great first night, you need to tell your son that he has to save all his pocket money for many years to see Orion in colour

I think you can see subtle colour with a 16-inch telescope - for £3000, but i've never had the chance to use one. You CAN, however, photograph it in colour, as I did with my 6-inch telescope. Nice work seeing the crab too!

[sabin0707]

Once I can manage to understand how to find objects and to go more often in dark sites to show him more objects I will start thinking at taking pictures but I liked his comment a lot so I posted here

[Qualia]

Ay, what a great night out, Sabin and I bet your little one enjoyed himself as well There are some really lovely sights you can have with your 4"ish frac and I really hope you and your son will get some more nights to enjoy together this late winter/ early spring time. I think a quick 40 minutes with the Moon would be a lovely treat for your next session, or a quick hunt for NGC 884 and NGC 869 and try to count the stars. A binocular guide like this may also be of use, for obviously it isn't only for binoculars and will be handy to plan your sessions.