I saw the moon first time through telescope!!!

[shakapare]

Yesterday, I got my first telescope. Small 114mm star tracker.

I setup the scope yesterday night on my terrace. It took me about half an hour to unpack and set it up, but I managed it well in first go.

The night sky was nicely polluted with a lot of light and with the moon light itself.

I wanted to observe the Moon as my first object but for about 2 hours I was not able to see it in the scope at all.....

In the finder scope the moon was visible but in the eyepiece nothing but gray black sky..... I checked the collimation and found Secondary mirror was offset, I corrected it. But no moon in scope. I tried everything I thought at that time, but no success.

And when I was about to give up around 1am, I thought to see something else, I shifted the scope Saturn, And YES, tiny lights were visible in the eyepiece!!!

Then I realized, that locating the object in the finder scope is a very small part of the job, major part is to center it in the finder scope before looking into the eyepiece! I did it precisely for the moon, and wollllla!!! the light almost blinded me! I spent about an hour more with the moon observing the beauty of the details. It was an amazing experience! I never saw moon with so much clarity before. I even wonder how fast such a huge object was moving in the sky. Half a min I went somewhere and came back, the moon was out of the screen, then trace it back... It was kind of race...

I tried to focus on Saturn again late in night, but could not focus rightly, and absolutely couldn't see anything with 4mm eyepiece. All I managed yesterday was with 25mm and 10mm. Maybe lill more understanding of the mount's operations will help me to do that as well.

I am still fumbling with the EQ2 mounts operations and the coordinate system. But I feel it will improve as the time passes by and with the guidance here SGL.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on your view of the moon. It is stunning (though deep-sky aficionados tend to get annoyed at it). A 114mm scope like yours will be able to pick out a lot of detail.

[Jordan2013]

I started off with a 114mm helios reflector 10 years ago and i still have it to this day. It gave many 100s of hours of viewing pleasure and on occasion still does. And if you can take it to a local astronomy club where you can learn how to collimate it, or buy a laser collimator. Proper collimation makes a world of difference!. but just go out and hop about the sky. have fun !

[nytecam]

Good luck - you've started something now that could last a long, long time

[jkwhinfrey]

Great story, it's a special feeling when you start to notice beautiful things that have been right there in the sky all along, and it's nice to be reminded of it :-))

The Moon's fascinating and frequently overlooked. I've only just started appreciating it recently through binoculars and a refractor. We complain about light pollution - quite rightly - but don't spend enough time admiring those objects that are largely immune to its effects.

I hope you continue to be this excited for a long time to come.