By Jove!

[Sir-Henry]

To most this will not be A Big Thing, but ...

Me 4 (moons of Jupiter) - Universe NIL (OK, maybe a half point - see next sentence below)!

That's right; despite failing to precisely align the 'new' (at least to me) scope with Polaris (blumming LP) I still managed to track Jupiter as a disc over a period of a couple of hours for the very first time in my very own astronomical viewing equipment!!! Woohoo, wahay, yahoo, etc.

To have seen Jupiter so plainly, albeit with no real features visible, is good going for me, but to see not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 moons - and all virtually in opposition is just too, too much

With my left hip screaming for mercy I then wandered over to Orion's Belt where I chanced upon a star with a definite blue/violet colour which I observed for a few tens of minutes before retiring to a more clement environment with access to certain warming fluids. I couldn't say which of the stars I was looking at as I failed to relate it to any other star/constellation in the immediate neighbourhood. What the hell? I'm definitely one happy bunny.

When might Saturn be coming up for viewing?

Ps. How do I tell one EQ mount from another? eg. EQ1, EQ2, etc. It's all Andorian to me.

[Qualia]

Great stuff, Henry.

From where I'm sitting, so long as you're not into imaging I'm not convinced you need to Polar align your scope. I never bother, be it with the equatorial, or the simpler ALT/AZ or Dob. That's not to say it isn't good practice to do it, but you don't need to do a polar alignment for visual observing. Just so long as your alignment object is centered, that is, aligned with your scope, your finders and eyepiece, all should be well.

With regards to the EQ mounts, I think the EQ 1, EQ 2 etc refer to Skywatcher mounts. Higher the number, bigger the mount which equates to be a more solid, sturdier, stable affair and thus having more weight carring capacity. Celestron have their own numbers. For example, my own mount is a Cg5 which is a kind of more solid version of Skywatcher's EQ5.  

If you haven't already, get yourself a decent Star Atlas and download Stellarium. With the former - with practice - you'll be able to find your way about the sky and know where you're looking and with the latter you'll be able to see what is on display at any time of the year. For example, more or less from about midnight in April time you'll be able to start seeing Saturn.

[Sir-Henry]

Photography is just one possible route that I may go down in future. Then I will definitely need to track the movement of the universe as it spins around its center (me)    In the meantime it makes long steller observation times simpler and easier with just one control to twiddle. My best current camera is an 'old' Canon 35mm SLR which, including a 28-200 superzoom lense, 2X tele-convetrer and padded case, cost me over £1,000 back in the late 80's. That's when I had money and I shall be (God willing) in a similar situation in the near future. None of my digital cams come even close to the definition of this one - with the right film of course - so it's worth hanging on to for the moment. Not that it has any real value since digital cameras have improved so much and fallen in price so drastically.

Re. books, etc so far all I've got is a little rotary 'star map' which came with my previous smaller scope. However I fully intend to extend my ... library shortly. Perhaps I could/should start with everything Sir Patrick Moore wrote.

[Special K]

Welcome to Andoria, Sir Henry! I think the cutting edge is EQ8 which costs a pretty penny as a precicion motor driven Equitorial.

Qualia has it right for Saturn in April. Mars should be improving its position in the sky (higher) if I'm not mistaken.

Personally I always polar align which never takes more than a minute. Second nature. I do this so I don't have to keep adjusting Dec more than necessary. Also helps when star hopping using an atlas. Happy hunting and glad you're winning!