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Hi All from the NorthWest

GreyDay

By GreyDay
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GreyDay

GreyDay

Posted
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Hi, My name is Brian and i'm from Southport just north of Liverpool. this is my second stab at Amateur Astronomy , the first being almost 15 years ago when I picked up an old pair of binoculars and pointed them at the sky :)

back then i didn't have time or money to delve deeper as i was getting married and buying a house. i picked up a cheap Celestron Travelscope 70 about a month ago and now i'm hooked. I've also talked the wife into buying me a larger scope a Celestron Nexstar 102GT, that was going cheap on a well known auction site for xmas, so the journey begins :)

looking forward (with some trepidation) to moving up to an 8" Dobsonian probably later in the year, The nexstar102 GT will be used as a learning tool for constellations and asterisms etc as i'm finding it a steep learning curve getting around the sky, especially with an eyepiece full of stars that aren't visible to the naked eye :) with a little luck and patience i hope to be able to find my way around within the next year or 2 :)

look forward to meeting you all in the forums

Brian

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Brian and welcome to the forum. There's no rush in astronomy so take your time accruing your kit. There are plenty of people here with a lot of knowledge that can advise you nearer the time on what might be the best scope to get given considerations like budget and what your long term objectives might be in astronomy. As a general guide to the night sky, you might want to consider purchasing the following book, "Turn left at Orion" which is an excellent guide in helping you find objects and learning the night sky. As an example of its content, you might want to take a look here to get an idea of the general layout. There are both written and visual instructions on how to locate any of the 100 described objects which are divided into the four seasons of the year. The book also works well for those who are using binoculars too so I think you are well catered for here!

Lastly, as an aid to the night sky, Stellarium (which is free) is really good planetarium that is worth downloading as it can be configured to match your viewing location and together with the above book will help you further in discovering even more objects. This piece of software has plenty of other features that will keep you focused when the clouds come in - sadly I can't help you with that problem! :grin:  :grin: 

In the meantime clear skies and hope you enjoy the forum.

James 

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ronl

ronl

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Hi Brian welcome to the lounge,

L P and cloud is our biggest frustration here in the 

Northwest, it's something we have to put up with, 

tonight wall to wall cloud, but last night the seeing

was wonderful, as long as you put up with the wind,

and the L P from Liverpool can be a pain, all that 

aside it's still a wonderful hobby though.

Good Luck and Clear Sky's

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GreyDay

GreyDay

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Hello again everyone and thanks for your greetings and words of wisdom, sorry for the late reply,  I've had problems with my ISP over the last few weeks and have been barely able to use the internet.

Thanks JamesM for the info, now I've got internet again i can d/load Srellarium :) . I've got "turn left at orion" on my xmas list, if my wife is feeling generous after buying the nexstar i may also have something to read.

merry xmas everyone :)

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