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My first star...

JP87

By JP87
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JP87

JP87

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What's up everyone?? I'm a Portugal native brought up and currently residing in New Jersey, USA. I am a complete Noob in the world of amateur astronomy. Got my first telescope (Celestron Powerseeker 80EQ) yesterday for Christmas along with the Celestron Accessory kit and the Nightwatcher book.

Saw my first star about an hour ago, Sirius if I'm not mistaken. Used a 22mm eyepiece with a 3x barlow and it was pretty fuzzy, could be that I had a bad lense combo or the fact that I live in the city where the light polution is pretty high. Still have much to learn about telescopes, lenses, and astronomy in general but I'm excited to do so. I figured I'd join a community where I can turn to like-minded and knowledgeable people.

Plan on learning a lot more about using my equipment and navigating the skies, then taking the scope out into a more rural area with less light pollution to put it to good use. Learning to balance my scope and use an equatorial mount has been a doozy but it's getting easier.

Glad to be a part of SGL!

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baggywrinkle

baggywrinkle

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Welcome to SGL.

You might be over powering the scope with a 3x barlow.

Stars will never appear as discs they should remain as point of light. It is when you view objects like the Moon or planets that the barlow comes into its own.

The 22mm would give you around 40x magnification. usung a 3x balrlow would make that 120x and if the seeing is not good you will find it hard to achieve focus.

The highest useful mag is around 200X but that could be quite optimistic.

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ronl

ronl

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Hi and welcome to the lounge,

have you downloaded http://www.stellarium.org/ it's free

and it will help you to see what is observable in real time,

just enter your location and away you go. Start with the

Moon or Jupiter it will get you used to your scope and mount,

focusing takes practice, just take your time and enjoy.

Good Luck and Clear Sky's 

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swag72

swag72

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Welcome to SGL - Glad that you found us. This is a place chocked full of information, so have a read and you'll benefit loads. Can't help you on actually looking through a scope - I never do!!! But there's one or two folks who do, so they'll be able to offer you some advise.

Look forward to seeing you around :smiley:

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JP87

JP87

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Thank you Proto Star, I believe you are right, I'm going to try without the Barlow tonight if the skies are clear.

Sub Dwarf, downloading as we speak thank you!

Main Sequence, I've been here a good 25 years so it has been a while indeed haha thanks for the warm welcome every one.

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