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Greetings Earthlings (from Chessington, Surrey)

Moonshine132435

By Moonshine132435
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Moonshine132435

Moonshine132435

Posted
Posted

Hi SGL

I'm a very amateur astronomer, looking to get my feet wet with some informed stargazing.

My first experience looking at stars was a long time ago when we lived in the Middle East and my father bought a cheap telescope. It was quite flimsy and, at 12 years old, I had a hard time even finding the moon, but the sky was so clear that you could see the milky way on most nights.

After a gap of over thirty years I recently took my very young boys to the Science museum (accompanied by my two year old's awed gasps of "moooooooooooooon") six months ago and saw they had two 'scopes for sale in the museum shop. The description on one of them that it enabled you to actually see the rings of Saturn amazed me, and I'm now hooked. I've splurged out on a fairly large pair of bins and a Philips star chart since then and pop out many evenenings to see what I can see.

My "starter" constellation has been Orion and I've spent quite some time looking at it, as well as Jupiter which was amazingly clear earlier in the year. Currently I'm trying to reliably find Leo and also had a quick look at Mars the other day. I'm still amazed that you can actually see an actual real planet from Earth and make out more than just a dot of light.

I am aching to get a proper telescope (a Skywatcher 150p or 200p perhaps, depending on price and portability?) but am holding off until I can go to the first Ewell Astronomical Association star party to see if I can look through a few different scopes and, probably most importantly, if I can see things other than planets as more than just dots of light.

I am already a regular lurker on the Forum and it's been a real eyeopener (thanks!) and hope to become a more active poster soon.

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bobmoss

bobmoss

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Welcome to the forum. I think you are doing the right thing waiting until a start party to look through a few different scopes. It will give you a good idea about what you can realistically expect to see and also the size/feel of different types of scopes.

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ronin

ronin

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There is in June the IAS (International Astronomy Show) at Leamington Spa area, sort of up the M40 from you location, but it may be a bit of a trek.

Lot and lots of scopes there to look at, think it is the start of June so 2 months away.

May be worth thinking of if you can wait and do not mind the trip.

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hutchyweb

hutchyweb

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Posted

I am aching to get a proper telescope (a Skywatcher 150p or 200p perhaps, depending on price and portability?)

At Christmas I had a 130M which I was really please with but felt I'd outgrown it, so I splashed out on a 200p the one word that sums it up is 'Awesome' it's probably at the limits of being portable but should be ok if transported carefully. I plan to make a wooden crate for mine.

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