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Hello from Wimbledon :)

Charlie_starz

By Charlie_starz
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Charlie_starz

Charlie_starz

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Hello everyone, I just joined the forum but have been on here and other sites for a lot of the last 3 months. I have never owned a telescope before but I have always loved star gazing, knowing most of the constellations and recognizing when the most visible planets were in the sky. I was lucky enough to grow up in a part of Ireland that was dark enough to allow that. It's something I always wanted to get more involved in but work and family seemed to keep me busy.

Anyway. I now have a 10 year old son and for Christmas I bought him a Celestron 76mm Firstscope. He loved looking at the moon and we tried a few other targets after picking up an old copy of Turn Left at Orion on eBay. The firstscope was fun, but very limiting and hard to ind targets with, especially for a little boy. He has also started learning a lot more about the planets of the solar system in science this year, so I decided to buy him a decent telescope and  see how we get on together from there.

I trawled many a posting on this and other websites and monitored eBay for over a month until we finally picked up what I think is a really nice scope at a bargain. We are now the proud owners of a SkyWatcher Evostar 120 on a Eq 3-2 mount, with upgraded finder scope, polar scope, revelation star diagonal, motor on the mount and multiple filters and eye pieces. We picked it up at 30% of the price of the individual parts. I think that at some point if we need to upgrade or change the type of scope we should be able to cover our initial outlay by relisting it back on eBay together with the firstscope.

Lots to learn, starting with how to set up and use the mount, but given it's cloudy the last few days I think we will have plenty of practice with it before we get to use it properly. It is nearly as big as my son though so he will definitely need help.

Just wanted to say hi and thanks for helping us choose a scope, and for what we have already learned here. We are looking forward to learning more from all of you through reading your posts.

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ronin

ronin

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An Evostar 120 should keep you happy for quite some time, may get a little CA from bright objects but how bad that is depends a lot on how you find it. Some hate it some don't get what the problem is.

By the time the nights start getting darker you should have it all learnt and so have time to observe.

Worth trying for the summer objects, M57 in Lyra and others.

If you start asking "where" clubs, places are then modify the location to Wimbledon or similar SWnn(?) just easier to point you in a relevant direction.

Could consider a visit to Baker Street Irregular Astronomers, may be useful to meet others, even if you do not haul the scope along.

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Sandancer10

Sandancer10

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Hi and a warm welcome to you and your son.  It's always pleasing to hear when children also get involved at an early age and that in itself can lead to a lifelong interest in Astronomy - if not a career! 

Happy Stargazing, enjoy your Astro journey and prepare to be amazed.

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BlabyStarGazer

BlabyStarGazer

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Hi from another SGL 'newbie' -  in exile in the Midlands, originally from Kingston. 

I also own an Evostar 120 and have been very impressed with it's performance for the cost.  Your and your son will get hour after hour of enjoyment from it I'm sure.  It's great to hear of youngsters showing an interest in the hobby at an early age, especially so when viewing from a less than ideal part of the world. He should be encouraged as much as possible, his generation may yet learn to look after this planet.

Clear skies,

The BSG 

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ronl

ronl

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Hi and welcome to the lounge,

the Evo is nice scope with good optics, your son and yourself will

get some very good views with it, any problems setting up just post

in the relevant forum, help is always on hand.

Good Luck and Clear Sky's 

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Floater

Floater

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Welcome. Hope and your boy have lots of fun together - 'cos that's what it should be about.

And as BlabyStarGazer has already said, learning about the stuff around us may help your son's generation to care more for this planet than has been the case so far on 'my watch'.

Enjoy. It's a great trip.

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Charlie_starz

Charlie_starz

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Well a good days work put in getting used to how the EQ3-2 mount works, getting the scope balanced etc. I followed some very useful links in another thread about using it on youtube. 

Now all I need is for the clouds to part so I can polar align and get cracking.

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