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Hello from a pair of new oldies.

StarcrazyGeoff

By StarcrazyGeoff
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StarcrazyGeoff

StarcrazyGeoff

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Hi all!

My name is Geoff and I am 70 years young. I lost my wife quite a number years ago and I am happy to say, I have now found my perfect partner Wendy, through a Senior Citizens dating agency. We have been together now for just over twelve months and plan on getting married later in 2015. We are both now living together (I know! In sin, but we are old enough by now   :rolleyes: ). We are both interested in astronomy and we have talked about buying a telescope for a few months now and decided that it would be a nice Christmas present for us both. We decided on something moderate to start with, for both price and size in mind, as we are both pensioners and can't afford anything to expensive just yet.  After reading various reviews we have decided to go for the Orion 4.5" StrarBlast, with alt/azz table mount. We thought this would be a reasonable size to start with.

It has received excellent reviews over on Amazon.com and seems quite a popular model in the US.

We are still waiting for delivery, as we only placed the order on Christmas Eve, after much debate of what to go for. ( I think Wendy got her way, because she liked the colour of the Orion StarBlast ). We are expecting delivery early January. Meanwhile we have been using a rather large, but powerful pair of binoculars, which I bought on a car boot sale last summer, for would you believe it, yes just £35. New on line, cost over £260. They are very good with a very high magnification and are in reasonable condition, complete with padded carry case. Sungar 30 - 160 x 70 BCF Mega Zoom. They are quite heavy and very hard to view any starry objects on magnification above about 70, due to shake. Maybe a decent tripod would be advisable. The moon is a joy to behold through them even on the lowest power.

Anyway, here we are! Just waiting for the telescope to arrive now, so just hope we have made a good choice for starters. Maybe in a few years we will go for something a bit bigger with a EA mount and maybe with Go To as well. But what we already have should suffice for now. I would appreciate any feedback on both items we have described and how to get the best use from them. I was thinking of a smaller pair of Binoculars as well, because the Sungar we have, are rather large. Any suggestions?

Happy stargazing!   :smiley:  

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RT65CB-SWL

RT65CB-SWL

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Hi Geoff & Wendy :wub: and welcome to SGL. :hello2:

A sad and beautiful introduction with a happy ending on these cold days/nights certainly melted my heart. :happy7:

Back to the astro side. I think you have made a good choice with the scope as it is lightweight, simple to use, take it anywhere. With regard to the binoculars... bargain! :bino2:

...and a sturdy tripod certainly does make it a more enjoyable viewing. :icon_salut:

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swag72

swag72

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Hi Geoff and welcome to SGL - Glad that you found us and hope that you enjoy your time here. What I know about visual stuff could be written on a very small pin head! But someone thinks you've made a good choice :D

Great intro and look forward to seeing you around :)

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purdo

purdo

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Hi Geoff & Wendy & Welcome to SGL.  Can't advise on your scope but happy viewing when you receive it.  If you copy your post and  post it into the Beginners forum more people would read that section and will advise you there.  Let us know how you get on with your scope when it arrives.

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Geoff and Wendy and welcome to the forum. My suggestion to help you further would be to download some free planetarium software called Stellarium. It's easy to use and has a lot of great features to keep you busy when the clouds come in. It can also be easily configure to match you exact viewing location thereby recreating the very same sky you can see through your telescope. It is very popular among many observers here as it will be easy to see how to find some great objects and also useful to identify things that you find along the way. One other useful feature is the date/time advance facility which allows you to advance the night sky forward which is helpful if you want to observe for example Jupiter when not sure when it will be available to view and in which direction. One last recommendation might the book "Turn Left at Orion" which details some 100 objects that can be viewed using modest equipment which are further divided seasonally, so there will always be something to view throughout the year. The book is useful for binocular users too and comes complete with maps and written instructions on how to find the listed object, You can take a look here as an example of how the book presents its information.

Clear skies and hope the above suggestions help you further on your cosmic journey!

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StarcrazyGeoff

StarcrazyGeoff

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What a lovely reception from you all. I'm sure Wendy & I, will enjoy being amongst a great community. Everyone seems so friendly and helpful here at SGL. A special thank you to Mary (Purdo) telling us to copy and paste our introduction in the Beginners section, where it might receive more attention. Also thank you JamesM for your advice about finding our way with Stellarium and purchasing the book, Turn Left at Orion (does that mean we turn the Orion scope to the left  :laugh: ) I'm sure we are going to gain a lot of help and knowledge on here from all you nice people, but one step at a time, as we are not as fast and agile as we used to be  :laugh: .

Once we start getting used to using our new toy, I will let you all know how we are both getting on with it, but expect a bit of humour along the way, in my reports. These will appear in the Beginners Forums, titled " Geoff & Wendy in the Garden! " . Although this is a serious subject, having a bit of fun, is how I come across. Life is too short to be miserable. Be happy and enjoy what you can, while you can, is what I say. :grin:

Happy Stargazing and Thank you All

Geoff & Wendy

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saac

saac

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Just like to add my welcome and also to second James' recommendation of downloading Stellarium.  It really is so easy to use and it will tell you exactly what you are looking at in the night sky.  Once you get your scope you'll need a steady table and a suitable place to position it in the garden.   Also familiarise yourself with where North and South are.  All easy enough but these simple things are best done in daylight so you can concentrate on the observing at night.  Oh and don't forget a warm coat and hat  :p   For your first targets how about, the Moon, Jupiter and then the Orion Nebula (also called M42).  Jupiter should show up in your scope as a bright disc and you should also be able to pick out the Galilean moons as points of light.  The nebula will be tricky - find it using stellarium - in the eyepiece it will be a faint smudge.  Have fun Geoff, its a brilliant pastime and this forum makes it all the better.  You might also want to think about going along to your local astronomy club.  Good luck.

Jim

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