Celestron NexStar 130SLT Newbie

[jfdrury]

Hello everyone.

For Christmas I received a Celestron NexStar 130SLT. My mother-in-law gifted it to me with the hopes I would be able to kindle an interest in Astronomy within my 8 year old son. He is pretty excited about it and I very much share that excitement with him as we start this journey in amateur astrophotography together. Thus far I have managed to get some nice lunar close ups. I am working on my understanding of the alignment feature. I hope I can contribute to this group as much as I feel it can benefit me.

John Drury

Malvern, AR

[Mr Spock]

Hi John, welcome to SGL

A 130 is a good start. I hope your son gets into it - astronomy can be very rewarding for young people.

[daiwelly]

A warm welcome to SGL

[happy-kat]

Hi

Downloading stellarium (free) will help you in your new venture.

[Dinglem]

Welcome John, the good thing about getting it for Christmas is the dark nights, your son will be able to get in some stargazing before his bedtime, if we get any clear nights.

[chris_suffolk]

Bought a secondhand 130 SLT about a year ago, cracking little scope. Have added some replacement eyepieces, and finderscope, and tube rings (helps stop some wobble) but mirror is great, good optics for such a budget scope in my opinion

[JamesM]

Hi John and welcome to the forum

Clear skies

[Dave In Vermont]

Greetings & Welcome to SGL - nice to have you both aboard!

I'll second the idea of downloading Stellarium. It's an excellent star-charting and planetarium software-program. And free, as pointed out by happy-kat:

http://www.stellarium.org/

And some folks prefer Cartes du Ciel - which means Sky-Charts in French. But this is in English:

http://www.ap-i.net/skychart/en/start

Both are truly excellent.

Clear Skies,

Dave

[astrofox]

I got a secondhand SLT 130 scope many years ago and it rekindled my interest in astronomy. It was a great scope and served me well.

Now several scopes later I am a wiser but much poorer man.

Be warned

[jfdrury]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I did not know of Cartes du Ciel Dave. Thank you for that. I'm sure I will have plenty of questions as I get my scope configured.

[baggywrinkle]

Welcome to SGL...that is a popular scope.

[Vox45]

Hello and welcome to the forum

Clear skies

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire

[Bizibilder]

Hello John and welcome to SGL!!

[glowjet]

Hi John and welcome to SGL, nice starter scope for you and your Son, enjoy

[Joe_L]

Hi John , welcome to the group.

It does take a bit of practice and fiddling to get the hang of alignment etc. Don't rush and enjoy the learning process..I have a Nexstar 6SE and found this article very useful when I started:

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/385903-accuracy-of-nexstar/#entry4939483  See the post from "Tel" about 6 posts down.

Enjoy your new hobby!

Joe

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, John from Arkansas!

Baseball fan?

Dana

[Charon]

Welcome aboard.

[Tot]

Welcome from Nottingham, UK.

[purdo]

Hi John & Welcome to SGL.