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Ben Forrester

By Ben Forrester
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Ben Forrester

Ben Forrester

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone,

My name is Ben and i live in Stoke on Trent.

I have always been fascinated with astronomy and have wished for many years to own a telescope, finally i now have one :-)

This is my first telescope, the Skywatcher Explorer 130M F/900 (Motorised)

Tonight was my first night using it and i managed to see some stars, it was mainly about getting a feel for the telescope itself, which for a beginner like me seems very user friendly

Id love to hear any feedback about other members views on this telescope, hopefully i have picked a nice telescope for a new starter

I have downloaded Stellarium to give me some guidance about where stars / planets are located, got the Philips Stargazing 2015 book too

Theres so much i want to see out there, but 1 step at a time and all that :-)

Thanks

Ben

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laudropb

laudropb

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Hello Ben and a warm welcome to the SGL . I am sure you will enjoy your new scope and many great nights lie ahead of you. A book that is always recommended to beginners is Turn Left at Orion. It will give you not only a good set of targets to search for, but also what you can expect to see when you find them

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SteveA

SteveA

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Hi Ben...Welcome to the lounge.

I think you are on the right track! Taking things one step at a time, learn your way around and you will get a lot more satisfaction than just trying to see everything in one go.

Have fun..and of course.....clear skies!

Steve

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SteveA

SteveA

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I meant to say...

With an Equatorial mount it's worth investing some time and effort in learning how to polar align the mount. I don't think you have a polar scope in that mount so it makes things slightly tricky. Having said that there are techniques you can use to achieve this without a polar scope. It can be a bit time consuming and frustrating at first, but it's a technique worth learning, it will ultimately make your observing sessions much more fruitful.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Ben and welcome to SGL, hope you derive a lot of pleasure from your new scope and the forum. Very wise to take things one step at a time, that way you will absorb more about your scope, its workings and the night sky in general. Supressing the initial thrill of wanting to try everything at once, requires a little patience, enjoy :)

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damnut

damnut

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Hi Ben,

Welcome to SGL, thats a great scope to start off with. Use stellarium and the starguide to find easy objects at first. For some of the fainter objects you may only see a grey smudge!.. For what yu may expect check out these links, just plug your scope and eyepiece data in the right places ;--

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm   (remember to switch to visual view)

http://www.stargazing.net/naa/scopemath.htm

Messier objects :- http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-messier-1to10.html

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Ben Forrester

Ben Forrester

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Hi Ben,

Welcome to SGL, thats a great scope to start off with. Use stellarium and the starguide to find easy objects at first. For some of the fainter objects you may only see a grey smudge!.. For what yu may expect check out these links, just plug your scope and eyepiece data in the right places ;--

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm   (remember to switch to visual view)

http://www.stargazing.net/naa/scopemath.htm

Messier objects :- http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-messier-1to10.html

Hi Damian,

Wow what a set of very useful tools :-)

Many Thanks

Ben

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damnut

damnut

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Hi Ben,

HTH, plenty of excellent on line resources if you search, especially helpful if you are starting out and do not know what to expect to see at the eyepiece. :grin: .

Drop me a pm if you need some info.

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