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Hi From Dublin

Warped Drive

By Warped Drive
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Warped Drive

Warped Drive

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Hi All,

My interest in astronomy began I suppose when I was 8 - 10 years old when a friend of my older brother brought his small refractor around to our house one night and set it up in the back garden and I remember them showing me Jupiter and Saturn with its rings just barely visible. Then later when I was in school a friend had a reasonably decent 3" refractor on an eq mount with which we observed several all the usual suspects. That lasted for a year or two then other things came along and I lost interest it.

Around the time of Hale Bopp, 1997 I think I got the hankering again and bought, what at the time I thought was a good telescope, an 75mm Tasco ( yes I can hear the groans )  To say the least the views were nothing to write home about so it wasn't long before I once again lost interest.

A little over two months ago I was walking home, it was a cold crisp night and the stars were really clear even in Dublin's light polluted skies and I got to thinking again. When I got home I started googling telescopes and watching You Tube videos and it seemed that telescopes were far more affordable than I remembered. I trawled my way through threads on this and many more forums and online reviews and more You tube videos. So I finally weighed it all up. size, portability, cost and ease of use and I bought a Skywatcher Heritage 130P Flex Tube. I also bought a 2X Barlow a collimation cap and a Laser collimator ( I now think I should have got a Cheshire instead )

After setting it all up and aligning the Red Dot Finder I finally had my first views, Jupiter was first, I was blown away, this was far superior to any view I had, had through any telescope I'd used before and that was just the 25mm eyepiece with the 10mm I could see the weather bands clearly and the for Galilean moons. The Moon was astounding and that was that I was hooked again.

I bought a BST Starguider ED 5mm and a light pollution filter, I hope to add an 18mm to the collection soon. I have made a light shroud from black card that is permanently fixed and slides inside the OTA when I close it . I have also made an azimuth degree circle for the base after reading several articles and threads on the subject and was very surprised that it worked and worked well until I get a Wixey gauge I have been using an app on my iPhone by Velux Windows as an inclinometer it appears to be very accurate but its a bit fiddly to hold the phone against the OTA and tilt it to the target. The upside is I have now seen M57 The Ring nebula, M3, M13 and M92 unfortunately I think the light pollution is too great to allow me to see any Galaxies. Thus I feel a nasty case of aperture fever coming on. 

Looking forward to asking many question on here in the near future.

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damnut

damnut

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Hi There,

Warm welcome to SGL. Hope you enjoy the forums. The 130p has a good reputation and the addition of the BST's are a great improvement on the standard supplied ep's.

Aperture fever is  different problem that never goes away :grin:

Slainte!

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Warped Drive

Warped Drive

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Thanks to you all for the welcome.

I would like to build up a collection of the BST eyepieces but I believe from what I have read on a thread on here that the 25mm ED is not as good as the rest of the set but would it be better than the 25mm MA that comes with the scope or is there a better eyepiece in the 25mm range for similar money.

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purdo

purdo

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Hi & Welcome to SGL.  If you copy your post in the Beginners section as more people will read it there.  I'm originally from Dublin, but moved up to N.I. to get married.

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-Aldebaran-

-Aldebaran-

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Hello to Dublin from North Wales! Welcome to SGL, sounds like you do alot of research before moving forward with upgrades and such, best way to be, it's how I am, especially when it involves alot of spending! All other queries I post around the many segments of the lounge, your never too far from an informative answer.

Enjoy your scope

Clear Sky's!

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Warped Drive

Warped Drive

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Once again many thanks for all the warm welcomes. Yes I am looking forward to Andromeda, hopefully I will be able to get some sort of a decent view of it. Back in 1997 when I last had a telescope Andromeda was visible to the naked eye, even from my front garden, I seriously doubt that now.

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Astronigel

Astronigel

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Hello warped, welcome to SGL, glad to see the old astronomy bug has resurfaced in you.

Dublin isn't to bad, only a short trip to wonderful dark unpolluted skies.

I lived just south of you over county Wicklow border for some time :)

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