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Hi from Cardiff

Dom71

By Dom71
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Dom71

Dom71

Posted
Posted

Back in about 1978, my brother and I (9 and 8 years old respectively) got a telescope for Christmas. It was probably 45cm long with a 6cm aperture. I like to think we tried our best, but we never figured out how to use it. No one in the house either, so it sat on the windowsill, glumly never achieving anything. It looms in the back of my mind. I remember pulling the lens-thing out of the lens-thing-holder (I now understand this was the 'Eye Piece') and popping it back in, desperately trying to get it to see something.

But I've always loved up-in-the-sky stuff. My eyes aren't too great which has always been a problem but I've always wanted to see a fairly good image of Saturn and maybe Jupiter. So, after probably too little research, I bought a Skywatcher 130/900 EQ2. I've set it up on the balcony of my flat in Cardiff. I have a narrow chunk of sky roughly 40 degrees WSW, obscured by the Millennium/Principality Stadium, Welsh clouds and tonnes of light pollution -- especially when the Cardiff Blues are playing (as they are tonight).

But, damn. Isn't it a strange and marvellous thing to track a shining Venus--almost too bright to look at!--as she crashes into the horizon?

The plan is to head up to Brecon fairly frequently to see what I can from there.

So, hello!

 

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Charic

Charic

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Posted

Hello welcome to the SGL.

I've not been through the Beacons in 36 Years?
Going to any dark site where there is no man-made light pollution will enhance the abilities of any telescope provided the conditions allow and the scope is setup correctly.
When I do get away from my house, its sometimes just a pleasure to stop and stare, as there are so many stars, against a moonless dark sky, even binoculars work fine, low power are my preferred choice.

Check this out     http://www.breconbeacons.org/about-brecon-beacons-dark-sky-reserve

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westmarch

westmarch

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Posted

Hi there,

welcome to the forum.  I had a similar experience with my first telescope. My brother and I took the lens out to focus the sun on some ants! 

With age comes wisdom and there is plenty of good advice here on better uses for a telescope.

Clear and dark skies.

John

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JayKe

JayKe

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Hi everyone, Ive only bought a telescope this week. Its s SkyWatcher EQ2 130M and one of the reasons I bought it  is because I live in the Brecon Beacons, one of the five ? accredited world dark skies sites and its easy to see why it gets so high an accreditation. The village I have just moved from used to have a yearly Dark Skies night and the Brecon council used to allow that one night for the village lights used to be switched off all night.

Ive moved just to the edges of Brecon Town now and Im fortunate not much street lighting gets to me.

There is a Brecon Dark Skies site......     http://www.breconbeacons.org/stargazing-ten-places

 As the title explains it gives the best places to visit.              So get down here !

Whilst Im here may I ask for some very quick advise.

Being 69 I tend to be a bit slower doing things nowadays..................    Im up to placing the main tube onto the tube rings and tightening the thumb nuts. Each time I leave the tube to its own devices on the mounting plate it tends to wobble  and twists  some 90 degrees and Ive come close to losing it a few times.

ive checked everything is tightened but maybe Im  not tightening up enough and I am in limbo now until I can find out what Im doing wrong. My next step would have been installing the counterweight  but I cant imagine this is the problem.

 

Sorry  to be a burden........ once I get used to this I wont bother anybody much.

 

Regards

 

JayKe

 

 

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JayKe

JayKe

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Sorry to have wasted your time. It was fairly obvious (but not to a newbie ) that I hadnt tightened everything up enough even though all the instructions were saying finger tight .......... I guess that means different things to different people so I gave everything an extra twist or two and sorted!

Onwards and upwards.

JayKe

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Helen

Helen

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54 minutes ago, JayKe said:

Sorry to have wasted your time. It was fairly obvious (but not to a newbie ) that I hadnt tightened everything up enough even though all the instructions were saying finger tight .......... I guess that means different things to different people so I gave everything an extra twist or two and sorted!

Onwards and upwards.

JayKe

Glad you are sorted :hello2:

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