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Hello from South Devon


Cyrus01

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Hi

I loved looking at the stars as a kid, but as I left school and got in to work the star gazing was forgotten.

It was the exploits of Tim Peake that sparked up mine and my sons interest in space again and then more recently the great achievements of SpaceX and the Falcon Heavy Launch.

This week I have been given my first telescope by my wife. So the frantic mess of trying to decide what scope to get has been avoided, by me at least. Under the advice of the shop staff she purchased a Meade Polaris 130EQ with 3 eyepieces (1.25" MA 26mm, 9mm & 6.3mm).

So far it has been used three times. The latest was this morning from 2am to 4am. In which I was able to view the moon in fantastic detail. I’m pretty sure I also was able to track Jupiter and its moons for the best part of an hour. I was a little disappointed with the detail on Jupiter not being so great. But from the little research I have done it wasn’t going to be great with it reaching a max elevation of 21 degrees. But I was able to make out four moons and a little colour on Jupiter it’s self. But it was mostly a small white blob.

I look forward to learning more.

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Hi, Cyrus, and welcome to SGL.

Congratulations on your new scope. Jupiter is not well-placed for northern hemisphere observers for the next few years, but I am glad you were able to spot the 4 Galilean moons. If you download a copy of Stellarium of Cartes du Ciel, you will be able to identify which is which. It can be a fun project to follow them night to night as they swap positions.

You  don't say which eyepiece you were using to view Jupiter. A rule of thumb is start with the longest eyepiece (26mm) and see what you can with that. Give it time, the longer you are at the eyepiece the more you will see. Then increase magnification to the next one (9mm) - is the image as good as it was, or has it got blurry? If it is blurry, the conditions are not good enough for that magnification and you should revert to the previous one. If it is still clear, spend time seeing what you can with that one before moving onto the 6.3mm and repeating the procedure. A small bright image will always reveal more than a big faint image. As you gain experience, you will see more as well.

Enjoy the journey.

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 Thanks for the warm welcome guys, looking forward to learning a lot from you all.  As for viewing Jupiter it was the nine mm that gave me my clearest view. I can’t remember whether it was with or without the 2x Barlow.

I know it’s not great but I like this image of the moon. It was taken at about 4am this morning. Using the 26mm with no filter and an iPhone 7 for the pic.

Now to convince the wife I need a DSLR.

 

8CF46732-B2F8-4EF5-96C6-884A7E70FA7F.jpeg

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Wow you guys are welcoming. 

I have now ordered a moon filter from amazon. So I can’t wait to try that out. 

The wife wasn’t completely against the DSLR idea. Just restricted my budget to old second hand ones.

But I think the money maybe better spent on eyepieces.

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Hi Cyrus, a warm welcome from me too!  Best to buy any astronomy equipment from a dedicated supplier, like FLO, the lounge sponser, just click on the link in the header of this page, you'll get great service and good advice.

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4 hours ago, Cyrus01 said:

The wife wasn’t completely against the DSLR idea.

I think many of the guys on here...(married ones that is)..find creative solutions to this problem:icon_biggrin:

Not sure if the lady astronomers on here have to cope with the same issues...but I guess they do too.

Oh...and welcome on board..

Steve

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