Good evening. A new member - First day with telescope

[PaulyV]

Hello there.  A pleasure to meet you.  My name is Paul and I have just crept into bed after 2 hours spent with my new Zhumell Z130 telescope.  What a great evening it has been and I have kept the evening going by joining this wonderful-looking forum.

I grew up in Lincolnshire so am used to great night skies and spent many evenings out in the field behind our house with my sister and my late father who was a keen amateur stargazer himself.  We'd freeze in the cold as we looked at Vega, Jupiter, the Moon and of course oggled the Milky Way through his excellent, albeit heavy, East German binoculars.  I even clearly remember seeing Halley's Comet in the back garden back in 1986.

Fast forward many years and myself and my partner are currently on holiday with her parents in a cottage in darkest Wiltshire near Trowbridge.  The night skies have been fantastic for several evenings so I thought 'sod it' - I am going to Amazon Prime a telescope and view the stars tomorrow.  This of course resulted in 2 things - endless hours looking at which telescope to buy, the first requirement being not that it was the best available at my price point but that it had to be available for next-day delivery, and the arrival of cloudy skies on the day it was scheduled to arrive.  I read many forum posts and reviews and settled on the Zhumell Z130...even if it isn't the best for my price it'll be miles better than anything I am used to.  Order placed I awaited delivery today.  It arrived, as it did the misty cloud.  I spent an hour unpacking it and popping a paving stone atop a steel garden table so I could firmly position the Dobsonian stand.  The clouds remained in place until 10.30 when I peeked out to see a few welcome stars.  It's midnight now and I have just returned in after a wonderful 90 minutes reacquainting myself with Mars, Vega, Pleiades, and the Milky Way among many others.  What a great telescope this is.  The stand is terrific and gives me such control to skim around the sky.  I bought a barlow lens but in all honesty I am learning very quickly that it isn't all about magnification - the 25mm lens has been far more interesting than the supplied 10mm on this first evening, giving me a clear, well-focused and deep view of the heavens.

I could rattle on, but safe to say I am immediately hooked again and look forward to spending time with this telescope and getting to know some of you on this forum also.  I live in Central London, so precious little opportunities for gazing, although I did see the Space X trails of satellites some months ago and often see a few stars and the ISS.  We are in holiday again in 2 weeks however, up in the North of Scotland so the Zhumell will be accompanying us in the car and I look forward to even better skies there as long as it gets dark enough.  I am sure it will be fine.

If anyone here is reading the forum with an eye to purchasing a first telescope I would urge you to go ahead.  It has been a really good evening.

Paul

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by PaulyV

[Jm1973]

Welcome to the forum. I'm pretty new myself, having recently been in as similar position. Although I went the other way and researched for weeks before buying a telescope, but then upgraded first the telescope, then the mount, within a matter of weeks. Very addictive hobby.

You'll find the people who post here are extremely helpful. I've been given plenty of good advice in the time I've been posting here. I hope you get as much pleasure out of stargazing as I have. 

Clear skies.

[Neil H]

Hi Paul welcome to the family . I hope the sky stay clear the adventures start now

[John]

Hi and welcome

You have made a good scope purchase. Very portable and easy to get to dark skies

[igorigs]

Welcome to SGL!

[cletrac1922]

Paul

Welcome to you and your partner from Land Down Under

You do travel the universe in this forum, and make wonderful friends along the way

If you have an Android device, you can download the App for Space X trails of satellites, which shows each launch sequence, when visible overhead

There is also an App for ISS, called ISS detector, and can you get notifications when the ISS is visible overhead in your location

With the ISS, what we seeing, is our sun, Sol, Wagnu,  name for the sun in Australian Indigenous Astronomy, reflecting off the solar panels on the ISS

John

 

 

[banjaxed]

Hi Paul, welcome to SGL.

[PeterCPC]

Hello Paul and welcome.

Peter

[Floater]

Welcome. I hope you have lots of fun with the hobby and the forum. 🙂

[Saganite]

Welcome to the forum Paul..🙂

[westmarch]

Hi Paul,

welcome to the forum. Wishing you many clear nights with your new scope. 
 

John

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Paul, welcome. 

[Starwatcher2001]

Welcome aboard SGL Paul. Love the level of enthusiasm. Looking at the Universe's jewels with your own eyes is quite an engaging hobby.

[PaulyV]

Thank you everyone - it's great to meet you here.

Last night was indeed a great experience.  Not too cold, very quiet and lots of stars although there was a little high mist so I know we can do better.  Tonight is looking clearer out here in Wiltshire, so we shall see what is visible.  I have been very impressed with the telescope for the outlay involved.  It cost not an inconsiderable sum yet is certainly at the lower end of what is available but I found it to be solidly built and easy to use and position whilst leaving plenty of room for improvement with eyepieces and the like.  

thank you for any recommendations in the thread.  I am going to aim for a couple of galaxies tonight if any are visible.  

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @PaulyV and welcome to SGL. 

[Neil H]

Nice telescope your soon buy another i said one is enough but now have 2 lol they breed i sure they do lol

[Night1885]

Good afternoon folks. Like you Paul, i also made my first telescope purchase recently and had it out for the first time last night. I wish i had found this website before purchasing as it’s a total minefield trying to work out what i wanted. I ended up going for the Skywatcher Explorer 130 EQ2 scope, which i hope will fulfil a beginners mind for now. I reside in Scotland so clear skies are hard to come by but i took full advantage last night getting great views of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. Safe to say I’m in love with my new hobby, and look forward being part if the community. 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Just now, Neil H said:

Nice telescope your soon buy another i said one is enough but now have 2 lol they breed i sure they do lol

So do my alt-az mounts...

and I have three 'scopes too... at time of posting. 😜

[Starwatcher2001]

Nice scope Paul. I'm sure you'll enjoy the views from it.  Is that a bottle of San Miguel I spy there?  I've been known to enjoy a beer or two under the stars, but it's a bit detrimental to the optics apparently.

[PaulyV]

The beer is invaluable to the overall experience I find Starwatcher2001, and I feel more knowledgable after a couple of them.  Good use of paving slabs there Neil H.  I pressed one into service only last night as you can see.  I can understand how things would spiral a little with purchases but I have to be careful as I am no stranger to hobbies and pass times - I am very much into synthesizers and classic cars, neither of which is inexpensive...I really should have taken up pencil drawing.  Night1885 - you are clearly my astronomy twin and I hope you will be scanning the skies this evening too.  I look forward to hearing how you progress with your new 'toy'.  You are quite right...the world of telescopes was more complex than I expected in so much as even picking a 'recommended' one appeared to be fraught with differing opinions and viewpoints that all depended upon the type of viewing required.  In some ways I am pleased I did this 'on a whim' otherwise I would still be looking down at my computer rather than up at the stars.  I figured that if it didn't work out I could return it to Amazon so no harm done, but I think I got lucky.  I do recall from previous experience of my friends that getting the wrong telescope, or a poor one, will put you off stargazing for years.

I have some history of being very interested in 'SPACE'.  As a child I received something called 'The Big Book Of Space' back in 1980 which had plenty of facts about galaxies and the cosmos as a whole.  I recall watching the first shuttle launch live in our living room, and have frequented several planetariums.  I've also been lucky enough to have extended some work trips allowing me to see a couple of shuttles, albeit in their grounded state.  Perhaps you can just make one of them out in the image below over my shoulder.  Last year I was in Arizona for work and visited Flagstaff and the Lowell Observatory.  What an experience that was - they had loads of people there, clear skies and plenty of different telescopes available to use.  I saw Uranus very clearly with my own eyes which warped my mind a little.

It'll be some planetary viewing tonight then, amongst other things.  I spent some time oggling Mars last night, but it was relatively low in the sky and directly above the house we are renting for the holiday so was interfered with by heat haze.  I'll use some different eyepieces (see, I know all the words) and the 3x barlow in turn and see how they affect the view.  The eyepieces I have are the 25mm, a 10mm and also a 4mm but all kit glass so not premium.  Keen also to buy a large solar filter for the front of the scope.

Anyway, I have rattled on - thanks for being so welcoming.

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by PaulyV

[Night1885]

Based on your past, i couldn’t lace your boots. Other than looking up at the skies since childhood, this is very much my first foray into technology based seeking. Unfortunately the skies over Fife are a little less welcoming than where you are. Fingers crossed it clears up, but i have my doubts 😂
 

happy hunting everyone. 

[PaulyV]

It's going to be fun for us both Night1885.  There's plenty of people more experienced than us on here but we are all rendered equal by the clouds!

[Night1885]

[sloz1664]

Hi Paul and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Steve