My first experiences

[chips]

Hi all

First let me explain how I ended up with a telescope. Basically, my son was given a toy one for a christmas present, which he got quite excited about, he's 5, but it was terrible, even looking at the moon, when you eventually got it lined up, was a big let down. So I was on the look out for a cheap telescope, when I seen one in Lidl, a Meade Bresser Skylux NG, and only £60, so I bought it. I really wasn't expecting very much as I know some scopes can be thousands, but I thought it would be good enough to please my son a little. So that night it was clear, hurray, and the moon was full, so I set it all up and lined it up with the moon. What a sight, even from such a meager scope it was still fantastic. My son was amazed as to was I, we must have spent almost a hour just looking at the moon, the craters, what looked like mountains at the bottom, and what little shadow there was, it really was fantastic.

After that I thought what else can I see, the instructions with the scope showed a couple of things. So I googled for forums and came across this fantastic Forum SGL. I seen a lot of people saying about Orion, so the next oppurtunity I was out looking at orion. Thats when I seen M42, wow, what can I say, and I seen it with my own eye, not even on the T.V. I really physically seen it, and as small and with as little detail as there is in my little scope and all the light pollution I'm still amazed.

The next oppurtunity it was the pleiades, again after reading on SGL, and I was dumbstruck, how can there be so many stars ? I found it hard at first to make out the stars that I can see just with my eyes amongst all the others. Then a couple of nights ago for the first time I seen Venus, my first planet, and even though it was small in my scope it was still clearly visable as a planet, just hanging there in the nothingness.

I envy all you people who have large scopes and have been doing this for years, I really want to see the things you have seen. What an aboslutely fantastic hobby. I don't think I have ever had so much pleasure and amazment from 60 quid. I think had I not found this forum and read the things I did, I would just be panning around the sky, looking at objects that I know very little or nothing of.

Thanks for making this already fantastic hobby a little easier and a little more enjoyable.

Chips

[kniclander]

hi Chips -this is really a great hobby through any scope, big or small.

Jut wait until saturn comes up (now after about 10pm) and Jupiter (summer)

[John]

Hi Chips - welcome to SGL

What a great report - I started out with a scope even smaller than yours (mine was just a 60mm refractor) - and had a lot of fun with it !. I even managed to find some of the brigter galaxies with it (M81 and M82 in Ursa Major) and even though they were very dim I found it fantastic that the light had travelled for millions of years before finding it's way down my scope !.

Hope you and your son continue your voyages of discovery - and keep telling us about them

John

[Terry]

Hi Chips

I'm another newbie. One of the best things I've got from the forum so far was this.

I've often found myself recommending good targets for beginners - unfortunately, usually after the beginner has been disappointed by choosing a poor first target. This really is a good topic, and good advice for us to keep handy.

Rather than having to re-think this question frequently, I eventually wrote this article on what I think makes a good beginner target, and have assembled this list of targets for small scopes, that I frequently recommend to beginners.

- Richard

"this article"explains a lot about what you can expect to see with a smaller scope and " this list" gives a great list of objects to look for. It certainly made things a lot clearer for me.

Terry

[Astro_Baby]

Chips thats a great post there - you can feel the buzz you were getting from the post. Lots of us here started with very meagre scopes. Mine was a tiny little thing but it got me fascinated for life ( with a 20 year gap ).

One of the great things about astronomy these days is the kit is so affordable. I think your son will probably remember that forever as an experience and for £60 thats a great memory to have later in life.

So thanks for posting - its made me smile and remember how amazing it all was when I started :)

[Mick.G.]

Your hooked!

Just don't take your credit card out shopping with you.

the slippery slide to bankruptcy.

Mick.G.

[rusirius]

chips, glad to see you are enjoying your telescope and astronomy.

If you like the Pleiades, also have a look at the Beehive cluster (Prasepe) in the constellation of Cancer. Its much fainter than the Pleiades, but still pretty amazing. You could also try finding the double cluster in between Casseiopea and Perseus. Both of these are easy binnocular targets so should look a treat in your telescope.

[scotastro]

The fact that it comes from Lidl probably puts some people off, but it shouldn't. Although it's a cheap scope in many ways it is also quite a capable one. Plus it is small enough to take on holiday to somewhere with a darker sky where much fainter objects, like the galaxies John mentioned, should be visible.

Now your hooked I Hhope you let your son use the scope sometimes!

Mike

[MikeP]

Hi chips,

What a great report. It's always good to hear from someone who has just discovered the beauty and mystery of the heavens. There are many more surprises awaiting you.

If you want to step up from your current scope, it does not have to cost a fortune, but remember "penny wise pound foolish" when thinking about it. You'll get tons of advice here.

In the meantime I hope you and your little boy continue to be excited by what you see.

Mike

[TheThing]

Great post, thanks for sharing.

The Lidl scope (like their bins) is one of those well kept secrets. Cheap as chips (pardon the pun) but cracking for the beginner!

[ZOG]

Hi Chips, what a lovely report, you can feel the excitement coming through. I hope you have many more nights the same as your first few.

Sometimes it's just enough to scan through the constellations to see what you can find.

Get Stellarium (free) and install it on your computer, that will give you an idea of where objects are in the sky and what to look for. As has been said, now you're hooked, you will want to upgrade at times. You'll get loads of advice on here on what to buy and how to avoid dud equipment. There are also some cracking second hand deals on the forum that can save you £££'s. I'm sure you've heard it before, but the only silly question is the one you don't ask, so don't be afraid and fire away.

[barkis]

I welcome you and you boy to the forum Chips. Enthusiasm is a very infectious emotion, and I'm sure your post triggered many memories in most who read it.

Long may you keep that enthusiasm, SGL will benefit from you being here.

Best wishes.

Ron.

[chips]

Hi all

Thanks for all the replies, advice and encouragement. If only the skies were clear. I really can't wait for my next opportunity to try and find something else in the sky.

My son is really taken with the moon and Venus, he can understand a bit better about planets than stars, and trying to explain how far away the stars are is sort of lost on him. My daughter who's 7 understands a bit more and that the stars are much much further away, but doesn't really have as much enthusiasm, which to be fair, I think is more to do with the cold than anything else.

I myself have been well and truly smitten. I find myself constantly peeking out the back window looking for a break in the clouds and hoping somethings in view.

I will undoubtedly want to upgrade my scope, but, I think it would be best to just try and start finding my way around the sky first, it would also give me a chance to save some money. I may buy a mount tho as there is about 1/8 of an inch of play in the mount I have, that really becomes annoying.

My next step is to try and find a dark place to observe from, as living in Belfast isn't really the best as far as light pollution goes. I don't live far from the Hills so over the next couple of days I shall look for an appropriate dark place.

As far as amount goes, can anyone advise me, with the future in mind of course. I have to admit I am still very confused with all the acronyms and terminology because its all still very new to me, though I think I'll be alright with setting up mounts as I have some experience setting up my motorised satellite dishes (setting it up to follow an arc based on my global position).

All this and I havn't even had my telescope 2 weeks.

Thanks again all who replied to my post.

Chips

[barkis]

Chips, there's no hurry to rush out and spend money.

You have adopted the right attitude, to take your time, and teach yourself as much of the sky as possible with what you have.

Also give some thought to the areas of observation that appeals to you the most. You may prefer Solar System targets, or perhaps Deep sky Objects, although there are telescopes that cope reasonably well for both. There are others that will perform well on one or the other, but not both. Then there is the all important question, the budget available, that usually is the most defining criteria,

But don't neglect the second hand market. Some great bargains can be found, Buying New is not mandatory.

Once you have an understanding of what all the ingredients are for your hardware, then if you want advice, there are plenty of experienced advisers here waiting to help you decide.

Ron.