First use of telescope - ever!!

[Xgaze]

Hi all,

First use of new Heritage 150. Got up early this morning (can see this being a theme!) saw first view of Jupiter could just faintly make out some banding and, at least two moons, perhaps one was Ganymede?

Was hoping for Saturn but I'm guessing it was too light by 4:30am? Also hampered by trees in the garden!

This shot of the moon was using my smartphone held to the lens!

Very pleased with the start to my astrological journey!

So happy, roll on dark skies!!

Thanks for looking

 

[xvariablestarx]

Yeah, I was outside at about 2:50am, viewing the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. Nice picture of the Moon. Welcome to the forum.

[Mr Spock]

I'm pleased you had a good first look. Too cloudy here thought.

[Xgaze]

2 hours ago, xvariablestarx said:

Yeah, I was outside at about 2:50am, viewing the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. Nice picture of the Moon. Welcome to the forum.

Thanks!

Trying to creep around the house without waking abyone, like being a teenager again!

Did you get some good views, what scope do you use?

[xvariablestarx]

10 minutes ago, Xgaze said:

Thanks!

Trying to creep around the house without waking abyone, like being a teenager again!

Did you get some good views, what scope do you use?

I used my 8 inch Dob and a 7mm to 21mm zoom eyepiece. The views were quite good, though Saturn could do with some more magnification or something, I need an other eyepiece in my collection I guess.

The Dob is my bigger scope, but since moving it to the garage, it has become my "grab and go".

[Xgaze]

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

I'm pleased you had a good first look. Too cloudy here thought.

Thanks!

Here's hoping for clear skies!

[banjaxed]

1 hour ago, xvariablestarx said:

I used my 8 inch Dob and a 7mm to 21mm zoom eyepiece. The views were quite good, though Saturn could do with some more magnification or something, I need an other eyepiece in my collection I guess.

The Dob is my bigger scope, but since moving it to the garage, it has become my "grab and go".

A barlow lens would double your zoom eyepiece range.

[xvariablestarx]

18 minutes ago, banjaxed said:

A barlow lens would double your zoom eyepiece range.

It would, and I have a barlow, but I never use it with my zoom eyepiece funnily enough.

[Tiny Clanger]

7 hours ago, Xgaze said:

Hi all,

First use of new Heritage 150. Got up early this morning (can see this being a theme!) saw first view of Jupiter could just faintly make out some banding and, at least two moons, perhaps one was Ganymede?

Was hoping for Saturn but I'm guessing it was too light by 4:30am? Also hampered by trees in the garden!

This shot of the moon was using my smartphone held to the lens!

Very pleased with the start to my astrological journey!

So happy, roll on dark skies!!

Thanks for looking

 

Told you you'd be impressed with the little dob  🙂

First step on a long, exciting , involving journey,  plenty to learn, so much to explore.

Here's a portion of a screenshot from Stellarium showing Jupiter at 4.30 am today , pretty much due south, and it was only about 20 degrees from the Moon, so not only the sky brightening from the sunrise, but also moonlight, which probably together swamped Saturn to a difficult to make out with the naked eye target . It also explains why the background sky in the image shows so light and blue !

Heather

[Swoop1]

Welcome @Xgaze and well done with the phone image of the moon.

You have the bug good and proper now!

[Xgaze]

6 hours ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Told you you'd be impressed with the little dob  🙂

First step on a long, exciting , involving journey,  plenty to learn, so much to explore.

Here's a portion of a screenshot from Stellarium showing Jupiter at 4.30 am today , pretty much due south, and it was only about 20 degrees from the Moon, so not only the sky brightening from the sunrise, but also moonlight, which probably together swamped Saturn to a difficult to make out with the naked eye target . It also explains why the background sky in the image shows so light and blue !

Heather

Thanks Heather!

Yes, Great scope, love it already!

So, that explains why I didn't see Saturn, not just the fact I was excitedly and frantically scampering around the house half dressed at silly 'o' clock!😬

Is Stellarium a good app to use? I have been using Starwalk2  (for a year or so before getting this scope) which I think is a bit gimmicky, specially with its Ethereal music! which was okay before but now I'm pretending to be an "Astronomer" 😆 albeit very amateurish and seriously underfunded! I feel I should use a better one!

I'll take a look at it, seems to be plenty out there.

Picking up some 2mm foam tomorrow for a shroud. Supprised that it doesn't come with the scope!?

Thanks again,

T

[Tiny Clanger]

I'm not saying the excited scampering didn't have any impact on your view 🙂 , just probably not as much as the brightening sky !

I use Stellarium as a down loaded, offline program on a windows laptop, and a windows tablet, https://stellarium.org/

it also has a slightly lower featured online version https://stellarium-web.org/

There's an app version too, but I'm not keen on tiny screen phone views, so no idea if it's good or not. There are many other apps available, , a lot of folk on here like Sky Safari, there's a fairly recent thread about apps here

 

 

[Sunshine]

That’s awesome, yes I’m sure you’ll have a blast on your astronomical journey!

[Tiny Clanger]

I really like the clear straightforward and well illustrated 'Sky Notes' put up by Whitby & District astro soc, here

http://www.whitby-astronomers.com/sky-notes/sky-notes-july-2021

well worth searching out the binocular sky newsletter too , you can find out about it in, you guessed it, the binocular section on here.

Heather

[Xgaze]

1 hour ago, Tiny Clanger said:

I really like the clear straightforward and well illustrated 'Sky Notes' put up by Whitby & District astro soc, here

http://www.whitby-astronomers.com/sky-notes/sky-notes-july-2021

well worth searching out the binocular sky newsletter too , you can find out about it in, you guessed it, the binocular section on here.

Heather

Very interesting and, as you say, concise.

Struggled last night with the cloud. Only managed to see the twin stars Epsilon in Lyra. Still good practice even with my cat spooking me in the dark!

Many thanks for the link. Much appreciated as always.

Tony