Yellow from Illinois

[shinebug777]

Hi, I'm Mephisto! I happened to find this forum while trying to find out how sunspots are named. So excited to see an active online space like this for this hobby. I'm very new to the art. My current struggle is finding planets with my little celestron 70dx. What's your favorite piece of advice to newcomers of astronomy? So far the one that's served me best is: 'to point your telescope at the sun quickly, make the finder scope's shadow a perfect circle!'

Also -- is there anywhere to post art here? I love to paint celestial objects.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @shinebug777 and welcome to SGL. 
 

On 10/03/2024 at 02:04, shinebug777 said:

So far the one that's served me best is: 'to point your telescope at the sun quickly, make the finder scope's shadow a perfect circle!'

😱 I do hope that you have a solar filter!

On 10/03/2024 at 02:04, shinebug777 said:

Also -- is there anywhere to post art here? I love to paint celestial objects.

Nice artwork. Maybe the best place to post your artwork would be Community —> The Astro Lounge hopefully one of the admins will see this and advise.

Edited March 11 by RT65CB-SWL

[M40]

Hello shinebug777 and welcome to the site.

Please don't frighten us by saying you point your telescope at the sun; to align your finder scope find a distant object during the daytime, center it in the eyepiece then center your finder scope. You will need those eyes of yours to continue painting, so please, as RT65CB-SWL says, unless you have a solar filter or leave the lens covers on, no more pointing telescopes at the sun. Just for information ignoring the obvious damage you could do to your eyes, should you point your telescope at the sun, temperature build up within the telescope could melt plastic components and render your telescope useless.

A great painting, please do start a topic within the astro lounge, it would be good to see your work. All the best.

[RT65CB-SWL]

BTW… if you have one of these solar filters…

and don’t even contemplate using it!

Instead invest in a ready made full aperture solar filter, or if you enjoy DIY, you can make with a sheet of Baader Solar Safety Film, some card, and strong adhesive tape… and make one for the finder scope too!

[Jeff-Colorado]

Welcome and nice artwork!

[shinebug777]

Lol thank you all for the concern. Yes I have a filter and I bought it directly from celestron and I don't look at the sun for more than 3 or so minutes. 🤣

On 09/03/2024 at 23:33, RT65CB-SWL said:

Nice artwork. Maybe the best place to post your artwork would be Community —> The Astro Lounge hopefully one of the admins will see this and advise.

On 10/03/2024 at 22:53, Jeff-Colorado said:

Welcome and nice artwork!

and thank you so much!

[bosun21]

Hi there 👋. Welcome to SGL.

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂