Orion Arrives.

[Lowstar]

Hello Forum,

firstly a big thanks to all the people who said hello on my first post. It`s nice to get such a welcome as i`m sure there are loads of people getting into astronomy and signing up all the time.

Ok, the scope arrived, Orion SkyQuest XT8. Big cardboard boxes:hello2:. Felt a little detuned when i noticed a "Made in China" label on the box and some of the eyepieces but to be fair all seemed well made and it worked fine. First look at Jupiter actually made me laugh as i`d never saw the moons before. Yep, a first that everyone in the house had to witness too:D Did a bit of star hopping , brightest ones first, and had a great time scaning the universe which has always been there just never taken the time to look and marvel at it.

I`ve added a set of filters and am patiently waiting on the moon to impress the h*ll out of me. Apart from the bino`s, which are quite small, i have no yardstick to judge the dobs optics but to me, absolute novice, they do seem very clear and crisp and i can`t really fault it so far. A few clear nights would be all i need really.

Good Hunting All,

Will.

[The Warthog]

It's exciting to get any new thing, isn't it? When I saw the title of your post, it reminded me that Orion should be up in the pre-dawn skies, and that means M42 and a bunch of other good stuff. Congratulatulations on your purchase!

[Vega]

Hi Will... Congrats on the new arrival.. has it got a name yet? lol. Dont be dis-heartened by the 'Made in China' label. Im pretty sure well over 75% of members on here own a scope made in china. Unlike many non astro related mass produced items made in China, Orion and Skywatcher scopes are of surprisingly good quality for the price and have a reasonably good reputation. I have 3 Skywatchers and am very happy with all of them.

Its a bit of a cliche that you hear all the time when starting out... but with good reason... I recommend looking at Albireo. The double star at the end of Cygnus, right overhead in the evenings this time of year. A wonderful sight at both low and high magnification. Of course the moon is your next obvious target, a few days and you'll get to gander at the crescent.

Happy observing, I'll blame you for all the cloud in hindsight of your purchases

Cheers

Matt