New telescope, first observations :)

[Retrodan16]

First of all I hope everybody had a good Christmas, I know I did! I finally got my 6" skywatcher Dobsonian, and a copy of the book 'Turn left at Orion', which I'm glad was recommended to me because it's fantastic!

Anyway, I managed to get my first look through the telescope last night/this morning and have to say, I'm so pleased with the results! As I was mainly interested in Moon viewing, the telescope didn't disappoint in any way. I could see craters I'd have never thought possible, peaks and troughs, really incredible and bright detail. The clarity, despite some atmospheric wobbling at times, was so sharp. I also had a look within Orion, and despite the moon being so bright, still managed to spend nearly an hour watching M42, this was pretty amazing as well, a greay smudge with some stars right in the centre. I think I could see three right in the middle.

I even managed to hold my phone up and take a couple of pictures of the moon, and have been showing them to everyone this morning driving them mad!

I'll write some more later and try and post up the photos (they're not fantastic, but they're what I saw!)

[BrownClaw]

Congratulations, nice bit of kit

The stars right in the middle of the Orion Nebula are the Trapezium, there are 4 main stars and a bunch of dimmer ones (which I still haven't seen). They still thrill me whenever I see them. The fourth star to the three you already saw is REAL close to the left-most star (in your eyepiece at least)....it's *just* below it too, and it'll take your eye some time to distinguish it.

Have fun!

[Retrodan16]

Thankyou, I definitely made out three of the stars and the nebula as a whole was a grey smudge with a darker split across the middle; I knew what I was looking at and it seemed almost strange to see it in real life as it were!

Bearing in mind this snap of the Moon was taken with nothing more than an iPhone, I was very pleased with the result:

Best of all, I found the Dobsonian very simple to set up and use and found that with a decent guide, finding objects was much easier than I imagined. I can't wait for the next clear night, despite it being nearly 3am before I finished viewing, I found it to be time very well spent. Next up I'd like to improve on my moon photography!