Hi everyone

[Spock]

Hi, I'm a 28 year old from the North East of England.

I've recently got back into star gazing after getting an Iphone believe it or not! I'm not sure if anyone has got the goskywatch app but it allows you to point your phone at the sky and it tells you what you're looking at!

I used to love looking up into the sky when I was younger, but I may have been spoilt by the quality of my dad's telescope. I've gone out and bought the Celestron Firstscope from Argos and I can't see Saturn's rings, so I feel a bit hard done by!

Can anyone recommend a decent telescope for under £100?

I'm also quite into satellite watching, not sure how popular this but I quite enjoy for some weird reason! I went out tonight and within 2 minutes I'd seen a shooting star and two satellites so quite happy. The icing on the cake was at 20:09 when looking at Mars, a satellite passed by it and it was picked up by the first scope! Interestingly no satellite was predicted at that time on the net. Maybe it was an astronaut’s glove

[Rusty Strings]

Hi Spock welcome to SGL

You may not have seen saturn's ring due to the fact that they are edge on to us and harder to see with smaller scopes.

[Brendan of Borg]

Greetings!

I was the same last night - 4 satellites seen purely by sky meandering!

[david o]

Hi there Spock,

Welcome to the forum.

[BAZ Senior]

Hi Spock, Welcome to SGL.

[astroeddie]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Lots to learn here for sure.

Where abouts exactly are you inthe north east. I'm a monkey hanger !

Eddie

[Paxo]

Hi Spock,

A very warm welcome to SGL from a fellow North Eastener.

Steve..

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Hi Spock,

Welcome to the forum. Saturn's rings should be visible in the Firstscope, but they may be a bit harder to spot at the moment. I did get them with a cheap 70mm achromat which I sometimes use as an OVERSIZED finder scope (14x70) for my C8. If you want something bigger (that's called aperture fever, we all get it at some point), why not try a second hand scope.

Cheers

Michael

[Talitha]

Hi and welcome to SGL, Spock.

[SteveP]

Hi Spock

A warm welcome to SGL

There's another one of your kind here. He goes by the name Mr Spock. Any relation?

Steve

[RikM]

Welcome to SGL,

Rik

[glowjet]

Hi Spock,

A very warm welcome to SGL, yes I watch for satellites also, even seen Iridium Flares through thin cloud, whatever you do enjoy the forum.

John.

[phillc]

Hello Spock and a warm welcome to SGL.

phillc

[Mr Spock]

When I heard about someone else with the same name I did not believe my ears...

[Astro_Baby]

HI from me too

[Stephen Green]

Hi welcome to the SGL

Stephen

[johnh]

Enjoy the forum, astronomy is not illogical captain.

JohnH.

[Chris H]

Hi and welcome to the forum, not sure about a telescope for under a £100 but you could certainly get a good pair of binoculars for that price.

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, Spock!

Dana

[Spock]

Cheers everyone,

For the people asking where in the North East - Newcastle.

I quite like the sound of these Iridium Flares. They must be quite rare otherwise they would surely catch your eye all the time.

Can you predict where and when they will happen?

I can track the Iridium Satellites, but isn't it something to do with the angle they need to be at?

Good point also about Saturn's rings, hope it's not too long before they're back in a good position.

I also remember seeing Jupiter's spot and moons when I was younger. Hopefully Jupiter will come out again soon...

[Doug]

A warm welcome to SGL,

Doug

Essex

[Scott Tilley]

Hello Spock, welcome to the forum from me too!

Scott

[Pete Presland]

hi and welcome to sgl

[Beyond_Vision]

Welcome to SGL Spock if you can push your budget to around £150 there are some reasonable scopes from the likes of skywatcher

Regards

Kevin