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Is this normal?

MikeWilson

By MikeWilson
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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Almost a year ago to the day I was forcibly taken camping by my family and in-laws. Not to just any camp site, but the cheapest campsite ever. No electricity, no lights, one toilet and barely drinkable dripping water. However - for the first time in my life when the sun went down I saw Jupiter. And Arcturus or Vega, I can't remember which. The Milky Way cast her glistening colours across the night sky canvas and armed only with my iPhone and a copy of Stellarium to identify the objects in the sky, I was hooked.

So after the last seven months of reading astro mags and internet forums (well, just this one - it's such a wealth of fantastic information!) I have finally bit the bullet and pulled the trigger on my first astro kit order with FLO. I broke my budget a little on the eyepieces but I figured they were worth it as I've read the SkyWatcher supplied eyepieces aren't up to much? And I wanted a moon filter and a 32mm wide field eyepiece anyway....

I bought:

A Skywatcher Mak 127 on a GOTO mount

Revelation Photo/Visual eyepiece & filter set

A Skywatcher Light Pollution (the sodium one) filter

That's it. I plan to make a dew shield from a camping mat and use a hairdryer where needed, later on adding a power tank, portable hairdryer and dew strips when I can.

The light pollution where I live is pretty strong, being somewhat close to an airfield, and all. There are sodium lights from a nearby housing estate and hence I needed a scope I can grab and go... and I'm going away this weekend, which should give me some time to get to know the scope and use it under some darker, rural skies!

I'm planning to take a few pictures (nothing serious, just a bit of light picture taking) through the scope and I've already read about the Afocal and Prime Focus methods of image capture. I have a Panasonic Lumix TZ7 camera which although takes brilliant photos it cannot take a lens attachment. The Canon A570IS that's been gathering dust since I got the Lumix, however, can. And it can be flashed to a firmware that gives an amazing array of control over the camera. It has a threaded lens (the lens itself cannot be removed, but there is a thread to accept some form of adaptor) but I cannot figure out for the life of me what I need to purchase in order to connect it to the threaded 32mm Plossl eyepiece (or indeed, directly to the scope?).

Anyway, this is all academic and there will be plenty of time to get to image. The main question I wanted to ask was - is it normal to get insomnia just after making an equipment purchase? I'm finding myself frantically refreshing the Fedex tracking details just in case there's an update on the tracking of my scope and accessories! And what makes me feel even more crazed is that I've got an automated alert on the Fedex order so that I won't miss it.

Oh well, time to go to bed and dream about panning the skies!

Best,

Mike

P.S. The service I received from FLO was top notch. Incidentally, I did try to contact all the main suppliers (Hutchinson, ScopesNSkies, Warehouse Express, Telescope House, etc) and the service I received from FLO was in a different league to the others. Some of which didn't reply to my emails (you know who you are!).

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steppenwolf

steppenwolf

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All sounds normal to me apart from the campsite experience - we actively seek out sites with zero facilities apart from water ....... but then we are ardent caravanners so we take our comfort and facilities with us. Caravanning in out of the way places certainly exposes you to some great skies and I am delighted that you came away from your experience with a thirst for astronomy.

Welcome to SGL.

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Jove

Jove

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Welcome to the forum Mike. I've found it a treasure-trove of helful advice, I'm sure you will too.

I've got basically the same set up as you, but a different camera. You'll need an adapter to fit your camera onto the thread on the 32mm eyepiece - there is some information here.

The Skymax 127 is a nice little scope and I've been pleased with the range of things I can see with it. I was only expecting to get good views of planets, but it's great for double stars and some of the brighter nebulae and clusters too... and that's from London - not managed to get anywhere dark with it yet!

One accessory to add to your list: A right-angle finder! Unless you have a very flexible neck that is!

Clear skies!

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Michael Rapley

Michael Rapley

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Welcome to the madhouse. While you may think your behaviour is a little odd now just wait. Wishing away your summers and dancing round the garden and trying hard not to shout out loud the first time you see Saturn through your scope are all though normal around here.

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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Thank you to everybody for your warm welcome!

All my items arrived today. It's a beautiful scope. Outside it's 100% cloud cover and rain, so sorry about that! :)

I have a ton of newbie questions, which I shall try to find the answers to myself - but I'm sure it will all come with practice and time (and good weather!).

If I am still alive when my wife gets home, I'll post my questions then :D

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brantuk

brantuk

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Hi Mike and welcome to the group :)

You could've avoided the insomnia by going and picking it up - but you've missed that now lol The next challenge is staying awake at work in the afternoon having spent half the night outside with your new toy hehe :D

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

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I'm so sorry everybody, but I seem to have summoned the clouds. The skies were almost totally clear when I took the scope outside to adjust. And within moments, a but black and reddish cloud, like the one that eschewed forth from the volcano at Mordor has come over. The wind is fairly strong too, so I guess that unless things improve, my first night is out.

Apologies to all affected.

post-18683-1338774628_thumb.jpg

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