First Light with my Skyliner 300P Flextube

[jwallis]

I have been waiting for this night ever since my new scope was delivered. Apart from a quick 10 minutes on a semi clear night, i had not put it really to a test so to speak.

Anyway, just as it was getting dark tonight, i glanced outside and oh my, the sky was really clear.

Scope out of the garage, and leveled on the patio in 5 minutes. While i was waiting for my eyes to adjust to the night sky, i wondered how good the "Go To" would be, as this was a auto only.

Flask of strong coffee next to me, i sat down with my binos and star gazed for a while until i could not wait any longer.

I decided to just use a 32mm eye piece with no barlow to give it a 2 star alignment. After i had got the first star centred, i watched through the eye piece as the scope took me to the second star.

I was blown away with the actual views i was getting, and once centred, i had alignment successfull.

Ok, so what shall i go for first,hmmm.

M82, and away it went.

I changed my eye piece to a 9mm and barlowed x2.

Oh my god. My old scope which i had used for a while had done me proud, finding stars,planets, clusters etc, but this 300p is awesome.

There bang smack in the middle of the eyepiece was m82.

And this in not a really dark area, i live in canford heath,near poole.

I got another cup of coffee, and just sat there taking it all in.

From M82, i wanted to see if it found Jupiter. A few seconds later, i looked into the eye piece and there it was in all its splender.

One hell of a lot of detail ,the moons and without any filter at all.

What can i say, money well spent, and i know that this scope is going to give me hours of pleasure in the future.

Christmas is nearing and i can see a Nebula filter winging its way through the post i reckon.

I just cannot wait to get this scope in a really dark sky, because i think that when i do, i am in for another big surprise.

Clear Skies to you all.

Jon.

[Black Knight]

Sounds like you're really going to like this scope! I often wonder what an extra few inches on the old aperture would be like .