First light a brief report

[Ronseal]

Well, the cloud cleared last night & the moon was quite prominent so out with the new to me scope. I setup on the patio so I could "learn" the scope & mount, this looks NNE so with the house behind me I was restricted to East/West viewing facing north - no problem as I didn't want to be on the soggy lawn.

After setting polar aligning the scope on Polaris I was impressed by how easy you could track objects using the EQ mount with just a slight turn - I'll polar align this MUCH quicker next time.

As the Moon was up, Moon it is then! With low power ep in to start with after slewing the scope around, visually aligning the tube then spotting through the finder it was a simple afair. A quick look through the ep I can hardly see a thing, that Moon is bright!:iamwithstupid:Putting the cover back on & removing the small cap reduced the intensity sufficiently to view. Then I put the high power ep in, and WOW! what a sight - crater detail was unbeleivable.

Next I pointed it at the Orion nebula & I was amazed at high power I could see a good sized "cloud" of the nebula after some time & using averted vision.

I was that impressed I got the misses out & my mate & both had Wow! moments.

Anyway, I said it was brief, for next time I'm going to learn how to use the setting circle so I can find objects easier.

A couple of points I could do with some advice on:

i) When I took the scope inside moisture condensed all ove it including the mirror - Is this normal & is there anything to do to lessen it?

ii) Do I need to align to a known object using setting circles or is Polaris sufficient??

Chris

[mdstuart]

On the moisture point, that is a common issue if you bring the scope inside. I gather the coatings will last many years even with this treatment but if you could find a dry cool place to avoind the heat cool heat thing then that would be even better.

Loved the report. Try M35 / M36 / M37 and M38 next and then report back with a report comparing the four!

Mark

[Nexus 6]

Hi Chris,

thanks for posting your views on your scope and what you viewed with it.

Mark has told you the best thing to do with it when you have finished observing for the night, a garage would be ideal.

If you don't have one yet buy a Moon filter, that will help viewing it when its a bit to bright for normal observation.

Sorry can't help with the setting circle question but am sure someone who uses one will.

Moon Filter

http://firstlightoptics.com/products.php?cat=147

Alan

[Astro Imp]

Hi Chris,

Glad to see you enjoyed your first night with the new scope.

I was pleased to read your report as at present I'm in the process of deciding which scope to buy and the Skywatcher 150P is presently at the top of the list.

Anyway good luck and clear skies.

Alan.

[perrin6]

Nice report Chris. If you observe with the cover on and the small cap off you wont see so much detail in the image as the wider the mirror/lens of a telescope, the greater is the resolution. At high power the image shouldnt be too bright.

[Ian123]

Hi chris, glad you are enjoying your new scope, nice first light.

I would also recomend a moon filter as this would let you observe

the moon for longer, it is very bright through the scope.

For the setting circles i would suggest something like Vega as

it is quite bright early in the evening now.

Ian.

[russ]

Excellent First Light report. Glad it all went so well. And just wait until the moon moves out of the way. Just transforms the rest of the sky.

[jonl]

Hi Chris, good first light report.

I have the same scope and was wondering what the small cover on the tube cover was for. I presumed it was to allow moist air to escape the tube whilst acclimatising without leaving the mirror completely exposed. However, I just use it as a finger hole to pull the cover off ;-)

I think, but someone please correct me if I am wrong, that declination will be set when polar aligned but right ascension is offset based - i.e. find a known object, reset the RA dial, and then move RA axis by the difference to required object.