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First EVER night with a telescope!

tipper

By tipper
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tipper

tipper

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... so my birthday present arrived on monday and seeing as the sky was pretty clear tonight my lovely wife allowed me to try it out (for a short while) a day early :) ... this was at around 7pm ... and I've just come in! *doh* All I can say is WOW. The scope I've got is a skymax 127 with a motorised mount (not goto). I'll start off by saying the nights sky was far from perfect .. but even though areas appeared to be cloudy thousands of stars could be seen through the eye piece! I literally spent hours just surfing over the sky looking at stars with the 25mm eye piece ... my knowledge of the sky is pretty limited but in between cloudy patches I spend the majority of the time playing about with eye pieces looking at the orion nebula I honestly wasn't expecting to see half of what I saw! It was simply stunning the longer I looked at it the more detail I saw. I had a print out of the nights sky with various objects highlighted but I don't think I looked at it once! I fear a slight addiction maybe heading my way! Upon looking at the print out now I realise I could have quite easily seen Jupiter! *doh. Anyhoo on reflection the scope is a fantastic piece of quality kit the magnification and clarity of what could be seen was amazing, but what is more amazing is what is above our heads! I'm really glad I didn't opt for the goto option now, I probably wouldn't have stayed out half as long! ... I eventually like the idea of hooking it upto my computer and scanning around, but for now I've ordered a few books and literally can't wait to start learning! The finder scope took a bit of getting used ... but not as bad as a lot of people have made out. I think a pair of bins and a red dot finder might be the best solution in the future for speed but for now I'll happily make do with the set up I have :)

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi tipper and welcome to the forum.

Congratulations on getting your first scope and being allowed to look through it on the early. I'm afraid the addiction cannot be cured and is something that you have to live with.:):D

Out of interest what books did you buy? If you can connect it up to a computer you won't need GOTO and will give you something to do when the clouds come in (they always do!) Glad you could join us and don't to ask any questions.

Clear skies (...and happy birthday - I won't ask the age!)

James

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kentronix

kentronix

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excellent, your enthusiasm is infectious !! I remember first time I looked up I found it amazing there is just so much up there. Point at most dark areas and it turns out they are not dark at all. I didnt actually find anything I could identify on that first night. I didnt need to.

Once you learn your way around a bit and get used to the equipment you will get the added joy of getting in close to things and the joy of actually finding objects you went out to find. Orion is a great place to learn. Very easy to refind if you get lost. Pleadies is also very good and easy. Follow the three stars from orions belt, head west and you should hit it. It looks like a feint smudge with the naked eye, almost not there.

I am assuming one of the books you have ordered is turn left at orion ? For the kind of observing that it sounds like you intend to do its perfect. Hopping about, joining the dots as it were :)

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Victor_MO

Victor_MO

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Welcome Tipper, and I share with you the feeling of impression when I saw M42 for first time!!... It was only WOW!!.... And this weekend I went to a place with a really dark sky and I was drooling for a couple of hours!! I saw LMC and SMC and it was amazing!!! My first galaxies!!!

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tipper

tipper

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excellent, your enthusiasm is infectious !! I remember first time I looked up I found it amazing there is just so much up there. Point at most dark areas and it turns out they are not dark at all. I didnt actually find anything I could identify on that first night. I didnt need to.

Once you learn your way around a bit and get used to the equipment you will get the added joy of getting in close to things and the joy of actually finding objects you went out to find. Orion is a great place to learn. Very easy to refind if you get lost. Pleadies is also very good and easy. Follow the three stars from orions belt, head west and you should hit it. It looks like a feint smudge with the naked eye, almost not there.

I am assuming one of the books you have ordered is turn left at orion ? For the kind of observing that it sounds like you intend to do its perfect. Hopping about, joining the dots as it were :)

Yep "Turn left at orion" also a pocket star guide and planisphere thingy! I clicked on your website link there and realised i'd been on there before! Brilliant stuff, My sister is getting me the phillips webcam with mount etc. for my B-day so that's another thing I look forward to playing about with at some point.

Thanks for all the comments folks! It's positivity cloudy today :) keeping my fingers cross for some clear skies soon! Next on my agenda are a few planets, also dying to get a good look at the moon!

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todd8137

todd8137

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Hi and welcome Tipperthe draw of the nights will suck yououside most clear night they do me orion is a great place to start in nevr fails to make the bottom jaw drop when seen for te first time knowledge is power when it comes to constellations but its always just good to point it all over the place and get ussed to the scope and how it works ect hope you and urs have a great year ahead with the scope and happy birthday from us here

clear skies always

pat

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Jimmy Stix

Jimmy Stix

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Oh Tipper! As Alan says, just wait until you point it at the moon! Last month I was out for ages and ages when it was at first quarter. I just could not stop looking and every time I did I saw something else. Did you get a moon filter though? It does really hurt without.

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