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Noob in Oxfordshire, UK

x6gas

By x6gas
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x6gas

x6gas

Posted
Posted

After spending several hours reading some of the excellent information and advice available on here I’ve decided it’s about time for me to do the decent thing and say hello.

Inspired by Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, I spent some of my teenage years looking up at the stars through bins (thanks to Patrick Moore saying that you got a better bang for your buck with binoculars than a telescope), so I’ve had an interest in astronomy for a long time. However, for various reasons I drifted away from the hobby but just recently my interest was rekindled (can you guess by what?)

So anyway, I am back at the beginning eager to re-learn what I used to know (and hoping it won’t take so long second time around!) and, with luck, much more besides. I actually have a degree in Physics and Astronomy but to be honest I have forgotten much of it and in any case there wasn’t much in the course that was of use for amateur observational astronomy. Nonetheless, Greek letters, basic optics and celestial co-ordinates are not entirely alien to me, if severely dimmed by the passage of time.

So it’s been at least 20 years since I last looked skyward through binoculars, but I decided it was time to get myself a telescope. After frankly not very much research (which I hope won’t come back to bite me), I bought a Celestron C6-NGT. For some reason I wanted a Newt rather than an SCT. I was drawn to the Celestron as it seems to have a pretty good and stable tripod and I thought the GoTo GEM would be convenient. The package seemed to offer the right combination of stability, portability and affordability and I am hoping that the C6-NGT proves to be a fairly good all-rounder. I decided not to splash everything I had on the biggest aperture I could lay my hands on as I wanted to keep some dosh in hand to accessorize and I was wary of something that would be a pain to move around (and the tripod that comes with the ‘scope is HEAVY!) That said, at the back of my mind I do wonder if I shouldn’t have gone for the 8” which wasn’t that much more… Any thoughts?

I’ve already had fun taking some prime focus shots of the Moon and Jupiter but basically I just want to reacquaint myself with the sky for the time being. I suspect I’m like many others in being interested in long-exposure astrophotography and I do want to experiment with autoguiding and webcam imaging, but for now I am happy with prime focus photography of the bright stuff with my DSLR and perhaps a bit of piggyback photography.

My next dilemma is whether I should buy a set of Celestron EPs and filters or spend roughly the same amount on a decent 3-4mm high-power eyepiece for roughly the same money. If anyone has experience of this sort of EP with a fast (f/5) 6” Newt I’d really love to hear from you. I guess only I can decide but any suggestions / recommendations would be welcome…

Then there is also the quandary as to whether I should strip down, de-burr and re-grease the CQ5 GEM or wait until I have some more experience of how it’s performing… I guess it might depend on whether we get any clear nights ever again!

Anyway, that’s me. Thanks to all those who have spent their time sharing knowledge on this forum; it looks like a great resource and I am really looking forward to getting back into the hobby.

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swamp thing

swamp thing

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Hi and welcome to the forum.

Nowt wrong with a 6" scope. IMO I would stay with it until you get a bit more observing under ya belt.

As for eyepieces: It depends how critical you are. i would wait until you've a better idea of what focal length you want. Then get a decent quality one. Poor quality eyepieces can't hide in fast scopes. Thats my opinion.

Enjoy ya new scope. Lets have some clear skies so you can use it:)

Regards Steve

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x6gas

x6gas

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Thanks for all the welcomes peeps!

No one's (yet!) shouting at me that I've made a terrible mistake with my 'scope purchase or saying that I should have got a Sky Watcher instead (which I understand are basically the same OTA - although I only found that out after purchasing it!)

I got the scope at a pretty good price but I wish I'd bought it last year when they were on sale :).

Anyway, great advice about getting used to the kit before getting too carried away... I'm already thinking of setting up a fund for a large aperture SCT. I need to calm down :(

Some clear skies would help.

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