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Hello Stargazers

Mr Flibble

By Mr Flibble
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Mr Flibble

Mr Flibble

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone,

I've been the proud owner of my first ever scope for a couple of years now. Its a Celestron C6-N which I got at a knock down price from Telescope Planet (which seems to be closed down now) and I'm absolutely loving it. They did a really good deal on the mount as well, which they told me was a CG5 but I've just worked out that its actually the EQ5 mount (with a Celestron sticker on it) on the CG5 tripod. I invested in the celestron eyepiece kit at the start to get me going, along with a cheshire once a discovered what collimation is and that I'd need to do it frequently.

Been finding things out as I go along whilst referring to SGL for advice. This has resulted in the recent purchase of a Telrad because I was finding it difficult to use the red dot finder that came with the scope (just waiting for the next clear night to try it out) and also the Televue Nebustar narrowband filter for nebula use - the only chance I've had to use the filter so far was for a brief couple of minutes a couple of weeks ago on the Orion Nebula before everything frosted over because it was -6 degrees!

I've also taken the plunge for the Baader Mk3 laser collimator because I was convinced that my collimation was out despite using the cheshire. Sure enough, during the daytime it looked spot on with the cheshire but the laser showed the secondary to be a few mm's out (dot located on the primary doughnut itself and not in the centre of it) and hence also the primary was also out. Also its now clear to me how much changes in temperature affect the collimation because at -5 degrees the collimation was way out compared to the daytime but it only took a minute to correct using the laser. I'm now looking forward to using the scope which will be properly collimated for the first time :-)

I'm not keen to have a Goto because I want to learn the sky and how to find objects manually so I've just finished putting together a constellation guide to use 'out in the field'. The end result (unplanned) has turned out to be an A4 folder with each constellation arranged in chronological order of highest point in the sky at 10pm. Each constellation entry consists of three A4 pieces of paper, (1) a list of multiple stars and DSOs within that constellation along with a couple of information notes, (2) a print out map of the constellation (from Cartes du Ciel - came free with Sky at Night mag) with the location of each multiple star and DSO marked on it so that I'll be able to actually find them (hopefully), (3) a section to mark the observation date and any notes next to each heavenly wonder so that I'll know how I'm progressing through the Messier list, etc.

My backgarden is pretty light-polluted but I have the Breacon Beacons relatively close which is about a 50 min drive so if the skies are clear around the time of the new moon then I usually jump into the car and make a good evening of it. I've found a really quiet, dark spot with no through road which is ideal. I can't see the low horizon because of the surounding hills but its pretty sheltered within a circle of trees and allows excellent views of the heavens, including the Milky Way!

If you've read this far then thankyou for taking interest. Really looking forward to getting out at the next opportunity to get going on my lists which I think will probably take a lifetime given how rarely the skies are clear, and also looking forward to using the Telrad and the nebula filter. Can't wait for Saturn as well :-)

Thanks for reading.

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todd8137

todd8137

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Posted

Hello Mr Flibble and a warm welcome to SGL.i ve always wondered about the normal cheshire and the lazer one thats set my brain ticking nowi feel confident to colaminate mine but the secondary mirror is another story a will gt to a star party and take the dob and get some one there to check it out and the telrad i have makes things and life a lot easier for me to cheers pat

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