What's your name? Introduce yourself to IFAS!

Welcome aboard John, an XLT Newt is a nice scope to have in your growing collection! A set of Plossl eyepieces would be just fine. You can get a series of them made by Celestron to suit the XLT 150 fine. Go for sizes like 32mm, 25mm, 15mm and 9mm. I don't have a Cheshire so I can't comment on that but a good laser collimator will help.

Seanie.

Welcome John

Hope you enjoy the scope when it arrives.

Don't be tempted to go for too high a magnification when you choose your eyepieces. For one thing its easier finding targets with lower magnification.

I'm sure that there are many here that will be able to give you good advice.
Never be shy to ask a question - its a supportive community.

Regards
Mark C.

Hi

My name is Tony and have just joined this forum. I'm a professional pianist and senior lecturer in the Royal Irish Academy of Music. My hobbies are Golf and motorbikes.

Astronomy is something I have always had on my list of things to get into and now is as good a time as any.

After reading up about scopes I think the NexStar 8SE would be a good start albeit somewhat expensive! I've always believed in the old saying "buy cheap, buy twice"

Any advice would be very welcome

Cheers

Tony

Tonio50 wrote: Hi

My name is Tony and have just joined this forum. I'm a professional pianist and senior lecturer in the Royal Irish Academy of Music. My hobbies are Golf and motorbikes.

Astronomy is something I have always had on my list of things to get into and now is as good a time as any.

After reading up about scopes I think the NexStar 8SE would be a good start albeit somewhat expensive! I've always believed in the old saying "buy cheap, buy twice"

Any advice would be very welcome

Cheers

Tony

hi tony,
welcome to the forum. the best bit of advice is before spending on a telescope it to find a club in your area and go along to a meeting. if you get to know other amateurs and get to look through their scopes it will give you a better idea what the scopes can do. this would be the best way to start as you get to see before you buy. the scope you are looking at is a good one but you would be better dipping your toes in rather than spending alot of money on something you may change your mind about later.
generally most beginners would be advised to start with binoculars as they are relavitely cheap and they can be used for more than one purpose. also with a wider field of view you get to know where objects in the sky are relative to each other. this is an advantage when you finally get a scope as you already have a sense of where things are and their size in relation to each other.
stephen.

Hello,

I'm Marie, I'm a primary school teacher in Leinster.

I'm brand new to this business. Always liked looking up, but only now started to want to look further (results of the recession perhaps? Escapism maybe?!).

Im as green as you can get, joined the site for helpful tips on beginning with astronomy. For starters Id love advice on what equipment to start off with.

-Marie

Hi Marie,

You're very welcome to IFAS's online community! A quick answer to your question about starting off with something, try a pair of binoculars. Aldi/Lidl have had 10 X 50's for sale a couple times a year, they'd be a good buy at c. €20. Btw, the numbers mean as follows: '10' is the magnification and '50' is the diameter of each light-collecting objective lens. A pair of 10 X 60's will yield the same magnification but a slightly larger field of view. Lidl currently has a pair of (I think it is) 8 X 30's.

If we can help out or if you can't find what you are looking for among the forums, just ask!

Tip: it helps to put the question in the appropriate forum so that it can be easily found by others in the future by topic/keyword search. That's how these forums have helped so many people in the last 7 years!

Clear Skies!

Seanie.