Newbie

A "while" being......about 5 minutes of course Seanie.

Peter.

:lol:

Actually the first time I drove my car was a miserable dark night from carlow to cork!!!. . . I likes a challenge me. As for the comment about homework on the telescope. . . hahah I am a musican as well as a computer programmer and I know that if you pay for a good guitar or saxaphone, you get one. So I guessed the r102 might be good. Putting it together was a easy. using it is mental. But I'm getting the hang of it. Shame about last night and tonight. I can't wait until the moon comes up.

I was looking at other eye pieces. I won't buy any yet. I'll work with what I got until I feel the need to take it to the next level.

Cheers for all the advice chums

That's a good point. The Moon is easily the most accessible object for a first time telescope user. However accurately aligning the finder so that you can see the target in the telescopes field of view when you point it at smaller objects requires a fixed target (and a steady mount). If you do it at night make sure the telescope is well balanced on the mount and try to use something like a air navigation light on top of a communications mast several miles away as your alignment target. Line up the telescope so that the target is in the centre of the field then adjust the finder, gently so that you don't disturb the scope. A well-aligned finder pays dividends.

Personally I think a couple of cloudy nights in the living room balancing the scope, checking for loose nuts and bolts and getting used to working the mount are well worth it. The process makes using the telescope for the first time so much easier.

I managed to pick up Mars at 200X on the R102. It was about 30 deg above the horizon. I could just about make out some features on the surface. However the planet was zipping by and I was only able to get 20 sec or so in view before adjusting. I had a rough polar alignment so it wasn't so bad. I can see that my next purchase could very well be a drive unit.

I see that Saturn isn't too far behind Mars and I'm really looking forward to seeing it. I just checked in SkyMap and it looks like it will be above the horizon early next year, at least at a civilised hour .

From what i have been reading on these boards, Mars is pretty non-descript through most amatuer scopes. It appears to be TINY. I'm glad to read this cuz i thought i had bought a bad scope (Celestron 90EQ). The one time i DID look at Mars...........yes it was small but it was very rust coloured and i did see a distinct white area (polar ice cap)..............so i was happy enough.

I really want to see the rings of Saturn.....................but am not expecting to be wowed.

The legend continues.. .

I trained that eyepiece. It can even get me slippers.. Seriously I trained it on the moon there this afternoon.. the moon looks mental against the blue afternoon sky. Unbelievable.. the detail. Craters, shadows, hills.. savage. its like looking at Google earth satellite stuff. And the atmospheric distortion makes it look as if you were looking at a canyon in the distance across a desert or something.. hard to explain.

The moon will never be the same again. I can confirm it is a big roundy thing with savage crater marks and a white chalky surface that looks as if its being baked to bits in the sun.. a space desert.

Imagine there are people who live their whole life and never see that.. insane!!

Nothing new thee for most of you guys but by the powers its my first proper taste of space.. Wouldn't mind taking a trip there sometime. Do Ryanair do cheap flights or whah???