Hi from anothar newbie...

Hey all,

I've been into astronomy since I was a child, always facinated by looking up at the stars. A friend of my dad's took me out to see Halley's comet through a scope when I was 12 and from then on I was really really hooked. Don't know why it's taken so long but finally bought my first scope in Lidl. Got the Bresser R102 and have been really happy with it so far.

Got some great views of the moon, Orion nebula and saw Saturn for the first time last night. It was stunning. Finally found Andromeda after many nights of searching but all I could get was a blurry blob. Should I be seeing more ? I'm sure it was something I was doing wrong.

I'm from Greystones, seems that there's a few of you from around these parts so I'd love to make it to a meet up or whatever. My other passion is old VW campers so i'm hoping to combine the 2 hobbies if I could just find somewhere safe to pack my scope in the van. Some of the places we end up camping would be magic for observing with a few drinks, warmth and my bed always close at hand

Anyway, just wanted to say hi. I have lots to learn so I look forward to asking lots of questions over the coming months.

Great site by the way. I've really enjoyed reading through it and picked up lots of great info already

Cheers,

Swanner.

Hi Swanner, welcome to the forum.

As to M31, you're not doing anything wrong, for such a famous object it's quite a disappointment in the scope and what you saw is generally what you get. I believe that it suffers from all the great images in the magazines and we expect to see the same at the eyepiece.

I've always wanted a VW camper and drive around Europe in one.

SDAS hold regular meetings around South Dublin and Wicklow, keep an eye on the forum for the next one.

Hi Swanner. Welcome. I think unless you own a hubble telescope, many things in the sky will look like fuzzy blobs. M31 is no exception. Just do a search for images of it and you will see that at the best of times that is pretty much what many people see.

Welcome to the boards!
Looks like you are off to a great start there.

Cheers everyone. I'll keep an eye out for those meetings

Yeah, M31 was a serious dissappointment especially since it took me nearly a month to find :lol:

Cheers everyone. I'll keep an eye out for those meetings

Yeah, M31 was a serious dissappointment especially since it took me nearly a month to find :lol:

You musta asked Tony (Saturn5) for directions.