[troypiggo (Troy)]

I don't often post in this section, but assume it's the right place for this.

Picked up a used C8 the other week, but weather has been atrocious here and haven't had a chance to use it. Woke up this morning 3am, couldn't get to sleep, looked out the window and the clouds had disappeared. Decided to give the C8 a go.

I wanted to be quick and quiet setting up to not wake neighbours, so didn't level, align, or anything. Just manually slewed on over to Jupiter because I wanted to see it with my own eyes - something I have never done.

Because I hadn't aligned or anything, I was slewing all over the place to find it. Straight out of the box so finderscope wasn't aligned with scope. I was wondering how I was going to find it wandering all over the area, and just about to give up when...

Wow. I actually said it out loud, alone, at 4am. It was so much bigger in the 22mm eyepiece than I had anticipated. The 4 big moons were very clear as well, and could clearly make out banding on the surface of the planet.

I zoomed the eyepiece in to the 8mm end just to see the effect. First time I'd used it too (Baader 8-22 zoom). Very impressed. I don't do much observing, so figured it would serve me sufficiently for the amount of use it will get.

Very satisfying morning. Can't wait to image now.