hello

[stevenb]

Hi everyone,

I am very new to astronomy (well, looking at the sky through a telescope), although I have always had an interest. As a kid I used to look at the sky (i lived in a dark sky area of the riverina) completely in awe at the thought of all that was "up there". I am in Sydney now, have been for 9 yrs, and look directly across the CBD to the east, so I have almost completely lost my view of the night sky... Regardless I went ahead and bought an ETX-125.

I had a laugh to myself as I read a post somewhere where someone was joking about the fact that someone else claimed that they were unaware that there were planets up there... To be honest I had no idea that some of the spots that I was looking at were actually planets. I knew they were up there, just not where they were.

The first night I looked up (last Friday) I pointed my scope at the first bright spot i could find, focussed and saw Saturn!! From that point i decided that the purchase was well worth it. Later in the night I took a look at Jupiter. Can't wait to take the scope home with me next time I visit the riverina.

Anyway, hello!

Steven

[ving (David)]

god bless dark skies!

welcome to my forum

[rumples riot]

Welcome to the forum, how did you hear about us?

I think your the first here with an ETX. Nice one, good fro travelling no doubt.

[rmcpb (Rob)]

You will blow your little eyeballs out in the Riverina.

Welcome aboard

[stevenb]

Thanks for the welcome. I checked out a number of forums before buying a telescope and stumbled across a link to this one. Seem to be a lot of nice, helpful people here who don't seem to mind a total novice like me joining. Also, I think this was the first AUS site i visited... plus I remembered the name so found my way back. Cool site, tons of info.

thanks again

[Striker (Tony)]

Welcome to our family Steven....

There is Much to learn here for us Noobs....

[stevenb]

Thanks for the welcome. I checked out a number of forums before buying a telescope and stumbled across a link to this one. Seem to be a lot of nice, helpful people here who don't seem to mind a total novice like me joining. Also, I think this was the first AUS site i visited... plus I remembered the name so found my way back. Cool site, tons of info.

thanks again

[Striker (Tony)]

The reason their is plenty of help here is because their is wide aray of members ranging from total noobs like myself and highly experienced member in all areas such as astrophotography....scope making......technical support....Scope purchasing.....and the list goes on...virtualy anything you need to know you can atleast get members honest opinion's and recomendation's......I find everyone to be very helpful and not only that their is the potential to meet with the any member if your local....that part takes the cake as far as I am concerned......

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Howdy-dudey Steven.

At least you already have a scope.

Many Newbies don't have one yet and we help them choose which one to buy . . .Dob . . . so if you need info . . .Dob . . . on what to buy next . . . Dob . . . we can help . . . Dob . . . you with all the info you require . . . Dob . . .

[stevenb]

haha, thanks Ken,

my etx is doing the trick pretty nicely at the moment, I can even do a bit of terrestrial viewing, although i have to look way in the distance as images are very close with my current ep's... Might look at a dob a bit later once I have seen some of the sights in range of the etx. Steve.

gawd i hope i have the lingo right...

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Yep! The Lingo sounds right to me.

You will catch on to the more technical garbage as time goes by.


Terms like 'Telescopology', Focalise', and 'Newtoniated Reflectorised Apparition of Gaseologised Nebularisation'.

[ving (David)]

and soon you'll have expert lingoistics like what i do!

so keep pointing the er... round thing at the sky

[Mick (Michael)]

Hello Steven, the ETX is a nice little scope.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Welcome to the family Steven. Hope you enjoy yourself. ETX has a great following and is a very popular scope. Excellent choice. It will however make you hunger for more apature because you will want more great images, O did I say dob? I ment LX welcome

[jackenau]

Welcome Steve

Lots of good advice and suggestions to be found here.

Lots of Dob owners as well.

Ken M

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Good to have you on board Steve!How much detail were you able to see of Saturn and Jupiter under the city lights? Are skies clearing tonight where you are?

Rodstar

[Jonathan]

Hi Steven, welcome to the forum.

Good choice in telescope. I bought the same model just before christmas and I'm very pleased with it. I hope you'll enjoy using yours just as much.

[stevenb]

Hi Rodstar, the image of saturn was sharp although it was very small with the 26mm EP. I put in a barlow which made it a bit bigger, same detail, easilly making out the cassini division. The following monday I bought a 15mm EP which dramatically increased the size in the EP. The details weren't as sharp but this seemed to be because I was looking out across a lot of light and it was a very warm, humid night. The image was definitely affected by heat shimmer. The sky cleared last night, was very nice, still clear now.

Awesome Jonathan, another etx user! I was beginning to think i should have bought a dob. I am extremely happy with it at the moment, it goes with the decor too

thanks everyone, glad to be here.

steve

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Steve,

Bad seeing (lousy atmosphere) can make viewing frustrating.

Don't worry too much as even a $500 Nagler eyepiece gives terrible images on a bad seeing night.

It is really a game of patience against mother nature (and smog and light)

[quicksimon]

Hi Steve
Welcome to the forum. I'm new here also and think its great. You will learn a lot here cos I've been here only a couple of days and taken on board loads of info, too much for my brain i think. Happy stargazing mate