First light

[Inkswitch]

I just got my new 10" GSO Dob today and yep.. you guessed it - its overcast tonight.

After getting a few glimpses of the moon through the clouds i couldn't get the crayford focuser to work - thank god for you guys, i searched and found a pic that showed that the adjustments are the focuser lock and the tension adjustment. Just a quick twiddle to the focuser lock and i was fully focused on the moon (for about 5 secs at a time between clouds).

I wonder how many calls Andrews and Bintel get about how to drive these focusers - a manual would have been helpfull.

Anyway i'm bloody impressed with the couple of glimpses of the moon that i got so far.

Compared to my 114mm Newtonian mounted on a wobbletronic EQ mount the 10" dob is awesome. Pity i didn't find this group earlier otherwise i would have started with the dob.

Any newbies here considering buying a scope.. i thouroughly agree with the regs here and recommend a 10" dob for value for money, ease of set up and impressive viewing (from little i've seen so far)

Cheers,
Andrew

[iceman]

Hi Andrew

:welcome: to IIS, it's great that you found us to share your first light experience! There's nothing quite like it.

I have the same 10" dob, have had it for over 2 years and love it!

Cairns is a beautiful spot I hope to visit in the next few years.. lots of photographic opportunities of the terrestrial kind, not to mention clear dark skies :)

How did you find us?

[Sidewinder]

Hi Andrew!
Indeed, a Dobsonian is a really great thing, lots of aperture for little money, so to say. For visual purposes, in my opinion, the Dobsonian is THE telescope anyway.
Have a great time viewing!

Sebastian

[jjjnettie]

You're going to have a ball with your new scope.
Thanks for sharing your first light experience.
PS.
Don't forget to buy a showercap to cover the mirror end when you pack up for the night, otherwise you'll have frogs and spiders moving in. Frog do do's on the mirror are hard to shift and can eat at the coating.

[ving]

hey dont knock the wobbleotronic. i started with a 60mm ebay refractor, and while i wouldnt recomend it to anyone it showed me plenty to get me hooked :D

your new 10er sounds like a ripper tho. enjoy :D
:thumbsup:

[Uchtungbaby]

Holy guacamole! A 10 inch mirror. Gee, you will see make some great planet images with a mirror like that one.

I only have a 4 inch newtonian telescope. It's a national geographic hugo telescope. It's only small but I get some great digital photos of the moon with my home made camera mount. I took a clumsy photo of Jupiter with the little telescope and picked up blurry bands around jupiter after using a layering effect in photoshop.

I plan to try and photograph Venus which will probably start to become a good photo opportunity as we approach xmas. At least that's what the people at the planetarium in brisbane told me. I realise Venus is simply a disk of light. Even so, when it has phases, it can be an interesting image to contemplate.

I can't wait to photograph Mars when the opportunity arises. I would dearly love to get a blurry image of an icecap with my little telescope. But perhaps the optics are not good enough.

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Congrats, a 10" dob IS a great way to go ..that was my first scope too, also due to the great advice I received on this forum. The only reason I dont have my 10" any more is that I've now got a 12" dob instead.

(Please do not assume that there's anything wrong with the 10" dob and that you should be planning on a 12" already ... in my case it was simply a sudden and completely unexpected purchase, an offer too good to refuse quite literally.)

The 10" is a magic unit - big enough for great viewing, small enough to still be conveniently portable. You will see so many things once those clouds part, you will come to love that scope so quickly.

Have fun!

[Inkswitch]

Thanks for all of your warm welcomes and encouraging comments.

Wow.. i can't believe the moon could be so bright as to be uncomfortable (ha ha i found the moon filter later).

Now all i've ever seen is the moon and with my old scope Jupiter and its moons - Jupiter was just a blury white disk, i'm hoping to see some banding and maybe the great red spot with my 10" dob.

What do i look at next?

Cheers,
Andrew

[robagar]

Hi Andrew

And:welcome: from another Cairns resident :)

If you have transport and your scope will fit in it, take it up on to the tablelands! Took my 8" over to Chillagoe a couple of weekends ago, way better visibility - much less heat/humidity haze.

But you're going to love it in the dry when the galactic center is overhead, absolutely awesome through a scope :D

What to look at now? Saturn early in the morning, after the Moon has set perhaps? I keep meaning to :)

[Ric]

Hi Andrew and welcome:hi:
With a 10" there isnt too much you can't look at.
I would suggest to have a look at Orion and the Pleiades, you will be pleasantly surprised.
If you don't have any star charts, a good free download is "Cartes du Ciel" as is excellent.

cheers