Newbie in Adelaide

[Muz]

Hello all,

I have just moved to Adelaide and i need some direction. I have a bushnell north star goto maksutov-cassegrain telescope.

If anyone has one of these telescopes could you please give me a heads up on aligning and general use.

Where should i start? how do i view these pics that people are posting, i assume you need filters?

My aim eventually is to move into astrophotography.

If someone could lead me by the hand so to speak so i can get a basic grasp ideas, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all in advance
cheers

muz :)

[swannies1983]

Hi Muz. Welcome to IIS and good to see another Adelaidian. Where abouts in Adelaide you situated? We are pretty fortunate to have relatively darkish skies here in Adelaide.

How long you have you had an interest in astronomy? If you're pretty new, it will probably be a good idea to worry about visual astronomy rather than astrophotography. The pics shown on this site come from pretty experienced astrophotographers. It really is an art...and generally an expensive one at that! However, if you are keen, webcams are very useful astrophotography instruments. There are plenty of articles on the web to aid you with this :)

[chunkylad]

Hi and welcome to the forum Muz:welcome:

I'm sure you'll get a heads up from some of the Mak users here on IIS:thumbsup:

All the best

[astro_nutt]

And another welcome to you muz...visit..stay..and ask away!!
Cheers!

[LX200]

I used to live at Grange on military road
was pretty dark west over the ocean and east over the golf course

I don't know your scope but look here for an instruction manual

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/opticsplanet/northstargotorvo.pdf

[Ric]

Hi Muz and welcome, hope you have a great time here

Cheers

[leon]

Hi There Muz, ask away mate, I asked that many questions when i became a member of this site, that i'm sure some of them wanted to gag me. :whistle: :lol:

Cheers Leon :thumbsup:

[rmcpb]

Muz, welcome to IIS :)

As the others have said stick to visual or afocal photography for a while till you get to really know your gear. Also get yourself along to the local astro society, that is where you will learn heaps, as well as here of course.

Cheers

[Muz]

Thank you all for the welcomme,

Well for starters i need someone to basically tell me what a good starting point would be. Then where to progress too. What further items do i need to enhance the viewing.

And if someone knows about the above mensioned telescope it would be greatly appreciated if they could give me some guidance on the alignmnet proceedure and general use.

cheers

muz :)

[74tuc]

Hi Muz,

Great fun to start off with a cheap web-cam and Registax (Freeware).

I have a Celestron NexImage - Very easy to use.

If you use Registax and lowish magnification (focal lengths 500mm to 700mm) then Registax will compensate for not so brilliant tracking - you may try a x2 Barlow if you like.

Here is an example of a web cam shot of moon craters - I usually take a quick pic for the record of where I'm looking.

Good Luck.

Jerry.:)