buddinseeker
23-10-2010, 11:58 PM
As a follow on from my posting about choosing a scope I took it out and gave it a test run today after an afternoon of assembly.
The skyWatcher dobsonian 10" went together easy enough though the instructions left a few of the finesse tightening to the imagination.
A quick and nasty alignment was done on the finderscope during daylight hours unable to get the distance suggested to line things up, had issues with the scope being near horizontal as well with it fighting the tension settings and sliding a little under the weight of being in the position.
So as soon as it darkened down enough the scope was carefully taken out front, not an ideal location lots of ambiant light from street poles and a particularly nice full moon meant it was as dark as it could have been so not ideal conditions.
With son in tow (5 years old) we picked out a few things in the sky we wanted to look at a handy little app on my mobile phone (google sky map for andriod) helped me identify a few of he brighter objects.
So first target, a brightly shining Jupiter. Stuck the 25mm EP in lined up in the finder scope and although not fully lined up closed enough to nudge Jupiter into view, a little tweak on focus and there it was with it moons. a little adjustment and my son got his first look.
Filled with excitement we headed out to a few other items stars he pointed out, one day I will know what they are but our first hour in not ideal conditions was alot of fun with very little frustration.
Final effort was the moon in all its glory both with the 25 and 10 EP
I have a huge amount to learn about this hobby but I think i am going to enjoy the learning.
The skyWatcher dobsonian 10" went together easy enough though the instructions left a few of the finesse tightening to the imagination.
A quick and nasty alignment was done on the finderscope during daylight hours unable to get the distance suggested to line things up, had issues with the scope being near horizontal as well with it fighting the tension settings and sliding a little under the weight of being in the position.
So as soon as it darkened down enough the scope was carefully taken out front, not an ideal location lots of ambiant light from street poles and a particularly nice full moon meant it was as dark as it could have been so not ideal conditions.
With son in tow (5 years old) we picked out a few things in the sky we wanted to look at a handy little app on my mobile phone (google sky map for andriod) helped me identify a few of he brighter objects.
So first target, a brightly shining Jupiter. Stuck the 25mm EP in lined up in the finder scope and although not fully lined up closed enough to nudge Jupiter into view, a little tweak on focus and there it was with it moons. a little adjustment and my son got his first look.
Filled with excitement we headed out to a few other items stars he pointed out, one day I will know what they are but our first hour in not ideal conditions was alot of fun with very little frustration.
Final effort was the moon in all its glory both with the 25 and 10 EP
I have a huge amount to learn about this hobby but I think i am going to enjoy the learning.