Crikey.. There's lots of stuff up there

[ben.]

Hello everyone! Just a quick first post to make myself known.

My lovely girlfriend bought me a Celestron NexStar 4SE for Christmas and I find myself cursing the weather more often than usual. As a surfer, I like clear, sunny days. Now I'm after cloudless night skies for a whole new reason!

Always been interested in star stuff and had always been in the market for a telescope, until I received an amazing Chrissy gift.

So far have laid eyes on M41, M47, M93, a few NGC objects and spied Jupiter with 4 moons (I think) and possibly Uranus. The skies from my backyard are almost entirely obscured my trees except for a portion NE to E. I live up on the Northern Beaches of Sydney so there isn't too much light pollution around and some nice dark spaces within a 10min drive away.. Come on clear skies!

Just ordered my first few eyepieces and some filters and a power pack to drive the scope.. I never realised how expensive AA batteries were!

Anyway, hope to learn a few more things from loitering around here.

Cheers..

[supernova1965]

Welcome Ben

Good to have you with us. You will learn lots from all these fine people:thumbsup::welcome:

[M54]

:welcome: Ben. You've come to the right place!:D

[astroron]

:hi:Ben and :welcome: I hope you enjoy your time with us on iceinspace :thumbsup:

[BLiTZWiNG]

I suggest you hold onto that girl very tightly. Do not let go.

[Suzy]

Hi Ben, and :welcome:
Your girlfriend is a keeper all right! :lol:
Hope you enjoy your stay (I know you will ;) ). There is so much to learn from here, and great people. :D

Did you see the Orion Nebula (M42)?:eyepop:. And don't forget to take a look at Eta Carina nebula and it's surrounds, as well as Crux (south tho). The milky way trails right through it so there are plenty of goodies. :eyepop:
Have lots of fun!
Suzy.

Oops, nearly forgot.. you should have a look at this link here, [/URL][URL]http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=68584 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=68584) it gives some wonderful goodies to have a look at.

[Jen]

:hi::hi: gday Ben :welcome: to IIS you have come to the right place :thumbsup: see ya around the forums cheers buddy :thumbsup:

[M110]

Welcome aboard.

[Paddy]

Hi Ben and welcome. And, yes, there is a lot to look at. Ain't it grand!

[ben.]

Thanks for the warm welcome all!

Yes, she definitely is a keeper. An original Gibson Dobro the year before, a scope this year. She is quite amazing!

I'm yet to catch M42, the extent of my northerly viewing ends at Sirius, so Orion is only just out of view. Every single night for the past week has been cloudy so haven't ventured to any other sites to test out my new baby, hopefully La Nina feels like being a little kinder in the coming weeks.

Question, does anyone have any experience with NexImage? It seems a little cheaper than upgrading to a nice shiny DSLR. I'm not hugely into astrophotography (in terms of hours and hours of exposures) but taking some images of that I see could be fun, perhaps even leading me deeping into astrophotography.

Many thanks everyone!