Hello to all

[clueless]

I just wanted to say hi. My name is Andrew and I've been into astronomy since last December when my wife bought me a celestron astromaster 130eq md. Still learning, and as you all would be aware it's definitely a steep hill to climb. I still haven't found Sigma oct yet, I;ve taken a few out of focus photos, seen the transit of venus, moon, mars, jupiter and saturn. For some reason I enjoy just fiddling and trying to find things, but I would like to be able to point the scope when I want to, so see other objects. My mount is pretty crappy for an GEM, one leg bracket is alread broken, slightest touch and it broke, but I can still use it.
My goal is to buy a GEM with goto, new ones are way too expensive for me as I work 2 jobs to support my family as it is. I;m hoping I will find a second hand one for sale on here. It's a great site, the best I've come accross and I've looked at a lot. I live in Merimbula so I enjoy pretty dark skies for excellent viewing. One of the hardest learning curves is to acutally learn the lingo, all these abbreviations means I have to cut and paste into google all the time just to know what people are talking about ;)
Anyway, hi again and happy viewing.
Regards
Andrew

[scagman]

Hi Andrew and :welcome:.
It is a great site with plenty of great people willing to help out where they can. You just have to ask.

Yes the hill, well its more like some of those climbs in the Tour De France:).

Have you got a copy of stellarium avalable here http://www.stellarium.org/ it is a free program that you can set up for your location and will show you whats viewable from your location. I too have to google the lingo.

Cheers

[clueless]

Hi John, Thanks for the comment.
Yes I have stellarium on my Galaxy III phone. It's a little ripper...I have a few diff apps as well that I haven't learnt how to use yet.

[Vasya Pupkin]

Excuse me, could you show me your such photos. I wonder, how did YOU start your astrophotography.

[iceman]

Hi Andrew, :welcome: to IceInSpace!

If you find a group near you, that's a great place to learn the lingo and get to look through some different kinds of telescopes.

Star parties are also a great place to meet like minded folk.
Where abouts do you live?

[clueless]

Hi Iceman,

I live in Merimbula on the Sapphire Coast, down near Eden and the Victorian border. There isn't too much light polution where I am so I'm pretty lucky.
I've contacted the Bega Valley astronomy society. I think they only meet once every few months but I haven't seen a notice for one coming up.
I would like to see what other scopes ppl use, but more importantly for someone to show me how to use mine. You can only read so much and try things yourself, but nothing is better than having someone in the 'know' give you a run down.
I think I go alright despite being unable to correctly balance my scope and find the SCP to polar align ;) It is my first scope but I was able to locate Jupiter the first time I used it in about 15 mins, and increased magnification until I could see the bands of colour. The finder of the celestron astromaster isn't much chop.
I want to get a goto mount, but I know it's cheating a bit. I will learn to polar align manually and I've learnt so much already just by fluffing around and reading a lot. I didn't realise how technical it is, but that's ok, I'm always up for a challenge. I don't think the wife actually realised what she has done by giving me a telescope; the fact it's not the cheapest hobby to get into ;)
ANyway, thanks for the hello.

Andrew

[clueless]

Hi Vasya, the pics are on the other computer. I just started taking photos, and in fact I should get the other basics down pat first, like polar alignment. I was more curious as to what they would look like, and experimenting with the camera's (nikon d40) settings. I won't worry about pics until I get my polar alignment right, then I'll take a few more.
The wonder of the universe amazes me, but what amazes me more is our ability to get such amazing photos and to see so much from our own backyards.

[Vasya Pupkin]

Don't, please, see my message as a lesson, but when I started my astrophotography, I thought about the polar alignment too (because of my budget, I planned to make a barn-door). But I started experiments of wide-field photography and I do it from that times (from 13.02.12, when I took my first one). Of course, stars move, but I take some photos (not one) and then correct the movement in the Adobe Photoshop. I tried to take photos though the scope, but then the movement of stars became too powerful.
I don't know, what results YOU will consider as good, but I have examples of such photos. By the way, you, I think, would have better results because you have better camera. All my photos by Samsung NV3, ISO 80.

Orion (15*16sec). Light pollution of Moscow harmful! The Moon is harmful too.
Corona Borealis and Bootes(20*16).

[clueless]

Hi Vasya,

See attached photos. Both are of the Southern Cross. They were taken the first night I tried taking photos. I just piggy-backed the camera on top of the telescope. They are only the one photo, I think about 20 second exposure. All I have done is convert them from raw to jpg.

I hope you like them....

Because it was the first photos i had ever taken of the night's sky, I was amazed at the amount of stars there actually is up there. I am lucky because I live where there is not much city light, virtually none, unlike moscow where there is a lot. On a moonless night, the milky way stretches across the night's sky.

[ZeroID]

Hi Andrew, not bad pix for first attempt, bit of star tracking or drift apparent but you are so lucky to have such good skies. You should be able to get Stellarium going or some star charts and start to identify them. They will help you find the SCP when you become more familiar with them.

[clueless]

Thanks for the comments.

I can point to the scp, using the southern cross and the alpha stars as guides. I do have a couple of print outs of what to expect when I view through the telescope, but as yet I haven't had the time to have a look. I'm pretty confident that once I start looking I should be able to find sigma octantis (at some stage :)) . It's like anything I suppose, the more time you put into it, the better it becomes.
I've read and printed out that much info on polar alignment etc, so once I start at least i'm not going into it 'without a clue'.

Cheers

Andrew

[jez]

Hi Andrew - and welcome to you also!

Good to see your photos - I envy such darks skys.

Jeremy

[Vasya Pupkin]

And you call THESE photos "out of focus". I have never taken SUCH photos at all. Excellent result. With your appliance and your light pollution conditions you will gain much.
Excuse me, but I have one question. Have you any photos of Grus-Piscis Austrinus. I can't see these constellations (I saw them only on a map), but I like them. If you have, could you show me them. If you need, I can try to take a photo of any northern constellation (I said "try" because you have seen my scantly results).

[Auspom]

don't know i'd be calling myself clueless if i had some pics like that andrew. i'd be well chuffed.

[PeterM]

Hi Andrew and welcome to IIS.
Good bunch here and aways helpful.
Enjoy the fabulous journey you are starting on.

[clueless]

Thanks eeveryone;)