[timbo475]

Hi all,

Thought I'd introduce myself as no doubt I'll be bothering you all with some questions about the universe (now that's a sentence I never thought I'd say, except perhaps to a deity).

I'm a complete newbie but have been doing a fair bit or research into astronomy (including plenty of lurking about this forum). I'm on the edge of information overload (it is the universe we're talking about - it's quite big) but enjoying the journey so far - I'm pretty much right at the beginning, though.

I've been thinking of dipping my toes into astronomy and recently my siblings bought me a telescope as a 40th present (damned nice of them, really!). It was a Celestron Astromaster LT70AZ and it didn't take long before I decided I needed something with more oomph so I've recently acquire a Bintel 10" dob (after a fair bit of research). A did an astronomy course via Coursera a while back (didn't quite finish it but close) so have some basic knowledge and know a little astro lingo now but I can tell this is going to be quite a journey ahead of me.

My first go was a few nights ago and I saw venus (that sucker is bright!) and found a few stars but it was a bit aimless so I've got to get me a more specific plan I'd like to try and find some nice DSOs but haven't been albe to so far - any advice on finding DSOs is welcome.
I'm eagerly awaiting Jupiter and Saturn!

I'm going to have loads of questions but for now:
- colimation; Bintel do colimate their scopes I believe, but I suspect it's a good idea to check colimation (and correct if necessary) to give me a good starting baseline. I got a laser colimator (oriion lasermate deluxe II) but it seems a cheshire tube might have been better. Will the lasermate do or should I invest in a cheshire?
- navigating the sky; I've got Stellarium and a starwheel and also just recently downloaded Taki's star maps. The star maps are a little difficult to follow - any good resources for using these? I'm getting a bit lost in the sky but part of the learning process I reckon.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and give a bit of a background - this is probably enough for now!

Oh yeah - and apologies in advance for the cloudy skies (although it actually looks like it might be a reasonably good night in Sydney tonight)......

cheers,

Timbo