[expon (Jas)]

I'm still new to all of this and haven't had the best run of clear nights vs work shifts therefor not looking up as much as I would like to. So I have been on night shifts lately and I woke up this evening to what would be reasonably clear skies over Melbourne. I grabbed my 90mm refractor and went out for a quickie under the stars (not that kind im married).

The moon was out for the first time since I got the scope and I thought i'd give it a view. WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WAS! It was like looking into a flood light. So tomorrow im going to get a filter to calm it down a little.

After about 10 mins waiting for my eyeball to return to 20/20 vision I had a peak at Jupiter. A few weeks ago I tried this only to see a muddy ball, but this time it was different. With a 25mm lens I could see the moons very clearly, well only 3 but they were there. I switched to the 10 then the 6.7 and I actually saw two bands (well I think I did). It looked amazing, so amazing I cannot describe it because I am terrible at describing things.

I thought to myself "i'm on a roll, go for orions nebula". Having never seen it before, or even tried looking I actually wasn't sure where it was. I don't have a goto so a quick guide on a website gave me a rough idea where to look. Throw the 25mm back in, look up and.....nothing damn. So I tried to 10mm thinking maybe I needed a little more zoom. Left right, up down went the controls and wallah! there it was, a grey smudge through the view finder.

For some reason been a total noob I expected some colour. So to be honest I was a little dissapointed at first but then came to realise what I was looking at had nothing to do with colour at all. I was looking back in time at photons that had travelled a very long way to hit me in the eye. I just sat in silence thinking about what's out there and how much more there is to see, to marvel at.

That's why I do not intend to get into astrophotography. I want the views to be mine, right there in the moment. I managed to see all of this through a cheap 90mm refractor over the skies from my front yard in Melbourne. I can only wonder how much more I could see through a reflector or a better quality refractor or perhaps a drive out of town. My next purchase will be soon. Trouble is getting a bigger budget without feeling guilty about it. Perhaps getting the wife on board a bit more could help there.

I guess the rambling can end here but I throw out the question, what was it like your first time you saw the planets? the moon, orion? and for those with high end scopes, do the higher quality components make more of a difference over larger aperature?


Thanks for reading and I look forward to participating more as time goes by.