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Originally Posted by sil
Chris, great read and even better to know you havent been put off by some of this hobbies eccentricities. I don't know if a dob should be on your shopping list just yet now and when you do maybe a 10" minimum would be what to aim for.
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Thanks for some more great tips Sil.
Yes, an 8" Dob has been crossed off the shopping list but I did just happen to notice that a guy in Perth had a second hand 10" listed on Gumtree....
But I really do need to calm down for a while and just get to know the skies better first. GAS can be a costly affliction. I ended up with a few too many guitars when I got into music. I now realise that my initial goal of "get to know the night sky" was both ambitious and vague. So it's been narrowed down to getting a general overall feel of where the more obvious stars and constellations are (and when) and then picking a much smaller area to try and get to know in a little more detail. And a modest area near the Southern Cross seems to fit the bill, with a lot of interesting targets that are usually in view.
I'm still exploring the world of eyepieces but the scopes came with a 10mm, a 25mm and a 28mm As you say, the quality isn't top notch but they will do for now. I did add a 6mm which gives a good close up view but also starts to show the limitations of the equipment with regard to crispness, etc. The weakest link in the chain currently is not so much the gear but learning how to keep my head steady in the right spot to get the right view. Improving, but it will take a fair bit more practice. So the current eyepieces are probably enough to be getting on with. But I've snipped out the section on eyepieces from your post and filed them way for later reference, so thanks for that.
Cheers,
Chris