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Old 21-06-2020, 11:38 PM
Mickoid (Michael)
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Mickoid is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 1,533
Welcome to the forum Pete. Anything bright will be a good starting point and as Jay has pointed out, you can't go past the moon to begin with. It's big, bright and full of surface details that will test out your focus and exposure skills pretty quickly. It will also give you the experience of testing out what different eyepieces do and generally how to operate your telescope mount.

Last night in Melbourne there was no moon but some clear skies earlier in the night would have given you the opportunity to look at a few stars. At least you've started off with some nice equipment to make things a bit more enjoyable. So many beginners buy a cheap telescope and mount only to lose interest because it's so dam hard seeing anything encouraging through poor optics and an unstable mount, so well done on doing that.

Most of the pictures you see posted here will be within your grasp with the rig you have. You just have to learn how to set up your mount so you can utilise the GOTO functionality if you haven't already done so. I assume it came with instructions, so that will help you learn the basics.

Unless you have done a lot of film making in the dark you will be challenged by the lack of light compared to daytime photography and all the problems and frustrations associated with it. Be prepared for long exposures of objects that don't stand still, cold nights in winter and mosquitoes in summer, just to name a few. It's all good fun really and very rewarding when your endurance and perseverance prevails.

So over the coming days, if weather permits, look out for the moon as it starts waxing toward full. Your girls will be very impressed at the views of craters that appear so close. Good luck and just keep asking us questions, we're here to help and we all started out just like you, a beginner eager to learn more about this great hobby.
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