Hi All,
Just wanted to spout off a bit as I had a great night right from Dusk to 2am spinning around the sky looking at stuff, namely M42 in Orion and that BIG planety looking thing that is in Leo, oh yeah SATURN.
I used Al's (Sheeny's) 168 degree method of "point and click" and off I went, setting the RA circle off Sirius and then learning / guessing / testing my way around.
Before the kids went to bed I showed them M42 to the cries of WOW, cool, what else can I see etc...... and then after Saturn popped up I realised I could just look the sucker up in the back of the Astronomy 2008 mag, spin the scope around and BAM, planet with Rings in the finder and the eyepiece! Mars is just a reddish round ball compared to Saturn.
All three of my boys (13, 11 and 7) got a look at Saturn and I was even hoping to glimpse Jupiter, but the clouds made a return about 3:00am, so I will have to wait for that one..!
I even managed to sort out the plastic camera mount adapter and took bucketloads of grainy, out of focus and just plain sad photos of Saturn, this one is probably the best one I have.... hopefully these will get better as I go...the only way is UP!
I will have to see if I can find my Kodak Digital as the Pentax is a bit screwy to try and get the exposure right, this photo was taken on a 10 sec delay timer (to stop the wobbles) and just a standard photo setting.
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j.../IMGP1196a.jpg
I cant be too sure but I think there is a DOT on the left side, is this a moon? or a DOT?
I may have to buy myself a 4mm Plossl as I only have a 10mm and 20mm that came with the scope. Perhaps a Barlow may be a good investment too.
I think I still have a bit of work to do with the Drift Alignment method as I kept having to correct the scope after about 3-4 mins with the RA motor on by using the DEC control to bring the planet back to view central.
I also had a bit of a problem later on with dew on the eyepiece and all over my books,
but not too bad.
The 130mm aperture and optics were quite good and with the finder and scope set up properly, pointing was a breeze. Now I will just have to learn how to fold myself in half to see some of the eyepiece positions on the GEM Netwonian...
Thanks again for the advice and the posts, it really helps to have it all click into place and work pretty much the first night I had clear skies and scanning around with my Planisphere and A2008 mag made it fun and challenging.
Finally, all I can say is how cool is it to see another planet or Nebula from your own backyard!
Damn it, I think I am hooked...
Cheers for now
Chris