Hi DSB, Eric & All,
Quote:
Originally Posted by erick
Cannot agree more, Les. Had my first view of Saturn this year  at 3am this morning up near Mittagong through my litle C8 with a small band of eager newbies who had all set their alarms for this time! |
At Mittagong last night!!? Are we talking the same Mittagong here --southwest of Sydney? I was at Bargo just up (down??) the Hume at the same time for the 2nd time in 3 nights. Isn't Mittagong a loooong way from Bacchus Marsh for an observing night?
Quote:
Originally Posted by darkskybondi
Happy new year all!
Before the 9pm fireworks I had a peek at Venus. Very, very small. I haven't looked it up but I suspect Venus is at its most distant from us right now... I'll have to check that. Anyway, I snuck off between the 9pm and midnight fireworks to look at Orion's neb. Call me crazy. Later, after 2am, I observed a bunch of stuff, including Saturn again. Madness.
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Call you crazy? Nope, not me.
Madness ?? Sounds like pretty rational behaviour to me.
DSB, don't sweat the collimation issue
too much for the moment. Above all don't let it become an obsession that it makes using the 'scope a stressor or a chore. Some people in their early days end up spending so much of their time collimating to absolute perfection -- they leave almost no time for enjoyable observing.
Do the best with the tools and techniques you have. Do a search of the threads here on collimation a bit down the track and you can then learn how to squeeze the last few percent out -- once youv'e got the basics down pat. Don't stress over it yet -- enjoy the blessed thing. Spend more time instead learning the night sky.
With the difficulties with your eyes/glasses, don't rush headlong into a higher-powered eyepiece. The cheaper more simple ones will have very tiny eye-lenses with very short eye-relief that will be very unpleasant for you to use. Some of the more "premium" brands will be much more user-freindly to the eye-glass wearer.
Best,
Les D