|
Yup, I've no doubt some Brisbane people will notice this thread.
I've already found a few local star clubs. When my schedule evens out a little (I'm a uni student, amongst other things), I'll check them out.
My little scope has been awesome so far. Mars and Saturn were easy finds, but I probably spent more time staring at Saturn than anything else. I have a 3.8mm ED eyepiece for my 500mm refractor that gets me a lovely, albeit kinda small, view of the rings.
It's the clusters I love to find. At lower powers, even my little scope makes them into gorgeous fields of sparkles.
I already have Stellarium installed on my laptop, and I used it to help me identify things when I'm observing, though I am getting better at spotting constellations. Orion and Crux used to be about my limit. Now Leo, Taurus and Canis Major are obvious to me.
As for my next scope - astrophotography is my end-goal, but I can tell it's going to be a difficult and expensive hobby (but rewarding...). I'm happy to progress slowly, learn what I can and view what I can before I start to image things. That said, my next scope will probably be a 150mm or 200mm reflector on an EQ mount with motor drives. Something that will give me plenty of room to grow. I've seen them around $1000 on websites. I can manage that (assuming I can talk my girlfriend into letting me...)
Unless, of course, I get a better idea from these forums haha (or I win the lottery and buy a 16" OTA on a custom EQ mount).
|