[ArcaneMagik (Craig)]

Hi all,

Been a little bit of a lurker, but finally decided that if I am ever going to learn while making as few mistakes as possible I need to get involved.

I have always been a bit of a fan for astronomy and space as a kid and this has lead me to where I am now. I was given a pair of 7x50 binoculars for a Christmas by my very sensible parents, which were used to hop around the sky looking at the few objects I knew without any real guide. Loved the theory side, and excelled but never knew what I was doing in the practical side.

Recently I had a bit of a reflection of my life so far, and realised I wasn't doing anything I loved or wanted. I got back into Astronomy and took my binocular out for a spin around the night sky. I enjoyed it immensely, and can really say it's my first adult hobby of any real note.

Decided that my love worn binoculars were not going to cut it any more; I recently purchased my first telescope, an 8" dob from the nice people over at Bintel. That was after a serious amount of reading online about best beginner scopes, including quiet a few posts on this place.

Taken the scope out a few time, and slowly getting use to it.

And that's now why I am here. I need some advice and rather than just looking for the answer I can use it to say hi.

The Bintel scope came with 3 eyepieces, and while hunting DSOs they do great. I am wanting to check out the planets, and currently with a max magnification of around 133x they are a little on the smallish side.

I assume I need a Barlow lens to check them out in any real detail. Should I be getting a 2x or 3x Barlow? Is it better to spend more on this now, rather than later?

Since I am getting comfortable with my telescope, is there any other items I should be thinking about adding to my collection at this time?

(I hope those are the right questions to ask)