Hello all

[djacko]

Hi everybody, I'm not real sure if I am introducing myself in the right place so I'll just see how I go.

Not long here from the U.K and found this forum from the net. Í've been involved on and off with astronomy and done a little astrophotography back home but had to sell a lot of gear and am looking to set myself up with at least a telescope for now. I had a custom made f/6 200mm Newtonian but have left it in the hands, or rather shed, of a very good friend.

You have such magical skies here and my partner agrees we could manage a nice scope and perhaps camera so that I don't become too frustrated on quiet evenings.

We are in the Sydney area so if anyone can recommend a reliable and not too dear dealer, we would be very appreciative. Hope to visit regularly and perhaps meet a few members at a star party in the future.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Hi Darren and to the site. Posting here is fine as you don't fit the mould of beginner For the "Beginners Start Here!" Forum.

There are a few good options as far as Scope shops go in Sydney, plus a number of online ones as well. There seems to have been a bit of an influx of requests for stores in the last couple of days. Check out here .

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Welcome Darren to IIS and Australia! Enjoy your stay. The Bintel shop in Sydney has excellent reputation for service and their prices are very good too.

[RAJAH235]

Hi Darren.. & welcome..
Hope you enjoy our milder winters. Just have a browse for most, if not all the info you need to get set-up. L.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Welcome to IIS Darren

[ving (David)]

welcome darren.

bintel, andrews communications, myastroshop just to name 3... these are all pretty good

[toetoe (Peter)]

G'day Darren and welcome to IIS.

[djacko]

Thanks lads. I hear your winters are more like our summers though I'm sure this is an exaggeration. Can't to see the centre of the milky way overhead from the country.

Thanks for the supplier suggestions. I will follow up over the next week or so.

[dhumpie]

Hi from one Darren to another

Darren (from Malaysia and now Brisbane!)

[djacko]

Hi all and hi Darren back to Darren

Well finally sorted myself out with a telescope that should be plenty enough to keep me entertained while here in Aussie land for the next 12 months and didnt break the bank. Hunted around a few dealers suggested here, thanks all for that, but after a speaking with about 4 dealers was most impressed with the Steve at My Astro Shop whom I later had the good fortune to observe with. I must have driven him insane with all the questions over the phone but he really knows his apples. Since they're not far from where I live I took a peak hour traffic trip to Brookvale to pick up an SW600 newt, a couple of Vixen eyepieces; far cheaper than back home and got the motor drives fitted. Talk about goin the extra mile although I don't think it was an effort for this guy; he clearly loves astronomy!

We ended up putting the new beasty through its paces observing for several hours with a quick lesson in setting up, installing the drive motors which he made me do with a little supervision..a no brainer really and then we did a polar align for downunder skies.

A quick check and tweak of the collimation and how the drive controller worked, we then took it outside and even did a little ronchi grating test on a 3rd mag star and the mirror looked really good. Lovely diffraction rings with a star test using the LV6 eyepiece. Within an hour I'd seen more southern beauties than I had imagined I'd ever eyeball during my short time so far. What I found really amazing was his video deep sky camera Vstar You could see stuff (and with a nearly full moon in the sky) that could barely be seen in the eyepiece! Even when a slight bit of cloud passed over the Orion Nebula, the view was way better than I'd ever seen in the U.K from the darkest skies. So couldn't help myself much to my partners dismay and placed an order for one of these little gems too!. It will be great especially living so close to the city as I do. I had been thinkin about going down the cassegrain path but the budget simply wouldn't allow it right now and a good newt in this aperture is something I'm quite used to.
I'm grateful we had the opportunity last night as it's been nothing but cloud tonight and I've sat up for hours busting to use the new scope again Hope to be submitting a few pictures myself soon. After last night I am very inspired to get crackin

[xstream (John)]

Hi Darren, Welcome to IIS.

I'm glad you like your new scope. With Steve's advise I'm sure you'll get many years of pleasurable viewing with it. I'll be looking forward to seeing your first results with the vstar when you receive it.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

G'day again Darren.


I want screen shots!!!!!!! Lots of screen shot of what you can see through the camera!!!!! I know a certain community observatory that might be very interested in something like that. Especially if you can see nebula clearly through it.

Must have full report! Impression, pros, cons, can you see brighter galaxies through it, is it usb, do I need a tv card in the laptop........everything!


Oh when does it arrive. Where can I get one to play with, will you get it cheaper if you buy two (if so buy me one too >P )......details man....you can't leave me just hanging like that.

Darren....Darren.......Hellooooo.

[xstream (John)]

Paul!!!!!!
You'll give yourself a hernia in a minute.

[videoguy]

Hi Daz!

It's GSTAR-EX mate! - thanks foir the plug on the camera though..it was afun night for sure. BTW the new stock should be in by mid next week.
Paul, I'm hoping to put update the gstarex.myastroshop.com.au page soon to include screen shots etc.. What Darren say's about cloud was quite right although technically it was thin wispy cirrus. Asfar asconnection to PC goes you need either a composite to USB converter or a video input port on the laptop like S-Video or composite. I use a simple PCI card installed in a desktop machine.

Cheers

[djacko]

Hi Steve,
Whoops sorry mate. Wasn't really paying attention to the brand just the amazing view! The camera was great;Im lookin forward to pickin it up next week. Went out tonight with the scope but the moons still quite bright but managed to get a good hours observing in before being invaded by work mates. The vixens are amazingly good especially compared to the basic eyepieces supplied with the scope. Good suggestion. I might get a smaller scope for Ange and she can use the other ep's ;-). Thanks again for the help and beer!