I'm ashamed of my first light

[jimmyh1555 (James)]

Six weeks ago, I became the proud owner of an absolutely amazing telescope. It is a TRIPLET APO new beaut 100mm refractor, by the name of Esprit Very heavy, lots of glass. It came beautifully wrapped in a very solid box with padlock holes and reinforced edges, mounting gear, finder scope, field flattener and lots of screw-on bits for EP's etc.
There was only one problem...... I live in Tassie and for the last 6 weeks the weather has been HORRID . The only clear nights I had, were full of full moons. I have been staring at my new scope, taking it out of the box, making up a connection for my HEQ5, then mounting it in the garage and hoping.... listening to the rain on the roof. Yesterday, I had had enough. I opened up the garage door, pointed the telescope horizontally in the general direction of distant hills, slipped a Delite 17.3mm EP into the holder and lined up the finder scope on a distant roof. I then performed an act that is the greatest desecration any self-respecting amateur astronomer could do..... I looked through the eyepiece and saw...there in the centre of the field of view, in perfect focus, with my first light, a bloomin' great STREET LAMP - and it was ON because the day was so dark..... What a disgrace
I felt so ashamed, I packed my treasure up and carried it back into the house. As I am typing this, there it is in its beaut box, not 3 feet away and I am still listening to the wind howling and the rain pouring... Well there is always tomorrow....

[billdan (Bill)]

Hi James, yes consistently bad weather can be very frustrating, when this happens to me I think of the people over in England.

In summer it doesn't get astronomical dark until 11pm and you only get 3 hours of imaging because dawn arrives at 3am. The weather is so poor over there they may only get 1 hour of imaging time anyway, winter or summer.

[Wavytone]

Hehe James the weather gods have to be appeased ! They're always unhappy when you buy nice new gear...

Go find an old Trashco scope, or a wooden dobsonian or tripod that can be sacrificed accordingly

[xelasnave]

I would sell it...in fact I could be interested if the price is attractive.

Look there is nothing wrong looking at street lights...barlow it up and take photos of moths at night... make sure everything works.

I am thinking of one of these they sound rather good so be happy to hear your opinion when you get to use it under a clear, dark perfect seeing sky.

Good luck.

alex

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

.

Look there is nothing wrong looking at street lights...barlow it up and take photos of moths at night... make sure everything works.

alex

The things you think off Alex .....

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by FlashDrive

The things you think off Alex .....

I thought it a quite normal responce.

When living in the bush I tried many things with my gear.

A plastic 3x barlow came into my possession so I added it to my 3x and my 2x of good quality placed all of them on my 1200 mm f/l refractor and spent the day photographing ants 50 meters away. I used an Meade LPI so I got to see the ants close up. I think I got an ant and a half in the shot.

A cool thing to do with moths is get a fov outside the light, just, and set a time exposure and you get all these moth trails as they fly around and a photo that looks as if it came from CERN.

alex

[Nebulous (Chris)]

It sounds like a splendid telescope. The rain gods will eventually take pity on you, and the clouds will pass..…


Your experience reminds me of the first time I ever used my binoculars. The friend who I’d bought them from dropped them round one evening and I was keen to try them out. However it was dark, and there were very few available targets. I sat on the verandah seaching for something to look at. After a quick glance at a lone streetlight I spotted a slightly unusual patch of light at the house next door. “I wonder what that is?...” I thought and focused on what turned out to be a pane of frosted glass. It soon became obvious that there was movement behind the glass, and after a few more seconds I realised that what I was looking at was the woman next door taking a shower….

Nothing revealing - it was thick frosted glass after all - but it occurred to me that if her husband, or anybody else, happened to appear at that moment, nobody would EVER believe my (true) story that it was all completely innocent and accidental and I was simply trying out some new binoculars..

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by Nebulous

It sounds like a splendid telescope. The rain gods will eventually take pity on you, and the clouds will pass..…


Your experience reminds me of the first time I ever used my binoculars. The friend who I’d bought them from dropped them round one evening and I was keen to try them out. However it was dark, and there were very few available targets. I sat on the verandah seaching for something to look at. After a quick glance at a lone streetlight I spotted a slightly unusual patch of light at the house next door. “I wonder what that is?...” I thought and focused on what turned out to be a pane of frosted glass. It soon became obvious that there was movement behind the glass, and after a few more seconds I realised that what I was looking at was the woman next door taking a shower….

Nothing revealing - it was thick frosted glass after all - but it occurred to me that if her husband, or anybody else, happened to appear at that moment, nobody would EVER believe my (true) story that it was all completely innocent and accidental and I was simply trying out some new binoculars..

Maybe you could get something to correct the distortion

alex

[LewisM]

I really like the way the original post was written - nicely done - not the typical "Oh - he he he - it's going to rain for 3 years because I bought a 60mm scope" type of asininity.

Done with class - kudos!

[Kunama]

What always amazes me is how people seem to avoid pointing their scopes at one of the most graphic displays available to telescopes, the Moon.
I see people cheering being able to split one point of light into two points of light but never looking at the craters and rilles of good old Luna..

Point that sucker at the moon and enjoy !!!

Beats the CARP out of street lights.....

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by Kunama

What always amazes me is how people seem to avoid pointing their scopes at one of the most graphic displays available to telescopes, the Moon.
I see people cheering being able to split one point of light into two points of light but never looking at the craters and rilles of good old Luna..

Point that sucker at the moon and enjoy !!!

Beats the CARP out of street lights.....

Yep, ol' Luna sure is a carp beater! I know tonight my first light with the TSA will be looking for the Easter Bunny...

(in fact, I have spent HOURS exploring rilles, valleys, mountains....)

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

James, when the cloud gods get over the panic, your scope will reward you with fantastic views and/or images...whatever floats your boat

[leon]

James hang in there mate, and guys i hate the MOON.

Leon

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by Kunama

What always amazes me is how people seem to avoid pointing their scopes at one of the most graphic displays available to telescopes, the Moon.
I see people cheering being able to split one point of light into two points of light but never looking at the craters and rilles of good old Luna..

Point that sucker at the moon and enjoy !!!

Beats the CARP out of street lights.....

I had some last night ..it was great..tried a 3x barlow shot needed more focuser lenght but squeezed out a couple of millimeters but very interesting sky line (terminator). I forgot how much fun photographing the Moon could be. Stacked some one night but I was surprise what you can get with one shot.

Alex

Alex

[Atmos (Colin)]

Originally Posted by Kunama

What always amazes me is how people seem to avoid pointing their scopes at one of the most graphic displays available to telescopes, the Moon.
I see people cheering being able to split one point of light into two points of light but never looking at the craters and rilles of good old Luna..

Point that sucker at the moon and enjoy !!!

Beats the CARP out of street lights.....

Well that all depends on whether the moon looks like it's being looked at while under water and through the waves
You do make a good point though, I'd much rather have the scope out when it's a full moon than have clouds every night.

At least in Melbourne we've got both grounds covered so I don't think I'll get get the Mewlon collimated
Maybe I just need to sacrifice my 30mm brass scope in all of its chromatic glory?

[raymo]

Sorry to blow my own trumpet, but referring to Alex's post, my lunar shot
in the current S & T was done with Barlow stacking, good fun.
raymo

[jimmyh1555 (James)]

Thanks guys for your illuminating comments! Actually I do quite like the moon, especially when it comes out on the only clear night for 29 days! I photographed it through my other scope (Celestron XLT120) in SharpCap, stacked it in Autostakker and stuffed it up in Registax when I applied those wavelets! My new beaut Esprit I am saving for a real treat at some time in the cloudless future and I promise never to point it at a street lamp again

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by raymo

Sorry to blow my own trumpet, but referring to Alex's post, my lunar shot
in the current S & T was done with Barlow stacking, good fun.
raymo

Could you stack two by five times barlow? say on eight inch 1000 x 10 wow pretty extreme ... past the limit of what is possible.

Seeing would get you..maybe fast frames for planets.
Alex

[raymo]

I think you are right Alex. I used a 3 and a 2, and the image quality was
dropping off quite noticeably;mind you the 3 was a cheapie. Maybe with premium barlows I could have used two 3s.
Raymo

[Atmos (Colin)]

Marc (multiweb) on another occasion as mentioned a Baader one I believe that he's said is truly excellent and is variable from like 2-8x.