My first posting!

[Dazzler]

Hi All - I'm glad to be part of the community. I have just started to get into the swing of observing after purchasing one of the new Meade 10" LX200R's.

It is pretty well idiot proof as it needed to be for me to get into some great viewing as quickly as I have.

It was my birthday the other day and my family bought me the Sky & Telescope star atlas. As a compact atlas it looks terrific but I note that it was produced by an American and therefore the maps all appear upside down to our skies in the southern hemisphere.

This is not a major problem but is annoying. Does anyone know of any maps/atlases that have been published for southern skies? Also are the smaller atlas type publications a problem in the field or should I be looking for larger maps?

Cheers.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

and Dazzler. The one I started with was Wil Tirions "The Southern Sky Guide" It is printed the right way up.

[Ric]

Hi Dazzler and welcome to IIS, you'll lots of people and info to help you here.
A good map/ atlas that I use is Uranometria, it comes in two volumes so you only need to purchase one for the southern hemisphere but they are not cheap.
There is also star atlas software like "Cartes du Ciel" which is free to download and excellent. Skymaps.com is also a good site to get a star chart for the February southern sky, I'm sure that other members will point you other atlas's and software that I haven't mentioned.
Your scope is a beauty and you'll be very happy with it for many years, I've the 12" version for 9 months and cant get enough of it.

Cheers

[Dazzler]

Thanks guys!

Ric - how do you go moving your 12" around. The 10" is about just manageable.

I am now going to venture towards polar alignment. What would you suggest as far as wedges are concerned? I see that Meade have a standard and an ultra wedge with a pretty major price differential.

[iceman (Mike)]

Hey Dazzler, to IIS! Great to have you here.

[ving (David)]

gday dazzler
welcome aboard

[xelasnave]

Welcome Dazzler I hope you enjoy your new scope and your time here. Really a great bunch of people and what they dont know is not worth knowing.
You mention thinking about a wedge does that mean you are going to do some photography?
alex

[Ric]

Hi Dazzler, from the research I have done the standard or the superwedge would be suitable for the 10". I saw a superwedge for sale in the buy and sell section the other day. For my scope I have to move up to the ultrawedge which is as you say quite a jump in price, I am still saving at the moment.

If you are thinking of going into imaging you still can in Alt/Az as long as you stay below the magical 30 second exposure time and you can take quite good images, I've added some examples taken with 15 second exposures in LRGB with a DSI II Pro. I am still learning a lot about it myself at the moment.

As to moving it around and getting up onto the tripod my beautiful wife Kee helps me with that as it can really be a handfull, I think that is why she is actively encouraging me to build an observatory.

Cheers

[Dazzler]

Thank you all for the welcome!

I am definitely looking to get into the photography side of things. Ric - my thoughts were the same as yours and I am looking at the new DSI Pro II. I thought that if I can get some good photos under my belt in alt/az I could then look at polar alignment for the long exposure stuff later.

I went to my first group viewing session the other night and everyone there was using polar and suggested I start that way. Hence my confusion.

You're doing well to have a wife keen enough to let you build an observatory - go for GOLD!

Dazzler

[Ric]

Hi Dazzler, people using polar will tell you that because they have been turned to the dark side

Seriously though there is nothing wrong to starting off that way, for me I just wanted to hone my skills before moving onto longer exposures in the same way as you said.

Cheers

[Dazzler]

Ric - one semi technical question on your DSI - how do you go with condensation on the exposed colour filters on those cold nights? Apart from the filter that is in the camera they seem to be pretty well exposed to the elements.

[Ric]

Darren, I actually haven't encountered that problem yet. Last winter was the first with my DSI II and I got some temps down to -8ºc, my problem was the corrector icing up before I made myself a dew shield.
Of the top of my head you could cover the filter slide with a cloth. A more annoying problem I find is that they do get dusty and require cleaning.
Later on down the track I will probably move to a filter wheel which will no doubt solve both problems.

Cheers

[astro_nutt]

And another welcome to IIS Darren!!!
Cheers!