woohoo, finally got out there, on the driveway, and began the fun task setting it up. Got the legs levelled and then decided that as the clouds were rolling in I would just point and shoot rather than do an alignment. The scope was all the way out of focus and the pointer was not aligned either. Aligned the pointer using a tree and looking at the dark blob of foliage against the city glow, it worked! cool. Then went to look at Mars which was large and tempting earlier only to find that the clouds were back. grrr. Panned around to Canopus which was just about the only star without clouds and started twirling the focus knob. It was very cool going from a complete light blur in the eyepiece to a pinpoint star. Did final alignment on pointer and then looked for something else to see, hmmm, not much left that wasnt covered in cloud. Got a quick squizzie at Aldabarran and then packed up. All in all I am quite chuffed :-) and only a little disappointed at missing Mars. Canopus, my first star with my new scope. very