It's been nearly 2 months since the purchase of my 12" Dob. It's been a massive learning curve and my knowledge of the night sky has increased and just love being out there. This forum is a valuable tool, when I want a question answered more often than not there is a thread on the topic. When I want to add a new object to my viewing library I have also found threads on here that are value added.
I've been busy modifying a standard hand trolley to assist me wheeling the Dob in & out of the house. Thanks to Malcolm - Barx1963 who emailed some photos of his own modified hand trolley, it made the job really easy.
A couple of weeks ago I lay-by'd a few ep's, it was gruelling because there were so many choices and so little money. Anyway, after a while, with the expertise of the saleperson, I came away happy and I hope I made the right choices -the Televue - Nagler 13mm VI (1.25"), Nagler 20mm V (2"), & the Powermate 2.0x (2").
I am finding myself sitting on the coach late at night, when the night is clouded over, and visualise where certain objects are at various times.
I think this is due to the fact I have set a challenge to try to learn 1 thing everyday that is related to astronomy, whether it's a fact or name of an object in the sky.
I went up to Shepparton last night and on the way back I made my mate stop in between Shep & Nagambie just to view the night sky. It was black with a huge contrast compared to my light polluted back yard. I was thinking how beautiful the sky was and how lucky people are out there having such prestine viewing conditions.
So far today the weather here in Melbourne has been sunny with clear skies, I'm looking forward to clear night skies, if only I could have had my new ep's.
