I just joined this great forum after months just lurking around and getting info for my first telescope.
I have always been fascinated with astronomy, reading all I can about the planets from my world book encyclopedia and publications... listining to Star Stuff on the radio.
I've been to the Sydney observatory numerous times and I just thought lately it was time to buy myself a telescope.
After searching around and reading this great forum I decided to go to Andrews Communications and picked myself a 6" GSO Dobsonian. I have read that a 8" should be the minimum but I do not have alot of room at home and it does seem quite heavy, but I am happy with the purchase.
I hope to talk with many of you with my noob questions and hopefully even meet some of you's.
and Lawrence. Glad you gave the lurking away. Filthy habit Get in here and ask your questions. We spend so many lonely nights under the stars that it's nice to come in here and feel wanted so ask away.
Hi Lawrence. Pity about the lack of room but you'll have heaps of fun finding objects in the 6". Nice starter size. Now you need the 'large version' of the 'Chandler' planisphere, a red LED torch & a chair. Maybe a pair of 7 x 50 binocs too.... Keep you going for a while. L.
It's not the size that's important, it's how you use it. Get out there and start using it! 6" newts can do a fantastic job on the planets sometimes. It will be a great scope to get you started in exploring the night sky.
It's amazing what you can do with a good 6" telescope. I used one for over ten years a 6" f8 ( together with a favourite 1/2" ramsden eyepiece) Gives you a great starting point in the hobby and allows you to train your eye and practise getting used to the sky and where to find things.
Sometimes wish I had just kept that old scope!!! It had a mirror made by HE Dall, perfect figure!!!!
Welcome to IIS Lawrence. Great choice of scope to start with is the 6". A few years ago it was the standard serious beginner's scope but with the release of so many cheap, good asian scopes that has changed somewhat simply because you can afford a larger scope straight up. With that said, a 6" f8 will keep you going for years with a very small likelyhood that you will ever run out of things to see.
Luckily Andrews threw in a pair of binos and a moon filter to get me started.
I went outside last night to have a little peek with the telescope and I am very impressed with it (althought it was quite cloudy) I mainly concentrated on the moon.
Ill start to do a few tests on the scope as outlines in this forum once the sky clears and I get the time.
I couldnt resist the clear night and took my telescope out for a look just then, performed a star test and everything looks great!
I even took a few pics of the moon with my digital camera through the 25mm eyepiece. I will post up the pics once I find my cable.
Just a question off topic... I was supplied with 4 GSO Super Plossil eyepieces in 25mm, 16mm, 9 and 6mm. Any recommendations if I should get another eyepiece that would be able to split binary stars and the like?
Ok here is the picture that I took from my 25mm eyepiece as mentioned, with a moon filter.
Camera's just a Panasonic Lumix FX7, nothing professional about it, standard compact digicam.
I know its nothing near the quality of some people here but im quite happy with it.
Just a question off topic... I was supplied with 4 GSO Super Plossil eyepieces in 25mm, 16mm, 9 and 6mm. Any recommendations if I should get another eyepiece that would be able to split binary stars and the like?
That is a pretty good comprehensive set of eyepieces there for your scope from low to high power. You would not need any higher power for regular observing. Adding a barlow would give you more options though. That's a 15mm Plossl, right? In a 2x barlow it would make an very comfortable high power eyepiece for your scope (much better than the 6mm).
Lawrence, With that span of eyepieces I would sit on my hands for a while and get used to the scope. They already give you a great range of magnifications and the most important thing at present is to get used to the scope.
You need lots of eyepiece time at present BEFORE parting with any more of the hard earned IMHO.
Only thing to consider is to get a Cheshire Eyepiece for collimation and here I would suggest you get the Orion one (from Bintel) and not the cheap one as there is a big difference in performance and ease of use. This makes collimation a snap and you can use it in seconds each time you set up to ensure your scope is set up as well as it can be under the conditions.
I bought the same scope (6" GSO from Andrews) and have been
extremely happy with it.
That said, if yours is *exactly* the same as mine (which it certainly sounds like), then the primary mirror will not be "center spotted", nor will you have a collimating tool.
That is one thing which I would highly recommend getting/doing (a collimating tool). You'll probably also want to get your primary mirror center spotted - that makes collumating much easier. It feels like a very scary thing to do when you're new (I ended up getting help), but there is plenty of help in this place for such things.
you reange of EPs is fine maybe a lower power one in the furure like a 32mm would be a good addition. i'd get a barlow (2x) first tho, but make it a good one cause a bad one will probably ruin the experience.
umm, not too sure about the difference between long and short. The GSO is the budget of the barlows, people recommended I get the orion or something similar, but I really wanted the 2" and the "non-budget" of those start at the $300 or more mark. I got the GSO ED 2" for just under $100 and have not been dissapointed with it, mostly using my 26mm meade EP that came with my deluxe12" lightbrisge.. I am a complete newb and don't have anything to compare it to tho, so don't take my word for it alone
Congrats on the scope Lawrence! A 6" scope will serve you well for many years to come, even when you have upgraded to a larger scope. I too have a 6" scope, but it is of the shorter variety. My Celestron/Vixen C6 will always be with me and I would never part with it. Reason are easy...this scope is capable of some pretty detailed views of DSO's and planets. While my larger 10" dob gives brighter views, the views in my 6" are just as detailed. For a while I tried to go the refractor route but the 102mm f/5 just did not give me the nice, bright and detailed views my 6" was giving me (especially in the globular cluster department where the 6" easily resolved heaps of the brighter globs)...bottom line is you won't be sorry....by the way this is a very good web site for 6" scope users...
and hopefully even meet some of you's.
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and 
Lawrence. Glad you gave the lurking away. Filthy habit 
Get in here and ask your questions. We spend so many lonely nights under the stars that it's nice to come in here and feel wanted 
so ask away.
but im quite happy with it.
