Telescopes Telescopes Telescopes

Well my pair of Bushnell 15×70’s arrived yesterday so I had my first try and stargazing last night. I didn’t get to see much, but I got a look at Jupiter and its moons which was pretty amazing. There was a fair amount of thin cloud about, so I couldn’t see any nebulas, although I looked for M8 and M20.

Managed to map out the Sagittus, Aquila and Ophiuchus constellations and begin learning my way around.

Although I need to lay off the coffee so I don’y shake as much…

@=XDC=sPUNKer wrote:

Im sure he probaly only got a whiteish grey blob with the moons around it. I get that with a 6″ with my lenses at full mag In clear Spanish sky so I cant imagine it’s going to be any better in London.
Apparently Mars will be at its closest to the earth on the 27th August from about midnight onwards

I actually saw Jupiter quite clearly. The bins aren’t made by Zeiss, but I could see that it was a creamy-white disk (not a star), and saw the pin pricks of light that were the moons. Luckily I’m outside of London in a commuter belt area, so the light polution isn’t too bad.

I actually got myself a tripod too, a cheap one of eBay, which isn’t great, but it helps. I think the problem is that the bracket that comes with the bins isn’t really suited to the monsters I’ve got, so they still wobble a bit.

Depending how I get on with the astronomy I might consider buying a better, purpose built tripod. That way I can slowly buy quality bits for the hobby, as and when I know what I need.

Dammit Mouse! I’d almost convinced everyone here that I wasn’t a peeping Tom!

And yes. That is the real reason for the tripod 😳