Hi folks

[JeremyB]

Well, I have finally gone and done it, bought a telescope. It’s only taken me 50 odd years, I’ve never been one to rush things 😀

As a youngster I was very much led by my older brother, his taste in music such as Santana, The Three Degrees was going a little too far mind. He read a lot of Science Fiction, I of course devoured Asimov, Heinlein, HG Wells, Bradbury, Arthur C Clarke, et al. He followed in the family tradition of joining the army at a very early age and so I would catch up on his latest hobby with every leave. On one occasion he brought home a telescope, this really caught my attention. I doubt it was anything particularly special but as well as looking at the stars, we could do a spot of bird watching, the feathered kind sometimes as well.

What really stuck with me was the way he talked about the constellations. I never really worried about what they were supposed to represent, it was the patterns of the stars that always fascinated me. Football and many other sports became a great part of my life, girls as well. There’s only a certain amount of time to fit everything in, the stars took a back seat. I too then followed the family tradition , radar engineer in the army. This was my brother’s fault as well. My childhood sweetheart and I married , had two children, big mortgage etc.

For Christmas just gone, my wonderful wife said she would like to buy me something to go with my camera. She has been trying to encourage me to get out and do something away from the house and family. After a lot of thought I still had no idea what to ask for, until one evening coming out of the shop, I saw the moon. It was huge and bright and beautiful and I could hardly take my eyes off it on the drive home. Once home, a little later in the evening, I took the rubbish out to the bin and basically got mugged by that amazing moon of ours. That was it, the eureka moment, a telescope. It would help me to get some great shots of the moon and to do a little more investigation into the constellations that once, 50 years or so ago, captured my imagination.

I am now the proud owner of a SkyWatcher Explorer 150PDS EQ3-2. Problem is, so far this year I have only seen brief snatches of clear sky. Oh, and I have no real idea how to drive the blasted thing. Putting it together was a piece of cake, using it not quite so easy. It’s pretty heavy and at the moment I am suffering badly with my back. At least it gives me chance to try and learn a little on this amazing internet thing that means I can find great sites and forums like this.

Crikey, sorry for the load of waffle up above, I tend to get a wee bit carried away from time to time. I am looking forward to getting stuck in to the forum, especially while my back is so bad.😀

Thank you for reading the above, even if only the first and last lines 

Cheers,

Jeremy

[+Bino-viewer]

Welcome to the EMS forum Jeremy,

and congratulations on getting your first telescope. Persevere with it, and hopefully it will yield some nice views.

 

And any questions, help is always available on here 😀

[Bottletopburly]

Welcome Jeremy 👍

[BAZ]

A warm welcome to the forum Jeremy.

That's a good scope to get your hands on and will show you a lot of the skies treasures. As mentioned, bloody minded determination will see you right, I suspect all of us have used it to beat something into submission. Try Youtube for how to set up and equatorial mount up, there may even be one specific to your mount and scope. Once you have mastered polar alignment you will part way there. Finding your way round is the next bit. Stellarium is a great free bit of software to get you going and is handy for mooching about and learning you way round even when it's cloudy.

http://stellarium.org/

 

Enjoy your stay.

[Brantuk]

Hi Jeremy and welcome to EMS 🙂

[Bottletopburly]

Oh be very careful attaching camera often leads to impulse buying ,  for which there is no known cure also referred to as the dark side , 😂

[+RonC]

Welcome to the forum Jeremy, I too own and use a 150 PDS and use it for astro photography.

Any questions then just fire away!

 

Cheers

Ron

[tuckstar]

Welcome aboard Jeremy. Some nice kit there. Ask any questions you may have, someone on here will have an answer. And of course feel free to join us at a meet if you're able to. 

Edited January 16, 2020 by tuckstar

[Daz Type-R]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

[+Derbyshire Dave]

Yeah, welcome Jeremy, look forward to joining in with discussions, and hope you have some clear skies soon. Don't forget the dark sky site mmets that we hold, they are a good place to meet people, compare gear, and hold discussions

[JeremyB]

Thanks for the warm welcomes everyone, much appreciated.

I’ve just received a copy of ‘Turn Left At Orion’ which looks as if it will help enormously. Also, I will have a good look at YouTube for help with setting up my mount.

The ‘Dark Side’ is never far away I’m afraid David.

Still cloudy outside but things have to change for the better sometime soon 😀

 

Cheers,

 Jeremy 

[+seven_legs]

Welcome to the ems.

Nice scope you got there and I love Turn left at Orion, great book.

[Stephen]

Hi Jeremy welcome to the EMS