Guest dhcol Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 (Sorry about the long post) Hi all I'm new to the forum and to astronomy. I work as a science technician in a school in Derby and was recently asked to source a telescope for our astronomy club, knowing very little about astronomy, I spent an age researching and finding out all I could. In the end with a very tight budget I decided to get a skywatcher skymax 127, and it turned out to be a great little scope for the price and we have had some great views of Jupiter and Saturn when the weather permitted! Before we got the scope I decided to use what I had to hand which was my Binoculars and I was just amazed at what I could see through them I saw Pleiades for the first time and just couldn't believe what I was looking at, I was hooked! so a few nights getting a bad neck from the Binos, I decided to get a cheap Skywatcher firstscope 76 for £20 off of eBay with not to much preconception about what I would see, and have been astounded by that little scope I have seen a few star clusters now and even Saturn through it was quite impressive. So when I finally got to see Jupiter and Saturn through works new scope I couldn't believe it, I got an adapter for the Nikon V1 and we managed to get some great shots of Jupiter, craters on the moon the beehive cluster etc, now looking to get some more clear nights in :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hello and welcome. I have the skywatchwer 127 and i love it too. You live in a great part of the country as you are in or very near lovely dark skies; we all suffer with weather issues. It's good you've got hooked and it's great that you clearly have a passion which i'm sure you pass on to the kids. You should come along to an event and meet the group and having a look at some of the kit people are using and see some of the amazing things in the night sky. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T A WOW Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hi Colin. Welcome to EMS. You'll find we're a friendly bunch on here. Ask any questions you like. You live near one of our dark sites in belper so when there is a meet there you should pop along to say hello. Enjoy the forums and your new found joy of looking up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hi Colin and a warm welcome to EMS That's a nice story - I pretty much started the same way using binocs on the moon entirely by chance one night and was instantly hooked - one new scope and a view of Saturn later and I became totally immersed. There's millions of stuff to see up there - enough to last a lifetime. It's all been said above - so do drop by one of our two dark sites for a session to get a feel for the group and our activities and have a look at and through the variety of scopes available - we try to get out as often as possible weather permitting. Keep an eye on the Info & Announcement section, "EMS meets" thread - especially at the weekends. Meantime feel free to ask questions in the relevant sections and enjoy the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dhcol Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Thank you all for a very warm welcome :-) I would love to come along to one of the meetings and meet you all to learn all I can, every clear night now is pretty exciting even with my limited scope at home, just learning the night sky is a massive learning curve. I'm still yet to get registax to recognise my file formats I will have to re format them so that I can get some better results, but the single shots i'v been getting are not a bad start. It gets more fascinating the more I learn :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 If you are using a dslr and shooting in raw, you need to get some software probably to convert the specific type of raw to something else; thats what i did. From memory each of the different dslr manufacturers have their own sub-type of raw. For my canon i think its called cr2. Post this question in the imaging section, you'll get more replies and accurate ones, unlike mine! James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wayne Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hi from me to Colin. Very handy location that. :-) Wayne Look out for the man in the monkey suit. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Welcome to EMS Colin, look forward to meeting you one day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Type-R Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hello and welcome to EMS. I hope you enjoy the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest devil74 Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hi Colin...and welcome to EMS. We are a cracking bunch of lads and lasses on here. It would be excellent if you could make it to a meet sometime and take a look at the other kit. Also the meets are just simply great socially..I get as much out of that as I do stargazing itself. Enjoy the forums Colin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dhcol Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Thanks again everyone, I'm pretty close to the dark site near Belper probably only 5-10 min drive away so I will definitely come along and bring my mini dobsonian or works scope if I can prize it of off other staff members lol, it's proving quite popular at work! That little dobsonian scope is not bad tho even though it looks like it was built for little kids. It just means I will be even more blown away when I get myself a grown ups scope :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Colin - have a skim through the gallerys - most folks have a pic of their kit in there if you wanna preview. Also the star party threads have pics of setups in daylight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hi Colin, a warm welcome to EMS. The first scope is a quite impressive scope for the money, and is capable of giving some views of objects you wouldn't expect it to be able to. When it first came out, we were at a star party, SGL6 in fact; a chap there, a Mr. Mark Stuart ( Nicknamed the human goto!) was finding really faint and obscure NGC galaxies. However, even with a 12" Dob I was having problems finding them, and in fact I gave up and joined him. That scope is ideal for kids, as it is pretty bomb proof. A few schools have actually purchased them for this reason, along with it's attractive cost. Feel free to ask any questions you might have, and I look forward to saying hello at one of our meets. Enjoy the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wayne Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Ho' it's OK Colin. It looks like they've arrested the monkey man :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Welcome to EMS, Colin. You are lucky living that close to Belper dark site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dhcol Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Ho' it's OK Colin. It looks like they've arrested the monkey man :-D thank heavens for that I imagined a middle age man running around the streets of Belper dressed in a monkey onesie shouting out I AM MONKEY MAAAAANNNNN!!!! At least that's one less to avoid down the high street, only badger man and fish boy to avoid now! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Oh you are going to fit right in colin Jd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dhcol Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Oh you are going to fit right in colin Jd And I thought that was some kind of inside joke about monkey man but there you are being arrested! any preconceptions about astronomy forums just flew right out the window!! Ha ha I definitely found the right place to be :-) now I know what astronomers get up to when there are no stars to see ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wayne Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Ho Colin. He'll be doing just that now. As long as we don't see monkey nuts :-D We should be able to escape. Lol :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dhcol Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Welcome to EMS, Colin.You are lucky living that close to Belper dark site. Thanks for the welcome your Avitar is hurting my head though lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 It says you are into bikes too. Eddy lives your way (ish i think) and he's always turning up to events on his bike, not yet with a massive scope strapped to his back, but apparently he has threatened to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Hi Colin and welcome to EMS Sheila Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dhcol Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 It says you are into bikes too. Eddy lives your way (ish i think) and he's always turning up to events on his bike, not yet with a massive scope strapped to his back, but apparently he has threatened to! I would love to see him arriving with a huge Dobsonian strapped to his back, the worst I have ever carried on my bike was camping gear I had stuff strapped all over the bike and a massive backpack on and I was bent double all the way to the camp site, never again. Although I had a bike accident a couple of months ago and broke my collar bone so still suffering and not been able to get back climbing yet and that's killing me, but the astronomy is a great distraction and I hope it becomes a passion. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Hi welcome to the EMS Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dhcol Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Hi Stephen thanks :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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