First telescope, first clear night....and a really pleasant surprise.

[air805ronin]

Howdy all!

So I'm a completely unabashed newb to the world of amateur astronomy. I love KSP, I love Cosmos, and I finally plunked down the money for an inexpensive Dobsonian telescope. I couldn't justify it in the military, but now that I'm not moving all the time I felt comfortable getting into it finally. I got the base put together yesterday, collimated (is that a word?) the mirrors, and since it was overcast across the whole sky put it away until tonight.

I eagerly awaited sunset and went out to enjoy the evening and get really anxious as it slowly got darker. When it got a bit dark, I began training my telescope on constellations I know. I'll be honest, I wasn't seeing much.

Wound up training my spotting dot on an unusually bright star and looked through the lens. Boom, 5 bright lights in a diagonal line (almost). One much larger than the others. Instantly my mind realizes what I'm looking at. That's Jupiter!! And 4 moons!

So now I want to study charts and begin looking for other things. I want to play hours of KSP. And I want to binge watch old and new Cosmos.

So there is no real reason for this post, except to share my enthusiasm. Anyone have some advice for someone new to the hobby? Dress more warmly is a lesson I've already learned....

[Accelerando]

Your peripheral vision tends to see a little more light than your eyes' focus. I spot nebulae through peripheral vision... usually you can see at least the Orion nebula and the cloudy bit around the Pleiades in a bright city

Congratulations! Astronomy is wonderful indeed, drinking in the beauty of the sky at night ^^

[Tex]

I love seeing Jupiter. I'm gonna have to mess around with my lenses so I can actually make out the bands on Jupiter... I can see them as slightly lighter or darker patches of blurs so far XD

[air805ronin]

I love seeing Jupiter. I'm gonna have to mess around with my lenses so I can actually make out the bands on Jupiter... I can see them as slightly lighter or darker patches of blurs so far XD

Same here! I figure for me its just my inexperience.

Thanks for the responses! It was overcast again last night, hoping for clear skies this evening.

[TheScareCake!]

Nice! I want a telescope now, too! And since my birthday is very near (april 9th), i am thinking on getting one, but how, for example, yours costs?

[air805ronin]

Nice! I want a telescope now, too! And since my birthday is very near (april 9th), i am thinking on getting one, but how, for example, yours costs?

My friend recommended the Orion XT8 Dobsonian Telescope. It excels at deep space objects more so than planets. Dobsonians, apparently, are great at gathering light with their large base mirrors.

They're also pretty big. The XT8 is pretty light, I can move it around by myself. It is a manual tracking telescope.

It was $350 American on Amazon, don't know what the price may be outside of America.