Magnification

I tried scaling the image a bit and also sharpen it up a tad bit...

First attempt on astro photography

I have done my first attempt on astro photography just by aiming my digital camera (Canon Ixus 850 IS) through the eye piece! The object in question was our own moon - I must say that the end result surprised me.

I am looking forward to when I can try my "real" astro camera camera (Celestron NexImage) for the first time.

Jupiter(!?)

There was a gap in the clouds later on in the evening so I just put the scope out on the patio and aimed the telescope against a "bright spot" just over the horizon and look and behold - that might have been Jupiter plus a couple of moons(!)

Now I did not use the built-in "goto" computer but only pointed the thingie against this bright object - but it did indeed look like Jupiter and according to a table it was supposed to hoover just over the horizon in that direction :-)

Played around with the telescope

I spent most of yesterday evening browsing through the manual for the telescope and this evening I have tried to turn it on for the first time. I was only indoors though and have not done any "real" observing.

But I have sat here and watched it level itself, finding North by itself(!) and faked two star alignments and then told it to "go to" jupiter - whooaa!!

I cant wait until the next clear evening (partly cloudy today)...

Wow, I have "gotten" myself a telescope(!)

Soon to be 50 years old/young I have finally purchased myself a telescope! I have wanted one for as long as I can remember and now and then I have borrowed a scope a few times through the years but I always had problems finding a specific objects...

But a few years ago a new type of telescopes surfaced on the market with "goto" functionality - just orient it and then tell the built-in computer to move to saturn, jupiter, etc.

There has also happened a lot when it comes to astronomical photography with inexpensive CCD cameras and image processing computer software - I have seen some amazing examples of astro photography made by amateurs with "small" telescopes.

And now it is my turn to venture out in this field :-) I have gotten myself a Meade ETX-125 telescope and I look forward to spending evenings and nights out in the forest. The "seeing" should be quite good here where I live, waaay up in the North of Sweden...