Newbie with just a Celestron Firstscope

[depardeuz]

Hi Singastro, I just started out picking up this hobby talking to gary and his friends at one of his sidewalk sessions outside Toa Payoh library. I acquired a celestron firstscope and a couple of eyepieces and barlows. Actually a bit paiseh to join them at their sessions with my 3" dob . But I managed to see Orion, Castor and Pollux, Pleiades, Jupiter's moons and its 2 bands. All from my bedroom window and google sky app! Hope to be able to identify and see other constellations and star fields. Looking forward to the 8 dec session at NLB! :-)

[shirox]

welcome to singastro!

[cloud_cover]

Hello!
A firstscope is a fine scope to begin with. 3" of aperture can show you lots of the brighter things in Singapore and frankly, with our light pollution, that's generally what's good to see unless you wish to challenge your night vision or make trips up North (next year, after the Monsoons).
The moon is also very nice when viewed in its crescent phase: The terminator, which is the sunrise/sunset horizon is beautiful because the evening/morning light makes for dramatic shadows, much like the long shadows of buildings on Earth!

[Gary]

Hi Singastro, I just started out picking up this hobby talking to gary and his friends at one of his sidewalk sessions outside Toa Payoh library. I acquired a celestron firstscope and a couple of eyepieces and barlows. Actually a bit paiseh to join them at their sessions with my 3" dob . But I managed to see Orion, Castor and Pollux, Pleiades, Jupiter's moons and its 2 bands. All from my bedroom window and google sky app! Hope to be able to identify and see other constellations and star fields. Looking forward to the 8 dec session at NLB! :-)

Hi depardeuz. Welcome to the forum!

Sometimes people ask us where we find the energy and motivation to continue to do sidewalk astronomy. One of the answer is simply reading posts like this!

There is no need to feel embarrassed about owning and using any size of telescope or binocular for astronomy. Please feel free to bring it along and join our sidewalk sessions and public talks. You can try out our eyepieces on your scope. For example, Dave's lightweight 7-21mm zoom eyepiece should be a useful accessory for it - do not need to worry too much about an object drifting too fast out of view while changing eyepieces to see it better. And being a relative lightweight and replacing a barlow+eyepiece heavier load, not much balancing issues.

We can also try imaging Moon and planets with your scope using our modified webcams. I almost bought this telescope as my first telescope so personally I am very keen to have a hands-on session with it and see what fun I have missed out over the years.

Whatever telescope one finally decide to acquire, he/she should make full use of its strengths. Your scope is extremely portable, so try bring it to darker sites all over Singapore and enjoy better views with your dark-adapted eyes and potentially clearer skies. Some of the nparks (e.g. Bishan - Ang Mo Kio Park) and beaches have big solid stone tables and chairs. You can enjoy observing with your dob in great comfort sitting down without the need to lug additional accessories to raise it up to comfortable eye level from the ground.

Ultimately, you have to bring to a milky way dark sky (e.g. rural Johor) and see the full potential of its wide field-of-view ability to sweep the milky way and fit amazing star clusters and nebula and galaxies all in the same view! Once you have done that, you will never feel embarrassed about this scope again and feel more embarrassed (and angry) about the light pollution situation here instead.

Having a bedroom view of those objects you observed is a great blessing. You should make full use of it! Looking forward to meeting you and your scope this coming Saturday or earlier if we have sidewalk sessions for Jupiter Opposition this week!


Note: Take note of the word "DRAMATIZATION" from 2:53. No way you can see Jupiter and its moons, Saturn and Andromeda Galaxy "with amazing clarity" as shown by the dramatise imagery. But ironically, the actual view of the Moon through a 3-inch scope is much better than the dramatize view of it in the video at the 2:54 min mark! But still a cool and educational animation to watch and learn about dobs.

[depardeuz]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Look forward to join you all soon! :-)

[depardeuz]

Hi guys,

Thanks for yesterday evening! The talk at the NLB was enlightening to a newbie like me. It was a great experience joining u all for your sidewalk session. The views from the 2 huge refractors were awesome!! The company was a blast too! Kinda interesting when the public start to approach you and ask questions even though I had the smallest scope of all! Yes, Gary, children seems to like looking through my small scope! Hope to join you guys in your next session!

[Gary]

Adults like me enjoyed it too! Finally got my chance to use one in the field.

Thanks for bringing your scope for the sidewalk. Big scopes can look too intimating for very young kids. They may already feel stressed out balancing themselves on chairs, trying to figure out which eye to close and being constantly asked "Can you see it? Can you see it?".

Big gun owners must be very jealous how little time you took to set up and close shop.

This photo is specially taken for you. Something you will look back with great fondness in years to come while waiting for your GOTO Obsession dob to cool down at Toa Payoh Central.



Jupiter doesn't look THAT big la. LOLOLOL

[orly_andico]

Yes a 3" scope is nothing to be uncomfortable about.

There is a yahoo group called "60mm club" which is basically people using 60mm scopes for the challenge.

I am going to try to revive my Vixon 60mm f15 refractor (with 0.965" focuser) also for the challenge.

[depardeuz]

Wow! Thanks Gary! :-) I will still stick to my 3" dob for now..lol!

[depardeuz]

I took this pic of the sidewalk session on 8 December 2012. I thought it was quite interesting with a line up of various telescope in ascending astro-dollars!!! Lol!