I have always wanted to see objects in space with a telescope. Finally I was able to satisfy that desire when I bought my first telescope in December 2011. With so many different types of telescopes available, the first challenge was to choose the telescope that was right for me as a beginner. I contacted some folks at Texas Astronomical Society and they advised me to go for reflector telescopes like Orion StarBlast 4.5 or the Dobsonion. I didn't want to buy a big telescope because it won't be easy to carry it around. Fortunately Orion has good material and videos on their website which was very helpful in choosing the scope. So I decided to go for SpaceProbe 130ST.
The telescope arrived as scheduled. The assembly took two hours. Although it was straight forward, I had to pay close attention to each and every step. I had to learn about aligning the telescope to polar north; basically point the telescope to start Polaris. With the telescope ready, it was time to experience it. During winter months in northern hemisphere, planet Jupiter shines brightly. I use Google Sky Map on my android tablet to locate the stars and planets. If you don't have it, there are free star charts available on Astronomy.com web site. However using google sky map is much easier.
So in the evening we decided to see Moon and Jupiter from my backyard. My kids Shlok and Aneesh were more excited than me. I used finder scope to point to moon and when I looked through the eye piece, image was hazy. I knew something is not right. I point to Jupiter and same thing. Then it struck me that the eye piece has a nob to focus the lens. So I do that and Vow!! We could see the craters and slight elevations of the mountains. I pointed to Jupiter and Vow again!! We could see the two brown bends that Jupiter has. We could also see Jupiter's four moons. On that night, all moons were aligned in the straight horizontal line. It was an amazing view.
Overall it was a very satisfying experience. One thing to note is that the objects appear small through telescope and no where close to what you see in photographs. However the experience is still amazing. The next thing is to look at Mars and Saturn as they become visible in Spring.
The telescope arrived as scheduled. The assembly took two hours. Although it was straight forward, I had to pay close attention to each and every step. I had to learn about aligning the telescope to polar north; basically point the telescope to start Polaris. With the telescope ready, it was time to experience it. During winter months in northern hemisphere, planet Jupiter shines brightly. I use Google Sky Map on my android tablet to locate the stars and planets. If you don't have it, there are free star charts available on Astronomy.com web site. However using google sky map is much easier.
So in the evening we decided to see Moon and Jupiter from my backyard. My kids Shlok and Aneesh were more excited than me. I used finder scope to point to moon and when I looked through the eye piece, image was hazy. I knew something is not right. I point to Jupiter and same thing. Then it struck me that the eye piece has a nob to focus the lens. So I do that and Vow!! We could see the craters and slight elevations of the mountains. I pointed to Jupiter and Vow again!! We could see the two brown bends that Jupiter has. We could also see Jupiter's four moons. On that night, all moons were aligned in the straight horizontal line. It was an amazing view.
Overall it was a very satisfying experience. One thing to note is that the objects appear small through telescope and no where close to what you see in photographs. However the experience is still amazing. The next thing is to look at Mars and Saturn as they become visible in Spring.
