Whilst I was at work today, Parcelforce delivered 2 large boxes and a little jiffy bag. The two boxes contained my first scope- Sky watcher explorer 150P complete with 10mm and 25mm eyepieces, a X2 Barlow and my EQ3-2 mount. The jiffy bag was my planetary and moon filter set.
I unpacked the gear and spent some time setting the equipment up then had dinner. As soon as I had eaten, the excitement got the better of me and I was outside where the cloud had cleared and the Moon was high and bright. I aligned the mount with Polaris and used the moon to centre my finder scope with the main scope. I then set to having a look at our nearest neighbour.
Wow! I am hooked. I spent a good 40 minutes swapping between eyepieces and the Barlow, getting a feel for how they perform and the relative merits of each combination. Having fallen back in love with the moon, I decided to try for a DSO and, utilising Starlight for guidance along with some remembered tips from Stargazers Lounge over the last few days, I located the rough vicinity of Andromeda. I aligned the scope using the finder and then started to do a bit of 'fishing'. After a few minutes of using the slow motion controls on the mount, a hazy blob came into view. I centred it and, again falling back on advice from SGL, relaxed into looking through the eyepiece and averting my gaze slightly. Before I knew it, the hazy blob had resolved into a milky cloud with a brighter heart. I was looking at my first ever galaxy! Another 40 minutes exploring the effects of the optics on my view of M31 and possibly getting a glimpse of M32 and I then had to call it a night.
A great evening exploring my new toy