Since what you said in the thread header 4 years ago describes where I'm at right now, thought I'd dip my toes here and keep this board bookmarked.
I got the family the most expensive reflector telescope Walmart had for Christmas. Which means it's not an especially good telescope.
I don't know the model off the top of my head, but one of the things it purports to be able to do, that I haven't been successful at yet, is pointing itself at any desired object. The challenge for me has been getting it set up. Pointing it directly North and zero elevation (which is tricky because the dial indicator moves around too much) then having it go to a star, fine-tune it until it's got the star centered, then repeating the process on another star.
Thought I had it nailed once, but after doing it, it couldn't even find the moon.
Was ready to take it back to Walmart, but on the 4th night with it, I aimed it at a particularly bright star, got it zeroed in, and had my breath taken away by the realization that I was looking at Saturn, rings and all. And even a shadow.
Now the whole family's hooked and on any clear night, we're out there staring at Saturn and learning/finding others. Haven't been out late enough to catch Jupiter yet, though.
We've always been star-gazers, living out in the country with very little light pollution. Many a night we'll just stare at the stars, and anytime there's a meteor shower (last one peaked at 2 in the morning a few weeks back), my daughter and I are outside huddled in blankets, sipping hot chocolate, and watching the show.
What we're thinking about now is the adaptor for the telescope that'll let us hook it up to the TV (I don't remember if it's directly from the telescope or indirectly via a mounted digital camera, but suspect the latter) and it'd be easy for me to make a long enough extension cable for the controller, and watching stars inside on the big screen. Should be pretty cool. |
