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The Purchase

Many many years ago I finished a degree in Maths with Astronomy at the University of Leicester. Now, I must admit, the Astronomy half of the degree was the half I didn’t understand so much but nevertheless that interest has always been there. I didn’t do much about it until a few years ago when I bought some Bresser Cobra 10×50 binoculars. These are fine and have served me well, giving a hint of Saturn’s rings and the occasional view of a Galilean moon or two, with the occasional visit to a fuzzy blob here or there..

Then my brother bought my son a telescope from the Science Museum. It’s basically a toy one but Sam and I have worked our way through Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, stopping by the Moon many times, and seeing a few more fuzzy blobs. However those of you visiting this website will know that a plastic refractor from a museum shop doesn’t quite cut the mustard although I can’t really complain about something that’s got my 8-year old son enthused about the wonders of the night sky and helped my 95-year old Gran to see Jupiter for the first time (she’d never really looked before). So I did some research and took some advice and plumped for the Orion SkyQuest XT8 which is an 8” Dobsonian reflector. I hadn’t quite realised how large it was (I should have known really but didn’t think about it) until after I’d ordered it, which has caused a few household discussions and resulted in one or two items (well, three) being put on eBay in order to make room for it. But it’s on its way and I’m really rather excited about it!

So this little blog will be the story of my first proper telescope and my exciting adventures with it. Stay tuned and happy sky gazing.

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 8th, 2010 at 6:48 am.

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