Hi :)

[Tom C]

Hi everybody

I'm Tom, 19, and I live in the Sundridge Park area of Bromley. I have always been fascinated by the stars and universe, and have recently been doing a bit of stargazing with a pair of binoculars. I have now decided (much to the entertainment of my family!) that I want to progress to a telescope, as I am really interested in astrophotography. I'm thinking of getting a 8" Newtonian reflector, specifically the Skywatcher Explorer 200P on an EQ5 mount, what do you guys think of that for a beginner? As I said, my real interest lies in doing some astrophotography, so I am hoping that telescope combined with a Canon DSLR will allow me to penetrate Bromley's murkey skies..? I should hopefully be purchasing the scope in the next few days.

I have been posting on the Stargazers Lounge forum for advice on equipment etc and they have all urged me to seek my local Astronomy Society, so thats how I ended up here! I have looked at some of the images you guys have have produced and am amazed that it is possible to get some decent photos with the amount of light pollution in this area!

So I guess my next step is to pop along to your next meeting...I'm a little aprehensive of walking into a room of strangers that know a lot more about this stuff than I do, but I guess I just have to get over that!

Cheers,

Tom

[Ian]

Hi Tom.

Our next meeting is next Thursday at Red Hill School, Chiselhurst, you'll find all the details on the main website.

We are reasonably friendly, although you've got to watch the one they call TonyG, but he's usually chained to the wall bars...

I bought an 8" newt on an EQ5 as my first scope, and it's still my main scope. Ok, so it's been modified, but it's a great starting point. However, it's not an ideal setup for astrophotography so depending on your budget, commitment and interests it may not be the best first buy. I would come to some observing evenings first, or deep sky camps and see what we do with what. Any time spend looking at the sky is well spent, and binos are excellent for that. I would say I've spent more than 10 times more time observing with binos than my scope.

Still, this is conversation best had in a big group. See you at a meeting, hopefully.

[doug]

      :)Yeah, come along and you`ll find a great bunch of interesting people.  As a fairly new member myself, along with my wife, we we really welcomed into the fold, so hopefully see you at the next meeting at Chislehurst.  You will get excellent advice on buying any astronomical equipment, so there you go.  See you.

[Tony G]

Welcome Tom,
Don't believe everything you read on here, we are ALL friendly here. You'll find answers to most of your questions here, and I would advise you to go to a couple of meetings and observing sessions as this is also places to pick up information, you must remember we all had to start somewhere like you are at the moment, so come along Thursday and see if it is of any interest to you.
And I found the keys to the chains Ian, so beware.

Tony G

[Carole]

Yes OAS is a very friendly group, always welcoming and keen to offer advice and share their enthusiasm.

Carole

[Fay]

Hi Tom,

a lot of us that do astro imaging, have a Williams Optic ZS66 for wide view or Skywatcher ED80. These are particularly good for deep sky imaging. They are not very expensive.
Come along & talk, there are a lot of imagers that will give you advice before you buy your first telescope, what you buy will depend on what you want to image, & what you can afford.

Fay

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi Tom,

Pop along to the meeting we will be more than welcome to chat to you about all things relating to telescopes etc., I would recommend that before buying anything have a chat with us about set-ups and kit.  Whilst there have been some excellent results using the skywatcher 8" Newt and EQ5 I would recommend you consider some other options.  I personally speak through experience in saying that you can spend money on kit and then regret it later, so it might be worthwhile considering second hand purchases.  If you can get someone to help you get something second hand in good nick you could save a who load of money and then when you have had enough time to play you will know exactly what kit you will need in the future.

If you do want to do some digital SLR work with a newt consider the GSO scopes they need a mod, but there cost effective and the secondary is large enough to cover the chip on a digital SLR.  The digital SLR are excellent options anyway so you can't really go wrong there, especially if its a Canon 

Anyway will see you at the meeting, you can't miss me, Fay, Ian, Mike, Tony and John etc, we're normally at the back giggling at something.

See ya,


Chris

[JohnP]

we're normally at the back giggling at something.

Me laugh - No Never... must have the wrong person...unless of course we start taking about animal skins...

Seriously though Tom - I look forward to meeting you - feel free to ask any questions - you could end up saving yourself money by buying the right kit in the first place...

Cheers,  John.

[Tom C]

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all the replies

I shall hopefully be popping along tommorow to the meeting, what time is it? 7.30 right?

It will be great to get some advice from you lot, as you all seem to know a lot more than I do!!


Cheers,

Tom

[Mike]

Look forward to meeting you Tom.

[Mike]

Hi Tom, nice to meet you last night. Sorry we didn't get to chat afterwards - I presumed you were going along to the pub with everyone else.

As discussed last night, the best way to get a feel for what kind of kit you want is to come along to the observing sessions (next one 5th Feb), or even better, the imaging sessions (next one 8th Feb) and talk to likeminded people and talk about or see what kit they have.

Hope to see you there.

[doug]

   Good to see you at the meeting last night, Tom, hope you enjoyed the very technical lecture.  Trigernometry..... what WAS I doing when I was at school ?  Algebra was as far as I got and that was all x`s and y`s.  Hope to see you at Mike`s observing evening; you can get lots more information. 

[Mike]

.....Mike`s observing evening....

IMAGING !! Not you as well - Ian got that wrong on his presentation last night !

[doug]

   Sorry, Mike, imagine.   Nooooo, that`s wrong, I M A G I N G !!  Like takin` photos wiv a chip... (no microfish)

[Ian]

well there ain't been too much of that recently. I forgot we even did it