Hello from Texas

Thanks, Daniel!

Thanks, Gary!  I recognize you from the local Onalaska FB page. You’ve got some great images! I’m in Twin Harbors off of FM 3186, and I’m hoping the skies will he friendly to me here. I’m a block off the water, so my view of the sky is mostly up.  I’ll have to move around some to see toward the horizon.

My scope just came in a couple days ago, and I’ve had fun looking at Jupiter and Saturn.  Collimating and aligning the red-dot finder went smoothly thanks to Youtube.  My push-to electronics were backordered, but they’ve arrived. Now if I can finish my honey-do’s, I can mount the sensors and start hunting some deep sky objects. 

Gary- being down at the tip of the peninsula must give you a pretty good field of view. I’m having trouble calibrating my “Intelliscope” due to trees around our property and being able to see any two of the stars listed in the software (Vega was overhead, but I couldn’t see a second one on the list to complete the calibration). I should be able to get on the lake shore this weekend for better viewing.

As you mention, we’re having fun looking through the eyepiece, although one of the gals got makeup on my 10mm tonight and it took me a while to figure out why things changed.

I tried unsuccessfully to find some Messier objects by using the “Star Chart” app, but I was either missing the objects or seeing them, but not being able to discern what they were. Anyway, I’ll keep playing with it. I’m still learning my way around my scope and the sky.

Thanks, Schmaks! I’ve been through Cedar Park many times. We used to live in nearby Leander in the late 80’s. We were in the very first subdivision built there. I wish I’d had my telescope then as there was virtually no light pollution out there at the time. We’re on Lake Livingston now, and the light pollution isn’t too bad here. The main problem is getting away from local street lights.

Welcome John! From Blacksburg, Va. Glad to have you join this amazing hobby