Hello from the rain forest!

[Dee Dub]

Hello all, 

 

I'm a newbie to amateur astronomy, located near Olympia, WA, USA. I'm not just new, I'm very new. Over a half century ago, I learned the constellations for a Boy Scout merit badge. Last week at auction, I won a late 1990's Meade ETX-90EC with tripod and Autostar controller. I've figured out this setup works best if I point the big end towards the stars and look through the little end. 😁 I RV camp and travel by air a little bit and am excited that this setup fits in a hard side carry case and tripod bag.

 

I've picked up a couple books and found you all. The vertical learning curve begins!!

 

 

[RaDec]

Welcome to the forum Dee Dub. You are re-starting a fascinating journey full of frustration and joy and worth every inch of progress. 

[Nightspore]

Hello Dee Dub. I've got a 90mm Mak, although mine's made by Synta (Orion branded). They are great little scopes for lunar/planetary observing.

 

 

The ETX 90 has good optics. Although my 235mm SCT has a GOTO I tend to do most of my observing the old school way. So your merit badge is going to come in handy. I actually get a kick out of finding things manually (star hopping) anyway. I do recommend a couple of application programs:

 

Stellarium

 

SkySafari

 

Stellarium is freeware, I believe there is a freeware Celestron version of SkySafari called SkyPortal. I often use these kinds of programs to plan sessions.

 

 

Plus they're nerdy anorak fun to play with. Welcome to the universe!

[Dee Dub]

Thanks for the links!

 

I have been reading a 2010 printing of NIGHTWATCH, and flopping between using NIGHT SKY and SKY QUIDE to confirm I am looking at what I think I'm looking at.

 

I figured the Go-To telescope feature would be a cheap win that will phase out as I gain experience.

 

Speaking of cheap wins, I'm still trying to figure out why my iphone camera screen gives me an image when attaching the phone to an eye piece but goes blank when placing the eyepiece onto the scope.

 

Lots of moving parts to figure out but always a win just looking up! 

[StarHugger]

Welcome !

 

I had an ETX 90, was a very nice piece of indeed...