starstruck

I got my 8" telescope a week ago. What an amazing thing! Francois and I tried for hours... almost days... to collimate it. When we eventually got it to be close to perfect we set it up to look out our back door. This is the worst possible place to set it up, because we have a street light right outside our back door, shining straight into the scope.  This was unfortunately the only option we had until now.

But with all these hopeless elements I had one of the most thrilling experiences since paragliding (remind me to tell you about that some time) ;)
So, set up and ready to go. I decided to look at this very bright star to get my first view and make sure that my scope is properly collimated. At first glance it seemed that my scope was horribly out. The star was all stretched and odd looking. I looked again. Are those rings? Then I clicked. It was Saturn! I had spotted one of the most recognizable astronomical object (especially for the untrained eye)!  WOW! This was so exciting. I had managed to choose the one star that I could view from my back door that was not flickering. This I only realized later. :)

Stargazing makes me feel so much a part of a bigger something. It is truly a great experience. This was the first of many, many hours and years of observing. I would definitely encourage everybody to buy a telescope!

Now I can't wait to see more. I can't wait untill our deck is built (only a few days away!) and I have done something about that light... rocks seem very tempting ;)