First time with a telescope

Since I was a child, I've always been interested in astronomy so when
I saw a Tasco telescope at a garage sale for $10, I snapped it up.

It came with a with some eyepieces, (12.5 mm, 4mm), a barlow (??) and
finding scope. After I tested the set up on the tripod, I looked on
the internet to figure out what I could see. I saw that Venus, Saturn
and Jupiter were going to be visible at different times at night so I
eagerly waited for nightfall.

I first pointed at Venus. It was very bright in the telescope and it
looked a lot like a half moon (??) but with no craters. I tried
fiddling the different eyepieces to no avail. Is this what Venus
looks like?

I figured out which one was Saturn and I pointed the scope at it. It
was quite hard because the scope needed to be pointed almost straight
up. All the struggling was worth it when I looked in the eyepiece, it
was beautiful! I could see the ring surrounding a yellow - orange
planet. It looked like the planet was darker on the top than in the
middle.

I had to wait for Jupiter to come up but after it did, it was quite
easy to find and point at. It looked like a white ball with two
stripes on it and there were three bright lights on one side of the
planet forming a little and one on the other. It was pretty cool too.

Where do I go from here? What do I look at? If I get really serious
and want to spend a couple hundred of bucks, what should I get?

Thanks!

"BigKhat" wrote in message
om...
Since I was a child, I've always been interested in astronomy so when
I saw a Tasco telescope at a garage sale for $10, I snapped it up.

It came with a with some eyepieces, (12.5 mm, 4mm), a barlow (??) and
finding scope. After I tested the set up on the tripod, I looked on
the internet to figure out what I could see. I saw that Venus, Saturn
and Jupiter were going to be visible at different times at night so I
eagerly waited for nightfall.

I first pointed at Venus. It was very bright in the telescope and it
looked a lot like a half moon (??) but with no craters. I tried
fiddling the different eyepieces to no avail. Is this what Venus
looks like?

I figured out which one was Saturn and I pointed the scope at it. It
was quite hard because the scope needed to be pointed almost straight
up. All the struggling was worth it when I looked in the eyepiece, it
was beautiful! I could see the ring surrounding a yellow - orange
planet. It looked like the planet was darker on the top than in the
middle.

I had to wait for Jupiter to come up but after it did, it was quite
easy to find and point at. It looked like a white ball with two
stripes on it and there were three bright lights on one side of the
planet forming a little and one on the other. It was pretty cool too.

Where do I go from here? What do I look at? If I get really serious
and want to spend a couple hundred of bucks, what should I get?

Thanks!


TROLL!!

"BigKhat" wrote in message
om...
Since I was a child, I've always been interested in astronomy so when
I saw a Tasco telescope at a garage sale for $10, I snapped it up.

It came with a with some eyepieces, (12.5 mm, 4mm), a barlow (??) and
finding scope. After I tested the set up on the tripod, I looked on
the internet to figure out what I could see. I saw that Venus, Saturn
and Jupiter were going to be visible at different times at night so I
eagerly waited for nightfall.

I first pointed at Venus. It was very bright in the telescope and it
looked a lot like a half moon (??) but with no craters. I tried
fiddling the different eyepieces to no avail. Is this what Venus
looks like?

I figured out which one was Saturn and I pointed the scope at it. It
was quite hard because the scope needed to be pointed almost straight
up. All the struggling was worth it when I looked in the eyepiece, it
was beautiful! I could see the ring surrounding a yellow - orange
planet. It looked like the planet was darker on the top than in the
middle.

I had to wait for Jupiter to come up but after it did, it was quite
easy to find and point at. It looked like a white ball with two
stripes on it and there were three bright lights on one side of the
planet forming a little and one on the other. It was pretty cool too.

Where do I go from here? What do I look at? If I get really serious
and want to spend a couple hundred of bucks, what should I get?

Thanks!


TROLL!!

"BigKhat" wrote in message
om...
Since I was a child, I've always been interested in astronomy so when
I saw a Tasco telescope at a garage sale for $10, I snapped it up.

It came with a with some eyepieces, (12.5 mm, 4mm), a barlow (??) and
finding scope. After I tested the set up on the tripod, I looked on
the internet to figure out what I could see. I saw that Venus, Saturn
and Jupiter were going to be visible at different times at night so I
eagerly waited for nightfall.

I first pointed at Venus. It was very bright in the telescope and it
looked a lot like a half moon (??) but with no craters. I tried
fiddling the different eyepieces to no avail. Is this what Venus
looks like?

I figured out which one was Saturn and I pointed the scope at it. It
was quite hard because the scope needed to be pointed almost straight
up. All the struggling was worth it when I looked in the eyepiece, it
was beautiful! I could see the ring surrounding a yellow - orange
planet. It looked like the planet was darker on the top than in the
middle.

I had to wait for Jupiter to come up but after it did, it was quite
easy to find and point at. It looked like a white ball with two
stripes on it and there were three bright lights on one side of the
planet forming a little and one on the other. It was pretty cool too.

Where do I go from here? What do I look at? If I get really serious
and want to spend a couple hundred of bucks, what should I get?

Thanks!

Crowbar open the wallet and spend about $400 on a 6" telescope from
Orion(http://www.telescope.com/jump.jsp?it...Type=HOME_PAGE)
or Hardin ( http://www.hardin-optical.com/) or Discovery
(http://www.discovery-telescopes.com/)
Get one of Orion's books on beginning observing and have fun.

Bob

"BigKhat" wrote in message
om...
Since I was a child, I've always been interested in astronomy so when
I saw a Tasco telescope at a garage sale for $10, I snapped it up.

It came with a with some eyepieces, (12.5 mm, 4mm), a barlow (??) and
finding scope. After I tested the set up on the tripod, I looked on
the internet to figure out what I could see. I saw that Venus, Saturn
and Jupiter were going to be visible at different times at night so I
eagerly waited for nightfall.

I first pointed at Venus. It was very bright in the telescope and it
looked a lot like a half moon (??) but with no craters. I tried
fiddling the different eyepieces to no avail. Is this what Venus
looks like?

I figured out which one was Saturn and I pointed the scope at it. It
was quite hard because the scope needed to be pointed almost straight
up. All the struggling was worth it when I looked in the eyepiece, it
was beautiful! I could see the ring surrounding a yellow - orange
planet. It looked like the planet was darker on the top than in the
middle.

I had to wait for Jupiter to come up but after it did, it was quite
easy to find and point at. It looked like a white ball with two
stripes on it and there were three bright lights on one side of the
planet forming a little and one on the other. It was pretty cool too.

Where do I go from here? What do I look at? If I get really serious
and want to spend a couple hundred of bucks, what should I get?

Thanks!

Crowbar open the wallet and spend about $400 on a 6" telescope from
Orion(http://www.telescope.com/jump.jsp?it...Type=HOME_PAGE)
or Hardin ( http://www.hardin-optical.com/) or Discovery
(http://www.discovery-telescopes.com/)
Get one of Orion's books on beginning observing and have fun.

Bob