WOW!

"Richard Adams" wrote in message
om...
Permit me to chime in here, I've just bought my first telescope,

Congrats and welcome to the world-wide brother/sisterhood of astronomers!

I might have to buy a
portable heater :-)

Costco currently has a large box of chemical handwarmers at a good price.
You can also get them at sporting goods stores. One in each back pocket (or
higher on your back if your back tightens up in the cold) and you are good
to go!

I live on the west coast, near Santa Cruz, and have a few locations
nearby where I can set up away from city light. With luck I'll have
my scope and a clear night for the 7th. Figuring how to align and use
the motor drives is a bit intimidating, at the moment, as I've not
done much more than camera-lens viewing (some great shots from Grand
Canyon South Rim, November 2000, full moon, etc, but not on the
computer yet :-( What should I take out with me on my first outing
(besides warm close and a thermos of hot coffee :-) ?

You're brand new to this and you've already figured out what's vital :-)

I have a compass and a GPSr, the scope is a Meade ETX-125EC with
AutoStar.

I would get a decent lunar atlas and a good star chart. If you have a
laptop, consider VMA (free) and LPP for the moon and Cartes du Ciel (free)
for the stars to start out with.

Let us know what you see.

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try the Lunar Observing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/
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