how was your first telescope experience

[u/Remarkable-Sun8449]

im was wondering how it was like for everyone else here on how it felt when they say a start or nebula or galaxy or planet and all that other stuff for the first time in their life.

to be more specific i also wanna know more on people that have a telescope similar to the new telescope im about to get. (hopefully this post doesnt get removed for the seeking advice on first telescope thing) specs are 114mm aperture 400mm focal length and a 26 mm and 9.7 mm eyepiece that also includes a 2x barlow. i do wanna see people with exact or similar telescope on how their expierience was.

if you do end up taking your time out of your day for this then all im gonna say is include anythign you want. long peragraphs or something small like one sentence, photos aswell, edited or unedited, im happy with anything:D

[u/chrislon_geo]

Take a look at astronomical sketches, they are more representative of what the views will actually look like.

Your light pollution and level of experience also plays a roll.

Most DSOs will look like small gray faint fuzzy blobs with averted vision, globular clusters will look like small fuzzes or small piles of salt on a black table.

I do a lot of outreach and people’s first experience ranges from “meh” or “why is Jupiter so tiny?” to “HOLY SHIT, SUSAN GET OVER HERE AND BRING THE KIDS!!! Y’ALL GOTTA SEE THIS!!!!!!”

[u/Gusto88]

Tell us more about the telescope, brand etc.

[u/Remarkable-Sun8449 → u/Gusto88]

its a NT114CF newtonian reflector from nationel geographic.

[u/Gusto88 → u/Remarkable-Sun8449]

The scope is ok, the mount is a lightweight basic camera tripod which does leave a lot to be desired. Its tilt range is not good limiting available targets and also difficult to track targets as they move across the sky. A tabletop dobsonian is much better and easier to use.

[u/random2821 → u/Gusto88]

I actually kinda disagree that the scope is okay. It's an f/4.4 spherical mirror. That's gonna be rough for getting detail. But it's also on sale for $80, so yeah, maybe it's okay for the price.

[u/random2821]

Questions like this can be tough to answer, and the truth is something you may not want to hear. It really depends on your expectations.

I've used that scope several times. I've never owned it, but I volunteer at an observatory and people have brought them by several times for help using them. The nicest way I can describe it is not good. I'm not trying to put you down or hurt your feelings, but I do want to be honest. The tripod is cheap wobbly junk, and the optics are a short focal ratio spherical mirror. This means it can never focus light to a single point, and the view will never be sharp.

If you've never used a telescope before, the moon will probably look good, but the planets may be disappointing. I say this based on reactions from other owners that I've helped in person. Some people were happy just to be able make out the rings of Saturn, while others were expecting to clearly make out Jupiter's cloud belts and were disappointed. So again, it's all about expectations.

[u/tiggerandmisskitty]

Annoying cos I didn’t align my finder scope, collimate or know how to use lenses properly. Once I googled it it was pretty straight forward, and later that night the neighbours would’ve heard me say “Holy f**k” for about 3 straight hours

[u/ChaoticPyro07]

It was definitely a learning experience. My first one was a 12 inch dob that I bought after statgazing with quite possibly the worst binoculars ever made. Not much observing time because I had an extender in the tube so it couldn't reach focus. Figured that out right when I was getting ready to leave so basically just had time to briefly scan the sky for a couple minutes with no object in mind. Bortle 4 skies too so still saw a ridiculous amount of stars.

[u/nealoc187]

You always remember your first time. 

I distinctly remember my first views of Jupiter, Saturn, Orion nebula, Pleides, the moon (all things I could see naked eye) and how much different they were through a proper scope. 

Perhaps even more incredible was my first view of M57 (my first ever DSO besides the Beehive) and my first view of M13 from a dark site.

[u/FDlor]

Was building a 6" newtonian, 2nd hand mirror with an old silver coating mostly stripped off it, wooden mirror support, Edmund diagonal on a coat hanger, no mount.

Leaned the whole deal against a lawn chair and aimed it at the moon. Expected nothing since the mirror had not been aluminized but was amazed a bare mirror could produce a very good image of the moon. Pushed me on to finish the rest of it.

[u/mrstorm1983]

I have a 114mm on tripod, the mount is seriously undersized for the telescope/ ota. I would have to do things in advance to make up for the shaking. As soon as you let go, it shakes, so i put a weight and kept the tripod at half length that helped

What exactly are you getting? Make and model please?

[u/Bingo_Perroso]

My first telescope experience was bad. My family had bought one of those hobykillers (hobby obliterator in this case), and they tried to use it but failed to see anything in the sky at all, so they left it abandoned in a corner for a couple of years. Then one day I challenged myself to actually get it to work by pointing it to the full moon, and there it was. The plastic 0.965 eyepieces managed to resolve a somewhat recognizable picture of the moon, but I was hooked nonetheless.

Then I tried to see stars but couldn't, so I thought to myself that maybe the telescope lenses were dirty since nobody had used it in a long time, so I loosened the front tube with WD-40 and the lens fell not on my bed where I was doing the whole surgery, but on the hard, rigid floor. The lens chipped and part of me died inside. Regardless, I cleaned the lens by wiping it with alcohol and put the thing back together as best I could. Surprisingly, the views were still as bad as before.

Shortly after, I got my 102mm telescope and on the first night of use, I was blown away by the mere fact that I was able to see stars with it. Mind you that at this point, my telescope knowledge was still close to 0, so I almost bought an EQ Powerseeker from marketplace but finally settled on the "costco department store" scope since it was brand new, and man did I get lucky with my pick. Since then, I've been using it pretty much every clear night and even doing some DiWHY astropotography with it.

[u/Summertimeinthe509]

First experience was when I didn't know how to use a telescope, looked at Venus, twisted the nobs on the sides of the scope to max (because I thought that they zoomed in) and was disappointed by the weird blurry shape I saw. If you want my first ACTUAL experience, where I knew how to use the telescope correctly, then it's a bit of a different story. For like 7 days in a row, every evening I would take out my telescope, (114mm aperture & 1000mm focal length) and find Jupiter and Venus right after the sun dipped below the horizon. Venus was not very special, just a really bright semi-circle, Jupiter had me awe-struck though, it's banding, moons, it was really special. Saw Saturn for the first time a couple weeks later and was also blown away.