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[adgorn]

I'm new to the group. Just got a Konusmotor 500 (short tube, Newtonian, equatorial mount). It came with a dent from Amazon, but they gave me 25% off so I'll keep it. First night I got a good view of Saturn. It really does have rings! I look forward to learning more from all of you and sharing what I know. Alan

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Alan,

Welcome to the Chicago Astronomer Family and thank you for your first post.

Is this your scope?, if so...it's quite a handsome looking instrument. And it's priced so very reasonable. It's a fast scope (f4), and rich field. It must be nice to peer thru.

Tell us some more about it, yourself and your interest in astronomy.

Hope to see you here often...

[adgorn]

That's my scope. I agree it seems to offer decent bang for cheap buck. I did uncover a problem with the mount - the declination ring pointer is 90 deg off, so it points to 0 instead of 90 when you are polar aligning. I called Konus and also spoke with one of their top distributors; neither of them had ever noticed that problem before but agreed it was an error.
I have long had an interest in astronomy, but never really acted on it till now. This winter, when I saw that Saturn and Jupiter were going to be so visible, I decided to go for it. I put in some time studying astronomy and researching telescopes through various online resources. I also found a great free program called "Sky Charts" from a fellow in Switzerland and have spent a good deal of time learning that and playing with different animations of the heavens. Since I enjoy using my GPS unit, I also decided to figure out the workings of celestial navigation. So I think I now have a good basic working knowledge of the celestial sphere.
Once I get the scope completely operational, my next goal is to take some astrophotos. Also, I guess I'll have to let my wife and three sons take a look through once in a while!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Alan,

Great that you are immersing yourself in the nobelest of the sciences.

Check out the postings under the "Astronomical Software & Links", board in this forum for more free astro software. I think "Sky Charts" is a great and robust free utility.

I anticipate your observational postings, and as I use a similar 114mm reflector, it would be interesting to compare targets from different locales.