I tried my telescope for the first time in the Poconos earlier this week. The first night was cloudy, and I only had a few moments to poke around the sky, getting a glimpse of M31 which, while just a fuzzy blob with a noticeable center under the conditions, was a thrill nonetheless.
The first real opportunity to try out the scope was actually in the early morning. Our son, James, likes to wake for a feeding around 4 AM. At that time the clouds were gone and Orion, Mars, and most important, the Moon were in view. I managed to take some photos of the Moon just by holding my small digital camera up to the lens (and by futzing with the film speed, etc.). I've created a gallery for the shots, which is here and also linked in the column over there on the right.
Here's a nice full-field picture from the few that were steady enough to make the cut. Click to embiggen. What's nice is that I took this using the standard 25 mm Plossl eyepiece that came with the scope. Yesterday UPS delivered my eyepiece accessory kit, which augments my eyepiece set with 12.5mm (smaller numbers = higher power) and 32mm eyepieces, and a 2 inch Barlow lens (and a few filters). With the Barlow and the 12.5, I should have an effective power four times greater than that pictured below (with some associated loss of resolution). Fun!
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