For years, I've occasionally thought about buying a telescope. A year or so ago, I did some reasearch online and chose $350 reflector, but didn't buy. Last week, I picked up my first telescope at a local auction for $14. It's one that used to sell at Walmart for $99, so it's obviously not for the serious astronomer. But it's not a bad start.

It was used, and was missing several screws. I got it put together Saturday and looked at a few nearby terrestrial objects, but the sky was overcast, so no ET.

Last night was clear, so I installed the software that came with it to find out what I'd be able to see. It looked like the Orion nebula would be an easy find overhead, but when I went outside, the only thing I could see that looked like Orion was much farther over toward the horizon than expected, and I couldn't see a thing where the Nebula was supposed to be.

So I went back inside and figured out how to get the software to show the sky with the zenith in the middle (why this isn't the default I don't know), and it showed Orion perhaps even closer to the horizon than what I'd thought might have been Orion. So the nebula was out.

But Saturn was in, pretty close to directly overhead. I figured out that by sighting a little to the left of the line made by the two stars on the end of the big dipper's dipper, I should be able to see it. I don't think I'd known before last night that Saturn is visible to the naked eye, and is actually quite bright.

I spent a few minutes trying to find it, looking a little too low in the sky. Then I decided to look at a pair of fairly bright objects a little higher than I thought I should be looking. I aimed the telescope toward them, used the sighting scope to center on one, an focused in on it with my 25mm eyepiece.

As the telescope stopped shaking (the mount isn't the sturdiest available by a long shot), I thought I noticed two little bulges on the site of the dot I was looking at. That's when things started to get alittle exciting. I swapped out eyepieces, putting my 9mm in, refocused, and it was still just a dot with some bulges tot eh sides, but sure enough, there was Saturn with it's rings!

I ran inside and told my wife, figuring she'd come out, but it was pretty cold last night, and she said she'd like to see it sometime when it's warmer. So I wnet back out, added the barlow to get a little more magnifcation, and about the time I'd found and focused in again, my wife came out (she'd had to let the dog out, and decided to come out then).

With the Barlow in, the focus wasn't nearly so sharp, and in the end, I took it back out. Wiht a little tweaking, I got it focused well enough that I could see two little holes between the planet and the rings to either side (between where the ring runs in front of and behind the planet).

Before going inside, I took a look at the moon at a few different magnifications. The coolest part is right along the line where it's going into shadow, where you can see the most depth in the craters. Pretty cool.

Once it gets warmer, I'll have to keep my son up late one night and show him a few things.