Astronomy Matters

I've been toying with the idea of acquiring a reflector telescope for quite a few years and so I finally took the plunge and bought a Celestron 130SLT telescope.   I am definitely an absolute beginner, so this is a useful device as it has fully computerized Altazimuth mount and a finderscope to help with alignment and location of objects.

The computer allows uses three bright celestial objects to determine the telescope's alignment.   One can then select an object out of a 4000 item database and the telescope will move and align itself to the object and also slowly track it.   The telescope can also identify objects in the sky too. 

So far I have been observing the clouds on Jupiter and the four Galilean moons, some easy to find binary stars and a couple of nebulae.   I also acquired a moon filter so I can observe the full moon in detail as this telescope can gather 345 times as much light as the human eye.

I'm very pleased with this piece of kit and I'm now looking to purchase a 2 x magnification Barlow lens to aid viewing.

Bird Dog covered and ready for flying

I've now covered the Bird Dog and it's almost ready to fly.  I've omitted the oleo and wing struts as these only get knocked off with heavy landings.  I just need to put on the cockpit windscreen and add in the rubber.  As it stands, the plane balances correctly and I just needed a little tweak to the tail plane to bend out a slight upward warp that occurred during the doping process.