Started a new hobby........viewing the universe! I bought a Celestron 8SE about a month ago and viewed Saturn and it's moons. I was able to see the rings and like two faint moons. It's pretty cool that you can view nebulai,spiral galaxies, star clusters,planets and such with this scope in great detail....Will be doing astrophotography of deep space soon as I get my SLR digital camera and laptop. Anybody into viewing space....could use a few pointers if so.

 

I've got a 6" Infinity reflector resting comfortably in the house!
Nothing spectacular but it certainly does the job.
There's just something about aiming at the Milky Way & marveling at the stars, the sheer numbers of them, the different types, etc. It can humble a person.
If you haven't aimed it at Jupiter yet you'll be in for a treat.

But, you hear about 'light pollution' & it can drive a star-gazer crazy.
When I first moved the family up here to very rural N.E. Wisconsin the sky was black at night. You could aim the telescope in any direction & not see a glow anywhere. 20 yrs. later & 2 new C-stores, a new factory & all the lights that came with them have now essentially ruined what once was a great night sky. There are years when I have a devil of a time even viewing the Perseids or the Leonids, 2 of the best & brightest meteor showers around.
Drives me nuts!
Pull that Celestron out on some cold winter night & you'll end up not even noticing the brisk night air.
Have fun!!!

 

Yeah it's was very cold the first night I took out on deck at like 11pm to 3am and I had one hell of a time. Was really frustrated at first trying to get the star pointer and scope aligned, but now I have dialed in the star finder with scope. I just havent had any luck with the weather lately. It is usually very clear in the day, but once night falls it clouds up...so hopefully tonight I will get out. My back deck is perfect as there aren't any trees blocking view and no light pollution what so ever....black black sky!! I haven't gotten to any other planets yet other than Saturn....but excited!

 

I've got to get my focus squared away. It's just out of whack enough to create semi-fuzzy images when viewing something. It's real noticeable when looking at the moon.
Beyond that, it's a blast!