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**DONOTDELETE**
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Hi everyone,
Yep it's my first post here. I just got in to astronomy thanks to the Meade NG-60 (60mm Refractor) I got for my b-day. Yeah it's not the best scope but you gotta work with what ya have, right? I've ordered some Orion Highlight Plossl EP and a 2x Barlow to hopefully improve the quality of what I'm seeing. Cool forums you have here 
Robb
Morro Bay, CA
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**DONOTDELETE**
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Neat, what have you been able to see with it? You should be able to see the disc of Jupiter and the four moons at dusk, and it will do well on the Moon now as well. Then you can get the Hercules cluster (and a couple others, once you learn how to find them). An number of double stars as well.
(And, I'm newer than you are on this board.)
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**DONOTDELETE**
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So far I have seen Jupiter and it's moons, Saturn, the Moon, a couple double stars and M44 in Cancer. I have quite a bit of light pollution where I am thanks to the big power plant 
Robb
Morro Bay, CA
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Ron B[ee]
Tyro
Reged: 04/27/03
Posts: 4719
Loc: CA
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No laughing matter  if the optics in your 60mm refractor is decent, Robb! Take a look at some of these links and you'll see what the 60mm can do for you.
http://astrosurf.com/l60/en/introduction_L60.html
http://skytour.homestead.com/sketch.html
When Mars gets closer, be sure to try it as you can see from the sketch!
Sure you may have to work at it at the eyepiece or train
your eye to see, but it would be lessons well learned.
Ron B[ee]
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5-inch Tele Vue NP127 APO 
4-inch Tele Vue TV-102 APO 
8-inch f/6 Discovery PDHQ Dob 
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Hi Robb,
The first scope I ever had was a 60mm and I built it myself from a lens set from Edmund Scientific (something like $2.00 and some boxtops so the quality was just above plastic) and the optical tube assembly was made from a heavy cardboard tube that 12' wide carpet was rolled on. But my first views of the moon and planets couldn't have impressed me more if they were through a Meade or Quasar or Celestron. I didn't even have a finder scope, but that taught me how read constellations with the left eye and line up the scope with the right to find my targets. That was quite a number of years ago, but what great fun I had with that "first scope"... and it was a 60mm.
Learn the basics with what you have. Then you might appreciate the upgrades more as you go.
Oh yes, one more thing. The 60mm has magnification limits so don't expect too much with a 2x Barlow and high mag eyepieces. You will get slightly larger dim fuzzies whereas the lower magnification might give you sharper, more enjoyable images.
Good luck and welcome to the hobby, Nick
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**DONOTDELETE**
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Quote:
Oh yes, one more thing. The 60mm has magnification limits so don't expect too much with a 2x Barlow and high mag eyepieces.
Yeah, I got my EP's in focal lengths that won't excede the max magnification.
Thanks for the welcome everyone =)
Oh yeah, Ron, thanks for the links. I have actually seen the astrosurf site but the other one with the drawings and pics is great!!
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Well If someone May Laugh at you.
Then I guess it my turn.
I just got my First Scope a NGC-60.
I can't get over How clear The Moon Look's with it.
Does Anyone Have any idea's of some book's to read?
I would Like to learn All I can. 
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jrcrilly
Refractor wienie again
Reged: 04/30/03
Posts: 22479
Loc: NE Ohio
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You made a good choice using the moon as your first target. Once you get the hang of focusing and a feel for how different eyepieces work you can start exploring doubles and clusters; there are many that will show nicely with that telescope.
A great (and free!) resource for choosing reasonable targets can be found at: http://skymaps.com/ .
Books I enjoyed:
Astronomy for Dummies
Turn Left at Orion
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John C
Urban Observatory
Tele Vue Pronto
A&M/Astreya 76mm F/6 APO
TMB/LOMO 80mm F/7.5 APO
Tak FSQ-106N F/5 APO
Meade 152ED F/9 "APO"
152mm F/10 achromat
Tak CN-212 8" F/12 classical Cass/ F/4 Newt
Teeter 20" F/3.8 truss Newt w/ServoCat
LXD750, EM-200, CI-700
ST-10XME
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Quote:
Oh yes, one more thing. The 60mm has magnification limits so don't expect too much with a 2x Barlow and high mag eyepieces.
At 50X per inch of aperture, your 60mm should be OK at about 120X max. A lot depends on what you're observing, but let's go with that for a minute. The scope's focal length is 700mm, so a 6mm eyepiece will give you 117X. It would probably be a good idea not to buy an eyepiece of less than 6mm until you know whether the scope can take the magnification...
You probably have already figured this out, but just thought I'd toss it out...
Clear skies, and welcome to amateur astronomy!!
 J.D.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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No laughing matter...
Growing up in a third world country, my first scope was a junk 30mm surveyor's scope. 
Can't remember the magnification on the scope, but I think it was around 30X and I did see Jupiter's moons, Saturn's rings and a few deep sky objects. At that time, it was the best we could do. I was actually happy with it.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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As i said this is all new to me.
I have been trying to use star chart's.
So that I know what I'm looking at.
As for Eyepiece's I have 25mm,9mm,6mm,4mm.
I was Told that My Scope could use these's.
As for book's I'm reading Astronomy for Dummies.
I also got a small Book call Star's Chart's for 2003-2006.
Any Idea's for book's to read or web Site's to look at would be a Big help.
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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For observing the night sky, I think Richard Berry's Discover the Stars is an excellent book for a beginner with a small telescope or binoculars or just eyes. It has chapters introducing the constellations for each month, then there are more detailed star charts of many of the constellations and also descriptions of objects you can see that lie in constellation. There's also a section on the moon. The section on observing the planets I thought needed more detail, but overall its a very good book for the beginner.
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Dave Mitsky
Postmaster
Reged: 04/08/02
Posts: 6301
Loc: Pennsylvania, USA
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_Nightwatch_ and _Turn Left at Orion_ are great introductory books.
Dave Mitsky
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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
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