Hi all first post I believe.
Finally diving back into what has been a "spotty" astronomy hobby since I was about 10 yrs old (1974)...there just aged myself.
My hobby the last 15 yrs (with a little astronomy thrown in here n there) has been building custom watercooled gaming pc's, so certainly not new to techie stuff and utilizing forums to gain knowledge.
Im also a Mariner who can still navigate utilizing Site Reductions and a sextant, so very familiar with the twilight and night skies (I recall as a Navigating Officer standing the midnight to 0800 Watch being able to draw a very detailed map of the sky with many many Navigational Stars identified). Obviously viewing Jupiter, Saturn and Venus through a really decent set of Swarovski binos.
Wayyy back in'74 I saved up my snow shoveling and newspaper delivery money to but a little 30mm desktop "Tasco" telescope.....how disappointing to point it at Jupiter and see a "bright star" (afterall the picture on the box looked entirely different) 
2nd scope was another Tasco perhaps a 60mm 600mm focal length on a wooden tripod, defeintely a little better than the desktop.
3rd scope was the Costco Celestron computerized "GoTo" 80mm GT, had this for several years and very much "used the crap out of it"....!!!
Fast forward now to end of August and finally purchased a new 8se, although I was very very tempted to spend a tad more and get the Evo 9.25", as I have learned over the years its all about Aperture for decent planetary viewing and good eye pieces.
So, got the 8se and it was "ok", definitely portable, but not really providing the greatest planetary views as I was hoping, so after a month I sold the 8se to someone local at a discount (he was very happy.
I now have my Celestron Evolution 9.25" and couldnt be happier; this scope is outstanding, providing great planetary viewing while still maintaining it portable capability,
Love the robust tripod and built in battery / WiFi. GoTo with Star Portal and either my iphone or ipad works great, however I definitely like the ease of use and being able to "feel" the buttons on the handset while looking thru the eye pieces.
Versus the 8se this scope simply feels like going from another "toy" to a serious telescope, in so many ways; mount, azimuth / altitude motors, tripod etc etc.
I went all out on eye pieces and have a very good collection of Baader Morpheus lens' 6.5mm, 9mm, 12.5mm, 14mm and 17.5mm. (didnt bother w the 4.5mm as find I rarely use the 6.5mm as to difficult to focus at such high magnification)
Also a Baader Hyperion 24mm and Baader Hyperion Aspheric 31mm and 36mm.
Picked up a 0.6x Focal Reducer for deep sky viewing, 2" Celestron Diagonal and flexible dew shield.
I have had great planetary viewing evenings off my front patio (although I do have some light pollution here), but Saturn looks great (just barely make out Cassini division and 3 possibly 4 moons), Jupiter w Great Red Spot (when transiting face) along with jovial moons, Neptune (cannot spot Triton though), Uranus and Mars (so long as I let Mars get higher in the sky, I can just make out some dark patches and the white polar cap.....
Orion Nebula, Hercules Cluster, Bodes Galaxy and Ring Nebula all look fantastic, even with a light polluted sky.
I do want to dabble with some astro imaging, so will pick up a few more items over the coming year, including a ZWO ASI678MC and a Wedge.
The pics of Moon and Jupiter were taken with iPhone 12 holding the lens over the eye piece...
Anyhow, will try posting some pics....cheers!!
Edited by rjbarker, 14 October 2022 - 09:34 PM.
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