Just wanted to introduce myself... My name is Jeff and I am new to astronomy... I have two daughters, 13 and 9, who are anxiously getting into this with me.. We have recently purchased a couple of Night Sky books, a Celestron Sky Scout, a nice pair of Celestron binoculars, a set of Meade 4000 series eye pieces, and a Meade LX90 ACF telescope. (When we get into a hobby we jump right in)

I am very much looking forward to learning all I can about this and seeing what we can see, as well as looking into some astrophotography...

Now we are waiting for clear skys! Looks like Saturday night will be clear and we will be ready to take a peek...  I look forward to discussing our new venture with you all and I am sure I will have questions!

Jeff

Welcome to the forums, South Jersey Star Man (and family!).  I hope Saturday night goes well for you, and when you have questions there are plenty of folks here willing to lend an ear.

Good luck, but most importantly, have fun.

Welcome to the forums Jeff and family. Nice equipment you have there,, should get some great views

Al

 Our first night out went well but did leave us with more questions... We saw Saturn much to the delight of myself and my daughter... But the LX90 did not seem to be tracking it for us as we had to continually move the scope to keep it in the FOV. Also the 26mm EP that came with the scope was the one that we got the best results with ? The more powerful ones seemed to only cause fuzziness... We were hoping to see more clarity although the rings were there... I tried the Barlow that came in the set with various eye pieces... still the 26 was the best? Any ideas ? As a "Noob" I am hoping to cut some time off my learning curve by chatting here... THANKS !

If you didn't know about this place on the web to use in knowing when the viewing will be good at your location http://cleardarksky.com/csk/ . When you find your location and are on that page right click and shortcut it to you desktop. JUst sounds like you didn't have such a good night for seeing thats why you had to back off on the magnification is my guess.

Al

From one newbie to another, a bunch of nice folks await meeting you like they did me.

Do you use your Celstron 15x 70's for scanning the sky or as a primary viewing piece?

 Thanks Al... The NJ, Belleplain State Forest is my chart ! I have created a short cut to it and will use that.. I am going to try Saturn again tonight and try a higher power eye piece with a color filter? Maybe use the barlow with a 9mm? I have no idea! I am just throwing stuff at it and will keep notes as to what works..

 Actually we use the binoculars for both. Some nights we just take them out and see what we can see, and when we had the LX90 set up we had them out to use as well. With two daughters and myself.. That one eyepiece on the scope is not enough so we take turns and use the binocs, telescope, as well as the SkyScout...

South Jersey Star Man:

Also the 26mm EP that came with the scope was the one that we got the best results with ? The more powerful ones seemed to only cause fuzziness...

That would indicate either a night of bad seeing, or could also be caused by a collimation problem.

Yeah thats how to do it,,, just try all different comb's and see what works best

Al