Finally, the telescope arrived! Meade ETX 90 with manual controls. (http://www.meade.com/product_pages/etx_series/etx_series.php). It was very cute!! I liked its shiny dark blue color! But it was new moon that day. I waited eagerly for two days. In the meantime I aligned the viewfinder and studied the operations.
At last the waxing crescent appeared! It was just above the horizon and very faint. I was doubtful whether I could see anything on that thin line of moon. I took the telescope and placed it on the window sill. I brought the moon in the centre of the viewfinder. Then I looked through the eyepiece. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Craters!! Lots of them! The view was spectacular! Resolution was superb! Meade is to be praised for the quality of their optics.
The next evening, I took my telescope to the terrace. Saturn was rising from the east. First I used the 25 mm eyepiece. Wow! The planet with rings! I had only seen that in school text books and science magazines before. Now I am watching it with my eyes! I got chills down my spine! But the planet looked very small. I used higher powers to watch it close. But too much power spoiled the sharpness of the view. I think a medium power like 9mm is perfect for watching these planets. It will be reasonably big and still crispy.
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