First Light

My shiny new ST 80 saw its first light tonight! After non-naptime this afternoon, Elise and I took it out to look at the moon and I was suitably impressed. After dark, I took it out to look at a bunch of stuff and compare its views to those of my bigger reflector.

First impressions-
The Good
-Easy to haul over to the park
-Fantastic contrast and sharp images
-I could get used to looking at things right-side up

The Bad
-Smaller aperture means less light gathered means less nifty view of fuzzy things
-Tripod takes some getting used to, especially when fingers are cold
-Blue tinge around the edges of things
-My newest eyepiece doesn't really work well with this scope for a number of reasons

On Balance
I like having a "grab and go" scope now. To get really comfortable, I still have visions of carting around a whole mess of stuff (like my adjustable chair, some charts and some eyepieces.) But, for nights when I just want to get outside this is aces. I'm also anticipating some really nice moon and planetary views with this.