This was my first ever real telescope. I purchased it in very early 2019 just before the pandemic hit. I had long been watching the Astrobackyard YouTube channel with Trevor Jones and felt like backyard astronomy was something I might enjoy in my retirement. As that retirement approached, I decided to dip into it by purchasing the scope Trevor recommended for beginners to start learning the night sky, an Apertura Newtonian. Trevor actually recommended the AD8, but I went big with the AD12. When the scope arrived, I was very excited, but that excitement waned when I realized I had no idea what I was doing.

The first big challenge was collimating it. I had no idea that was even a word when this thing arrived. But I somehow managed to follow the instructions and get it done. It came with a laser collimator, which made it pretty easy.

The next big challenge was trying to find something recognizable in the eyepiece after dark. The moon was pretty easy. And over time, it got easier to find things once I got the finder scope properly aligned. But then I started reading about what a big difference a great eyepiece could make, so I shelled out for some quality Tele Vue eyepieces.

It didn't take long before I wanted to get some pictures through the eyepiece. That was a challenge, but it was scintillating to get much of anything at all that way. Here are a few of the pathetic images I was able to get with my phone that way of the moon in daylight, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn:

Of course, this tiny foray into astrophotography left me wanting more . . . .