Tom McCrorie — Astrophotographer / Amateur astronomer

So this is my first. This tiny little thing that totally reignited my passion for space, astronomy and everything else in between. This very small 76/700 (76 mm diameter and 700 focal length) reflector telescope was given to me as a birthday gift just before covid hit in 2020 and it was totally life changing for me and has subsequently changed thing for me forever. How did it change everything? Well, let me explain...

I remember the first time I set it up. It was one of the most exciting yet daunting things I have ever done – a voyage into the unknown to boldly go where loads of people had gone before, but for me it was going to be an adventure that I would never look back from,

I waited for the first clear night and carried it outside to my back garden. Now at that time I knew nothing about telescopes. I hade maybe read a few books here and there ( as a subtle hint to my wife of course), watched a few telly programmes, listened to some Youtube videos about space; you know standard stuff for someone who always had a passion for space stuff. But nothing had prepared me for the experience of my first time looking through the eyepiece of this little time machine.

I bought myself a little star finder app and prepared myself. I waited for the planet to rise above the horizon. I could see where she was with my naked eye, but trying to find it in a scope like this was virtually impossible. Given that it was supper wobbly with no weight to it, the slightest touch would knock the poor wee thing for six and I would need to start all over again. It was more confusing because of course given that it was made of mirrors, down was up and up was down etc etc etc, something that took me a few attempts to get used to.

And there she was. Saturn. She appeared in the eyepiece for the first time, it was glorious, it was emotional, yup I’m not scared to admit my eyes did get a little watery. I will always remember the feeling of awe, amazement and excitement. It was like I was the first person ever to discover Saturn, I wasn’t of course, but it felt like it. She whizzed past the eyepiece and I had to find it again. I did…

I ran inside my house filled with energetic excitement, You will never believe what I have just seen, I screamed. I hastily ushered my wife and daughter outside to show them Saturn through this little telescope, and they were so excited for me. I’m sure they were a little bit excited too. No, I’m sure I bored them to death, when I started talking about some of the saturnian features etc, the rings system, those beautiful rings, how they got there, and some of the moons, but my wife and daughter stuck listened as they could see the excitement in my eyes.

I took out my phone and took a photograph of Saturn, heck I even took 15-20 second video of it as she moved past my very gaze. The little video was a bit rubbish, but the feeling of first seeing a planetary body through a tiny back garden telescope, will always hold dear to me.

Now we all know the story never really ends there. Most of us who continued on our cosmic adventures through the universe have improved our knowledge, improved our equipment, improved our skill using that equipment etc, but I am sure we will all agree, the first time we ever saw a planet or other planetary body through a telescope, will never leave us.

Edits note: Tom McCrorie is a self confessed lunatic, amateur astronomer and astrophotographer from the west coast of Scotland. His passion for all things space culminated in him self publishing an irreverent book about the moon, 50 Shades of Titaniumn and laterally creating a dedicated social media platform for spacenerds called Picastro.