I’ve been wanting one for years, but a few weeks ago I finally went out and bought myself a telescope :)
Some assembly required. (This is a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ, by the way.)
Sadly, I haven’t had the chance to do much star gazing these last few weeks — partly because I’ve been busy and partly because it’s been cloudy on almost Every. Single. Night. that I’ve been free.
To look at the stars your best bet is to go to a place with minimal light pollution (ie away from a big city) on a dark night (ie when there’s no moon). So far the most I’ve been able to do is the exact opposite: set the telescope up in my front yard on a full moon night. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Photo taken with my Google Pixel phone’s ‘night sight’ feature.
That might be worst set-up for looking at stars and nebulae, but it’s excellent if you want to look closely at the moon :)
Photo taken with my smartphone placed over the telescope’s eyepiece.
So while I haven’t yet made the most of my intermediate-level telescope, at least I’ve been able to a good look at the moon.
It’s a start.