rojay

I've just come in from an hour or so looking at Jupiter. Io's shadow was clearly visible, and I saw the start of the transit of Io itself, until it moved away from the limb. I got some glimpses of structure in the cloud bands too. Also a quick peek at Saturn, because why not?

First time out for a while. I saw Albireo, Dumbbell nebula, M71, Jupiter with Europa peeping out over the pole, and Saturn. Fun!

The Moon, until it set behind a rooftop. Beta Lyr, which is a bit of a fave with me at the moment, then down and left a bit to M29 and then NGC 6910 next to Gamma Cyg. Change of direction, as Bootes was well placed, so I had a look at Sky Safari to see what was in the neighbourhood. I went for M3, taking a longish star hop, helped by the ability to flip the orientation in the app. The cluster was clearly visible, but not resolved in direct vision, and only maybe in averted. Then I swung right back again to Cygnus (funny how it's lying on its side at this time of year), and just swept around in the rich star fields for a relaxing way to finish the session.

Hi, I have the Astronomik UHC. It's not a magic bullet certainly, but it does darken the sky and helps with low surface brightness nebulae.

June 13th, using an 8 inch Dob. My observation planning was rather old -school: I browsed Norton's to see what was around. The description of NGC6210 gave reason to hope that it would be visible against the bright sky. Finding it was a bit more modern, using Sky Safari to plan the star hop. Found it ok at low magnification: it didn't look extended, but formed one corner of a triangle as per the view on my phone, and it didn't get fainter when I put in a UHC filter, unlike the two companions. At high magnification (about 160x with a 7.5 mm eyepiece) I could tell it wasn't uniform, and noticed a couple of faint spots, one either side of the main blob. I'd not looked at pictures of the object at this stage, so it was cool to get confirmation afterwards. What was also great was that my equatorial platform was working, so I could fiddle about with Barlows and filters and still find the object where I'd left it! (using the Barlow didn't really improve the view, BTW). I didn't want to push my luck with fainter fuzzies, so my next target was Delta Lyr, easy to find (you start from Vega!), and I remembered it as being a nice field. Sure enough, great colour contrast between the two Delta components, and surrounded by a little open cluster. At which point I was in the neighbourhood, so it felt rude not to visit the Ring Nebula. Located easily enough, and then the UHC filter definitely helped with contrast. By that point it was quite late enough for a work night, so I stopped there. Thanks for reading!

Just a short session for me last night, partly to wind down after a busy afternoon/evening. Leo was further over to the west, where the sky is a bit darker, compared to last time I looked, so I made another attempt on M65/66, and did manage to see one of them, I think M66. Possibly glimpsed the other, but even one is quite a result... Then on to M13, which was really nice, it's hard to take in how many stars you're seeing. I was getting tired by this point, and heard a clock chiming 12 (and an owl hooting away, which was fun) , so has a quick look at epsilon Lyrae before packing up. Didn't manage to split the individual doubles, telescope hadn't cooled enough probably. Anyway a nice way to end the day!

Hi, thanks for introducing yourself and welcome!

That's a really neat platform, great work!

Once you have the curve that vlaiv described, you can use it to convert your measured altitude angle of a star into its true altitude, and then work out the RA and declination. This would be part of the process for compiling accurate catalogues of star positions. I guess the curve would be useful for navigators too, making observations of the sun or stars with a sextant.

Looks like the mother of all equatorial platforms!

Glad to hear that there are other 'two eye straight through' fans out there! Does that make us TESTy rather than RACI observers?

A straight through finder can also work a bit like a red dot finder - I kneel beside the Dob, with right eye looking through the finder and left eye open too. Then slew the telescope until the finder feels like it's pointing at the star you are looking at, and then it just appears in the finder fov. It's hard to describe, but it just works! You can then centre the star in the finder, and it will be in the fov of a wide field eyepiece. Of course the tricky part for my old bones is getting up again to look through the eyepiece. You're not allowed to hold on to the scope to help yourself up...

Just a short session for me last night, starting with an attempt to see NGC 2403, which Sky Safari says is one of the best for small telescopes. No luck: I got to the right place, but couldn't pick it out. So back to more familiar territory, with another look at M81/82, which I found without problem using the inclinometer and az circle. A quick peek at Polaris and its faint companion, and time was up.

Sounds like a great experience! I think the sky with the most stars that I ever saw was from west Scotland.

I had to work late yesterday, so missed some prime clear time. When I finally got outside, I thought the sky was unusually dark, but then realised it was just that I'd been staring at a bright screen for too long! Having set up the dob in my usual spot in the garden, I looked up to see what was around. Gemini was well placed, so I started with Castor, nicely split with the 15mm Starguider, then down to M35. Having just upgraded to Sky Safari Plus, I tried the field of view functions to point in exactly the right place to have a chance of spotting NGC2158. And, well, I think I saw it... Averted vision and tube tapping and I I could just make out a faint speckling of stars. Flushed with this success, I swung over to Leo to try M65/66. Given that I could barely see Theta Leonis with the naked eye through all the LP, I wasn't expecting much but I believe I saw one of them as an indistinct patch slightly brighter than the background. Then time for some easier objects: a quick look at Gamma Leo: an easy split, not as symmetrical as Castor, then over to the Cancer and a nice time panning around the Beehive. Overall, a good little session, even if it was more like "what did you think you saw?" 🙂

Sounds like a fantastic place! Didn't realise they had so much going on in Kielder.

Welcome, and thanks for sharing such great images!

That's a clever bit of geometry! Looks like you got a good result with it too.

Sounds like a great evening, thanks for the report.

Good stuff! I drove up there with my Dad to collect mine in the late 80s. Market Drayton, according to the label...

Thanks Paul, there's certainly a lot to keep us occupied in this hobby.!

Great report. Is that a Dark Star dob? The yellow altitude bearings look very familiar....

2nd April 2022, observing with an 8-inch Dob I put the scope out early to cool, but by the time it got dark, there was a lot of cloud around. I wanted to try my brand new BST Starguider so I pointed to a hole over to the west, and nosed around Aldebaran and its neighbours. By this point, a hole had opened up towards Orion, so I went over to Sigma Ori to see what the Starguider would make of it. And very pleased I was! The 15mm is a nice step up in magnification from my 23mm "finder" eyepiece (a super cheap Svbony aspheric, which I really like), and the multiple star system showed up very well, with pinpoint stars. The sky had now cleared up substantially, and I fancied a look at a rich field, so I swung over to Auriga, and blundered straight onto the Starfish cluster! (At least, it was a cluster in Auriga that looked a bit like a starfish, so I think my identification is secure) Another great view with the Starguider, which I was now feeling comfortable using, with the eye guard screwed right out. I'd had a mind to try a colourful double from @wookie1965 's report the other day, so off to the east to see 2 CVn, a new object for me, and well worth a look, matching the description in that post. While i was in the neighbourhood (and thinking of coloured stars) I had a look at Y CVn, the famous carbon star. I noticed that there was a white star of similar brightness just above it (HD 110500 according to Sky Safari) , and I could just about get both in the field of the 23mm, which let me contrast the colours nicely. The sky transparency seemed better than in recent nights, so I made an attempt on nearby M51, but once again no joy. The Plough was more or less vertical, meaning M81/82 would be a fair bit higher up than M51, so I took one more shot at galaxy spotting, and this time got lucky, spotting the elongated shape of M82, and then M81 with its brighter core. I was a very happy chap! I moved on to M3, but was feeling rather cold and tired, so it was a case of "when the fun stops, stop" , and I packed up and went inside, very pleased with the night's results.

Super fast service from FLO (and the postman) - I ordered this yesterday and it arrived this morning! A BST Starguider 15 mm. It bridges a bit of a gap in my fixed FL eyepieces, so hopefully I'll get along with it

I do find that using a homemade setting circle and a digital inclinometer helps with finding things amid the light pollution, either directly going to the object, or to a nearby star to start the star hopping. I haven't permanently fitted the inclinometer, so my Dob is gizmo-free by default. And for objects where the starting point is easy, I don't bother with coordinates, just star hop the "old fashioned" way...