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jonathan

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Blog Entries posted by jonathan

  1. jonathan
    I put my ST80 out without any real plans of what to see, as I'm in the middle of sorting out a good battery for my NEQ6 / Celestron mounts (current battery is dead).
    I viewed a few things that I'd seen before, pleiades is always a favourite of mine, tried to see NGC6826, The Blinking Planetary, but no luck.
    Scouting along the Milky Way I spotted what looked like an open cluster that I hadn't seen before, I easily located it using the finder scope by keeping both eyes open and focusing my attention on the naked eye rather than finder scope view, while paying attention to the finder scope cross-hairs (quite a task in concentration for me!). I checked on Star Walk on my iPad to see if it was actually anything, and there it was - M39.
    Another target for my 8SE, when I finally get my battery woes sorted. Currently looking at a 20Ah AGM battery, hopefully one that will be a direct replacement for the cheap one in my Maplins 5-in-1 power tank.
  2. jonathan
    More precisely, NGC869 and NGC 884. An excellent target for my ST80, and the best thing I managed to observe tonight.
    I started off by continuing to work my way through Turn Left At Orion for the Autumn season, there seemed to be quite a few clusters and double stars that required either dark skies or a bigger telescope than the ST80, I attempted a couple of the double stars but could not see them, possibly hampered by atmospheric conditions (high haze?)
    M34 was my first real success, an open cluster in Perseus, though a little underwhelming in the ST80 tonight. The next page was The Double Cluster, a really easy one to find, just visible with the naked eye even with all the light pollution coming from the neighbour's spotlights. I saw it beautifully through my 8x42 binoculars, and again in sharp detail through the ST80 and 25mm eyepiece. It really made the night worth while!
    Also had quick peeks at Jupiter (four moons visible in a line around the planet) and Pleiades (my favourite cluster).
  4. jonathan

    Brand new NEQ6 Pro SynTrek

    By jonathan,

    Flippin' huge! Heavy, too, but not unmanageable even for a weedy nerd like me. Makes the Celestron 8SE mount look weedy for sure.
    First attempt at using it was a bit of a failure as I hadn't appreciated just how much initial (one-time only) set up was required, I ended up fumbling with it for about an hour in the dark with weight and OTA attached before giving up and just manually pointing it to various random stars. Pretty!
    This was also the first time I used the Baader SteelTrack crayford focuser, veerrry nice indeed, as well as the 50mm finder scope, also extremely nice and a hundred times better than the red dot finder.
    Today I took the mount out in daylight and have hopefully successfully completed the initial polar alignment and set up, the polar scope was already aligned so that when I rotated the RA the object under the polar scope cross hairs didn't move, which is good. All that should be left is the polar alignment when I actually go and do some observing, should take no more than ten minutes.
    I'm wondering if it's worth leaving the mount outside during the new moon phase, it would save a lot of set up, strip down, and alignment for a few days each month. I could sling an old waterproof coat over it to keep any rain off. My only concern would be if someone did manage to steal it (very slowly...) Naturally I would not leave the OTA attached.
    Anyway, can't wait to do that final polar alignment and see the thing tracking stars! Next task will be to work out how to use the SynTrek hand controller.
  5. jonathan
    I suppose I should have read the text before going out, in Turn Left at Orion it says to find the "Teapot", but having no clue where this was (even from the diagram) I was lost from the start!
    I looked downwards from Altair but couldn't see anything like in the diagrams so decided to switch targets to The Dumbbell Nebula.
    This I managed with relative ease, I didn't have my iPad or SkyScout with me and there were no co-ordinates so I relied entirely on visual star hopping, I found the arrow of Sagitta and from there it was just a short hop and search to find a fuzzy patch - The Dumbbell Nebula! It didn't look exactly like in the book, more square with rounded corners than dumbbell shaped, but I assumed this had to be it. I'm sure with my 8SE I'll see more of it.
    Very pleased to have found it manually at least.
    When I got back indoors I checked for M8 (Lagoona Nebula) on StarWalk on the iPad and found it would have been very close to the horizon, probably well below my field of view, and probably not visible anyway due to light pollution in that direction (busy main road near the horizon with industrial units that never turn their lights off).
  6. jonathan
    I decided to have a crack at this from Turn Left at Orion using my Startravel 80, it looked simple enough - a couple of stars right next to Vega, how could I not find that? Except, that is, for the massive cloud bank that had appeared across virtually the whole sky since I put my telescope out.
    He waits, that's what he does. Tick follows tock follows tick. You get the picture. :clouds1:
    Eventually I could see a gap forming on the horizon, and about twenty minutes later it arrived at Vega and I knew that now was the time, I had already seen the next cloud bank coming along sharp on the gap's heels.
    From Vega I could see the two 'stars' that made up an equal triangle, and through the 25mm eyepiece I could clearly see that each 'star' was actually two stars each (one pair was wider than the other), I switched to the 10mm for a closer look at each pair but for the life of me I just could not split the double-double as described in the book! I guess the Startravel 80 just isn't up to it, and there may have been slightly poor seeing too. I thought for a moment that I did see double stars through averted vision, maybe I did or maybe it was just my blurry vision.
    One for the 8SE I think!
  7. jonathan
    With the skies still so light even after 11pm I am trying my hand at some wide-field viewing using my new Startravel 80.
    I went outside and turned to the first object for the Summer Season in the book 'Turn Left at Orion' - M13, The Great Globular Cluster.
    It was relatively easy to find using the description to follow from Arcturus to Gemma, then find the Keystone. I now also have Star Walk on the iPad which is a positive boon for quickly identifying the stars I'm pointing it at (I'm all for modern technology! But not when it gets in the way of enjoyment).
    What I saw was exactly how it was described in the book - a fuzzy patch with a bright centre. No doubt I would see more of the cluster edges under darker skies, and with the smaller telescope compared to my 8" SCT it was difficult to make out any individual stars in the cluster, but definitely an impressive sight and a satisfying view.
    M13 crossed off the list, but I will try to return to it later in the season when the skies are darker.
  8. jonathan
    Despite the almost full moon and several inches of frozen snow on the ground, I decided to get out and see what I could see using the new Binocular tripod mount bracket I'd just purchased from FLO. The snow was crunchy under foot, like someone had sugar-coated the ground.
    I printed off December's sky map and set my sights for M37, described as 'Very fine star cluster'.
    After spending some time reading the star map the wrong way around I finally figured out which part of the sky I should be looking at, but by this time a large bank of cloud was approaching and some smaller clouds were making their way across my field of view.
    I think I was in the right area, I may even have found Auriga, but M37, M36, and M38 eluded me. I assume the moon was just too bright, almost everything but the brightest stars were washed out, I couldn't even find the Great Square of Pegasus or Jupiter (probably mostly due to the cloud).
    It started to snow just as I was packing up, although by the time I got inside I noticed it had cleared again. I'd had enough of freezing my nuts off anyway - next time I should wear my thicker cords!
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