jonathan

I've printed off the sheets, there's a clear sky outside, so I'm going out and I may be some time...

I finally got my act together, and so did the weather, and tonight I went outside with my 8SE / NEQ6. The skies were relatively clear, just some threatening cloud to the East over the sea but I don't think it ever made land, then just the occasional patch of cloud which came and went fairly quickly. Having not really done anything other than binoculars and one session with my ST80, I had to go back to Turn Left At Orion as I had little idea of what to aim for. I flicked to the Autumn section and worked my way through it, page by page; to my surprise, I was finding most of the targets relatively easily, experience shining through there, only one really gave me trouble and that was the first one - M15; this was just too low and in the light pollution from the pub, I had a good go but just couldn't see anything apart from the brightest stars so low over the roofs. I skipped several other targets down that way, South East of the Great Square of Pegasus, not much point in trying under those conditions. Had a look at M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, but it didn't seem that impressive, perhaps due to the amount of light pollution from either side of our garden. Annoyingly, neighbours on one side seem to have a security light on full beam all night until 11pm, most annoying, and they're not even out in the yard. Almach was my next target, I had actually found this when scouting for M31 and had a quick look then, but found it again for a longer look. Very pretty large blue star with a smaller companion, looks great in the 8SE with 25mm eyepiece. Mesarthim is a double star I don't remember looking at previously, very uniform size and easy to see, relatively easy to find too. Took me a while to find Eta Cassiopeiae in Cassiopeiae, a double star in the W. At this point I noticed the dew was getting to be quite thick, and my finder scope wasn't showing much; it turned out that it was dewed up at both ends, the eyepiece end seemed to mist up just from my breath or my warm face being near it, and I discovered that my dew heater controller had failed on one of the channels. I switched the cables over to channel 2, and it started to un-dew on the finder scope (and my main scope, which had been without a working dew heater for at least 30 minutes, possibly longer, and was beginning to seriously dew up). Found it in the end, a nice double star in the 8SE. I decided to give the open clusters in Cassiopeia a miss tonight, that seemed like a night's viewing all of it's own. M34 threw me a bit due to the rotation of the picture in the book, I was looking between Kappa and Algol for a while, but as soon as I realised my mistake I found M34 straight away, a lovely open cluster. Finally, the last target for Autumn in the book, The Double Cluster NGC 869 and NGC 884 in Perseus. Found this relatively easily by following the left most stroke of the W in Cassiopeia South, it was just visible to the naked eye and appeared as a dark smudge in my finder scope (which was still half fogged up with dew). It didn't quite all fit into my 25mm so gave it a go with the 38mm wide eyepiece, which displayed it beautifully; both clusters were just in the frame, sharp points of light. The book says that some are red in appearance, and I think I could definitely see this for some of them, although sometimes suggestion goes a long way! I wanted something good to finish the night on so I looked out for Jupiter, caught a quick glimpse of the Pleiades but it was best viewed in binoculars. Jupiter was still behind my neighbour's hedge at 10pm so I decided to go inside for a while to warm up. Came back out about 10.30 and it was just clearing the hedge. The 10mm was not too bad tonight, I could definitely make out three distinct bands but the image was slightly dim and indistinct, not the best of seeing conditions. In the 25mm eyepiece it was nice and bright, and I could also appreciate the three bands and three of the moons too. I fancy I could just about make out a dark spot on one of the bands, not sure if it was the great red spot. Not too bad for a first time out for a long time. I will be looking at the dew heater situation, it may just be a loose connection in the controller, or maybe something has burned out. I also forgot that I wanted to make a dew shield for my finder scope, so will have to look for suitable thin material to make that out of. Something to keep me busy until the next time I get out, which I expect will be November sometime. Will have to move on to the Winter targets!

For me, Andromeda galaxy is an averted-vision object. Looking slightly to the left or right reveals a lot more of it, though it is always just a cigar-shaped misty cloud with a brighter sphere in the centre. Honestly, the views are as good in binoculars as my 8" scope. I get more excited if I can see it with the naked eye than in the scope.

If I look South I can only just make out the teapot, but it is in the middle of the light pollution, not a lot else is visible at that level. With a sloping garden I miss out on the lower stuff to the North, the Plough is just above my tree line / horizon in that direction. Still, there's plenty to see - I can make out the entire Milky Way, all those star clusters around Cassiopia, the Andromeda galaxy, Pleiades. Tonight I saw Jupiter rising in the East, I shall look forward to observing that when I get my scope out next. Cruising with just binoculars and some knowledge is surprisingly fun and relaxing.

Amazing what can be seen in just 30 minutes with a pair of binoculars. Tonight I just decided to pop outside with my binoculars and the little StarPocket scope I picked up for 30p last weekend, had fun identifying the stars with it, then scanned the stars with the binoculars. Saw part of a shooting star in the binoculars as I was observing one of the large clusters near Cassiopia, picked out Pleiades with the naked eye - saw about six and a half stars, looked beautiful in the binoculars. Also saw the Andromeda Galaxy, it's looking pretty good now (after 11pm). I noticed a bright star peeking out between some trees, a look in the binoculars confirmed that it was Jupiter with it's moons, which looked like four or five tiny pin pricks in a black sheet of card held up to the light. Time to dust off the scopes and think about some cool nights under the stars... the cool nights are here, time to start wrapping up warm and wear a hat. Saw quite a bit of dew on my car as I came in tonight, just hope that my dew prevention measures will be up to it. Next month I am likely to purchase the Equinox 80, which will replace my ST80 as a grab and go (ish), that should add plenty of interest for me to start off the dark skies season. I will likely buy a motor drive for the CG-4 too, probably dual axis as it doesn't cost much more than RA axis only.

Forecast was for sunny and clear skies yesterday evening and this morning, well they were almost right - the clouds didn't really clear last night but this morning there were just a few fluffy clouds about. I took the opportunity to have a quick look at the sun through my Lunt LS60. What an interesting sun today, there seemed to be filaments and prominences galore. One very large filament in the lower left quadrant seemed to be coming out at me, like something from a 3D film. There was a solar flare yesterday or the day before, I think I could just see the remnants of that. Also there were several pairs of sun spots scattered across the entire disc of the sun. This is possibly the most activity I have observed so far, perhaps not the most impressive prominences but certainly the most interesting in a single view. Hoping to see more of this kind of activity during the solar maximum this year and next. Once again, the CG-4 performed brilliantly, very easy to set up and align (I don't think I had to adjust DEC at all once I had located the sun), finding the sun in the Sol Finder was quick too. I am getting used to assembling the Vixen Synta dovetail bar to the clamshell using the three bolts, it only takes me five minutes to put it all together (along with the Sol Finder) and have it balanced on the CG-4 mount. It is all part of the fun really, there is certainly something satisfying about assembling things while sitting outdoors on a sunny day. A mass of clouds has come over now, there will be sunny gaps, I'm sure, but I've seen the best of the sunshine today, I think.

Almost September, the dark nights are already here, the dark evenings are fast approaching. Currently busy paying back my student loan, but once that is done I shall be purchasing either an Equinox 80 or Evostar 80ED, I keep swaying to one or the other, but either way it should be an excellent replacement for my ST80 (which I will probably have to sell to make space). This will be used on the CG-4 for visual and, if I am brave, a dabble in wide-field astrophotography, mostly star field views but perhaps planets too. I'd also like to try a TAL 100RS on the CG-4 mount, that should be excellent for planets and the moon. I know the 8SE is probably it's equal or better, but the factor of size comes into it - the 8SE and NEQ6 are very big and heavy, and I can't always be arsed to get them out! I have a bashed toe at the moment so have not been willing to do much for the past week, I may get the CG-4 out this week (weather permitting) as the toe is showing signs of slowly healing, but the last thing I want to do is bash it again.

Had a good go with the LS60 on the CG-4 mount a few weeks ago, on one of the few sunny days which coincided with a weekend. It was a very pleasant experience, the mount is rock solid with the LS60, turning just one of the knobs to keep the sun in view resulted in no appreciable vibrations. With a single-axis motor drive it should easily be possible to capture some images using this mount.

I now have the vixen dovetail bar too, although I initially ordered Losmandy by mistake. A good practical lesson for me in the difference between the two! Still waiting for an opportunity to try out the LS60 on it though, it just hasn't been sunny at all, the best we've had for what seems like a couple of months now has been sunshine and showers.

I finally acquired a Celestron CG-4 mount after weeks of waiting. Now I need to get a dovetail bar that the Lunt LS60 can be attached to via the clamshell and it will be my solar observing mount... Later, I plan to buy an Equinox 80 and tube rings which will replace my ST80 for widefield and a dabble in astrophotography (probably use the NEQ6 if I get serious with that, I am likely to buy a motor drive for the CG-4 anyway so will be trying it on that too).

I was viewing M13 just the other night. Certainly coming along there.

I decided to get The Big One out (8SE, NEQ6) as this may be the best and darkest skies I get before the Autumn. Took the scope out and began setting up about 10pm, didn't wait long for cool-down as it was so (relatively) warm outside anyway, there was no dew so I just used the dewshield - no heaters! Only the second time I have not had heaters on and got away with it. I primarily went out to see Saturn and managed to get some great views of the magnificent giant, among the best I've ever had. I convinced myself that I could make out the Cassini Division this time, a black line just visible around the edge of the rings, most noticeable across the disc of Saturn itself. I have not seen this before due to poor seeing conditions when ever Saturn was up. I could also see a band across Saturn. I fancy I could make out three or four of Saturn's moons too, if the bright one I saw is actually a moon and not a star. After being awed by Saturn for a while I had a quick look at Mars, it appeared to be in a slight phase, not a complete disc. I also viewed what I think was Arcturus and Vega, with short trips back to Saturn as it made it's way across the night sky. By this time my eyes were getting a bit bleary and I found myself sitting in the chair 'resting my eyes' for a few minutes! Been a hot day at the office.. I decided to try and end the night on a high so consulted Turn Left at Orion to see if there was something interesting that took my fancy... M13 looked like it could be an easy target, and it was. I located the Keystone as described in the book, sure enough by the top right star was a fuzzy patch in my binoculars, soon found this in my eyepiece with the help of the red dot finder and regular finder. A fairly impressive globular cluster! One last look at Saturn and then it was time to call it a night.

It feels rather sad that due to the very wet April and very cool and cloudy May I have effectively missed most of the spring night sky. It is now nearing the end of May, this week the clouds suddenly disappeared and the temperature has risen from about 13 to 23 in the space of a few days. Weather forecasts seem to be all over the place - some say it will be cloudy, others not... today was supposed to be cloudy but it was a clear blue sky all day. I managed about 30 minutes of solar gazing this evening before the sun went behind some branches, it's becoming quite clear that my EQ1 is struggling, especially with the new Baader Hyperion Zoom eyepiece I bought for the LS60; I have to say, I probably find the 10mm X-Cel to be slightly better, but the zoom is handy for quickly changing views with minimal refocusing. It may just be a matter of getting used to the eyepiece, and the fact that I haven't had opportunity to do any solar gazing for a while. I saw a large prominence on the left of the sun, a couple of nice big sun spots, some rather large filaments too which seems to stretch right across the entire disc. A few loops and clouds around the limb too. I feel so tired though after being at work all day and on my feet a lot, crawling under computer desks, etc! I just don't know if I have the energy to get the NEQ6 out. Really wishing I had that CG-4 now, it is still on back-order (why does that always seem to happen to me??)

I would be very pleased with that image, though I've never mounted a camera on my telescope or mount, just on a fixed tripod.

I rather like the look of the white Williams Optics refractors FLO have on their website, but I suspect they are far better for photography than visual (my main interest at the moment). Rather envious of your wooden tripod...

I had admired the moon yesterday as it was a new crescent, with Venus and Jupiter still close by from the recent near-miss conjunction (from my location), I decided to have a go with the telescope tonight. I had the telescope set up before sunset, the moon and Venus were clearly visible, as the sun set but it was still light I also noticed Jupiter and Mars so I had a look at both - Jupiter was looking very nice, several bands visible and four moons in a long line (still only just dusk, daylight practically); Venus was in half-phase but still amazingly bright in the daylight. The moon looked good too, just the crescent was visible at this time, stunning to see the whole moon in the 38mm. I decided to turn the NEQ6 off and come back outside after dark. I switched my attention to the earth-shine lit shadowed portion of the moon, it was visible with the naked eye and through the scope was a dim mystery, the usual dark areas and major craters just visible through a purple-ish haze. Had a bit of a random scout around, looked at one or two star clusters but the seeing just wasn't up to par for regular stars. There were a couple of funky light shows from the brighter stars close to the horizon as their light played like a multi-coloured disco ball through the earth's atmosphere, it looked crazy! I was hoping that Saturn would make an appearance before 10pm but it didn't, blocked by buildings and hedges no doubt. With the seeing not brilliant it would not have been as good a view as the one I had of Saturn recently anyway. With the moon all ready to set I decided to pack away, there had been hardly any dew to speak of but I sense it was just beginning to come on as I was packing up, my filter case top was covered in it.

It's visible for me after 11pm, but it has to clear some tall buildings so if you have a clear horizon it may be visible at around 10pm.

Sounds like you had a good time despite the mishap. I saw Saturn tonight, it looks superb! Rings are very nice this time around, slightly better angle than last time I think.

Seeing as the buzz was all about Mars, I decided to try and see it using my 8SE, this would be the first real effort on the NEQ6 mount too. I set up just after 6pm, the skies were clear and forecast to stay that way pretty much all night according to WeatherProHD on my iPad. I didn't wait long for the scope to cool, it wasn't that cold outside anyway (about 7 degrees), so I trained it on Venus which was just setting in the West. Venus appeared to be just less than half in shadow, the lower portion being in night. As I was observing Venus the image suddenly went dim... some rollocking great clouds had come in, and within minutes had completely obscured Venus and Jupiter (which was not far behind Venus). The clouds were not forecast on my iPad and looked like they were here to stay, so I went indoors to see if I could wait it out. I noticed it actually had started to rain, so rushed out to cover the scope and close my eyepiece case (silly, I always should close this if I go indoors). According to WeatherProHD there was some thin, low cloud moving across the area, using the cloud satellite simulation I estimated it should be gone by 10pm, I settled down to watch The Bank Job. As a bonus, I noticed on Stellarium that Saturn was due an appearance later. Just after 10pm I looked outside and could see gaps in the clouds, they appeared to be breaking up. 15 minutes later and it was clear! I warmed up the dew heaters and got the motors running again, then pointed the scope at Mars - I spotted it straight away as I knew where it should be from Stellarium (rising in Leo, to the East). Mars - I could make out the disc and a couple of dark lines on the surface, but nothing more. The disc was quite bright, it had only a faint tinge of orange about it in the scope. I tried 25mm and 10mm, seeing must have been good tonight as the best views were through the 10mm. I found, however, that my focus reached the end of it's travel, I got around this by moving the diagonal slightly out of the tube, this gave me more room to manouvre and enabled me to get the best focus I could. It is only as I write this blog that I realise I could have used the original focus knob of the 8SE, then fine-tuned using the Crayford which I have fitted; will have to try to remember that for next time! Saturn was not yet up above the roof tops, so I switched my attention to the moon. It looked stunning, even in the 10mm (though there was some heat haze shimmering, it wasn't as bad as it has been on other occasions). I had a general random scout around, paid particular attention to the lighter side which appeared to have fewer craters than the terminator side. Saturn was now coming up by this time, I took a guess as to which of the two bright points of light it was (the vaguely orangey greeny one, as opposed to the blue-ish one), I was right. I lined up the red-dot finder, then the finder, and BAM! It was there in the eyepiece, a beautiful sight since I haven't seen it for so long (could actually have been this time last year). The rings were showing to be quite open, there was a definite outline and a gap to be seen between the rings and planet, I fancy I could just about make out a band across the middle of the planet - possibly the ring shadow? Saturn and the rings had a pale yellow-grey colour to them. I had to battle with the turbulent air that made the image of Saturn go in and out of focus, but for that precious odd second here and there when it was in focus, it was a marvellous sight. I decided to take a break and come out when Saturn had risen a bit further, in the hope that the air would not be so turbulent. After about 40 minutes I went back out, only to find that the temperature had dropped and a heavy dew was forming, and my dew heater was not running - the battery I had it plugged in to had run down. I plugged it in to my other battery but it was too late, there was no shifting this dew, a significant amount had formed on the glass surfaces, including the eyepiece and finders. I did manage to get another look at Saturn but the conditions were no better than before. I noticed the temperature drop even further, then the clouds made a return as I had predicted, so it was time to pack up. Had a great night though - Possibly the best I am going to see of Mars with the 8SE (without travelling to a darker site), good views of the moon, and Saturn as a bonus. :hello2: Just looked out of the window now, it looks totally clear again. According to my iPad app there is a large blanket of cloud about to cover the whole of the UK though, it just so happens that there is a small gap over where I am at the moment, will be covered in 30 minutes I reckon.

I have tried that trick on occasion and it does work for a while, but when it's so cold they cool down quickly, and I can't put the finder scope in my pocket ;) I'm going to try heater tapes to see if they improve the situation. Might need a second battery for that otherwise my viewing time will be quite short!

I've noticed the past few nights have been cold and clear, but it's been an exhausting week at work so decided to relax until the weekend, it was worth the wait. Having failed to find these open clusters just to the left of Orion on a previous attempt due to the bright moon, I decided to postpone until the moon was out of the way. I'm still new to this whole moon thing as I wasn't expecting it to be out of the way so soon after a full moon, it didn't appear in the sky at all during my session tonight (which started at 6pm). According to Star Walk on the iPad it doesn't rise until 23:18 tonight. Remembering the cluster's approximate positions since my last outing, I quickly located them in binoculars, then, to my surprise, found the first one in the finder scope too, despite the eyepiece frequently fogging up merely from my face being close to it - the temperature was very cold! First up was M35, I located this by finding the three bright stars just up from Betelgeuse (later discovered to be Tejat Posterior, Propus, and Propus... according to Star Walk anyway). OK, I had written a nice long blog post for this but very annoyingly I clicked something and it disappeared, never to be seen again. GRRRR! Not typing all of that again now, it was probably a very boring read anyway. Cut a long story short I saw M35, M36, M37, and M38, there was a bit of a problem with dew and heat from my face fogging up the eyepiece, I had a great time until the battery started to fade, then I packed up. The end.