MKHACHFE

Kudos to you too matey...sorry. I didn't mean to exclude you when praising michael.h.f.wilkinson above. Cheers

Kudos to you buddy.

A belated thanks to everyone for the replies and advice.

Thanks David.

Let us know how you get on. Goodnight all.

Sadly not. I literally went inside a few minutes before. Man, this has been a frustrating 2 hours.

Lucky you... saw nothing. It was a perfect night as well. Clear, dark and moon-less. I looked in the right spot for sure...but now, i claim defeat. I think my limited telescope time would be better suited to seeing more interesting things anyway...You win this round cosmos! Cheers

OK, gorgeous, clear night in Biggin Hill, XT8 has been cooling for an hour...i'm going to try AGAIN. Not sure why i felt the need to post that. I will update either way later this evening. Thanks for the new maps guys. Cheers

Sorry, i should have mentioned that i wasnt using the Barlow to locate it. Just the 25mm. I get 47x with that EP..will that be enough to find it, assuming haze free skies? Cheers

Yeah, i browsed various sites and it seems like we are all in the right are. Thanks for the speedy replies guys. Quick question, i'm assuming my 8" Dob with 25mm and 2x Barlow will allow me to see this comet. Am i right? I'm aware that it has started to fade as it moves away from us. I hope i'm not too late to see it with my setup. I spent a whole night looking in the wrong place last week...stupid me. Cheers

I tried for the third night in a week tonight for an hour at around 9.30-10.30. I live just in Biggin Hill in southern Greater London, i have a 5 Bortle value at my location. I used this map to find it, but saw nothing. Very frustrating. I used an Orion XT8 with 25mm Plossi and a shorty 2x Barlow. I'm 99% sure i was looking in the right spot as i have my red dot finder accuracy pretty spot on (kept pointing it at brighter stars to make sure i was using it correctly). But , as people have said above, there definitely was a faint haze that severely hampered viewing. Andromeda looked like i had a detached bit of skin on my retina..just a fuzz. Granted it was at around 45 degrees up, and towards central London to boot. I have lived in central London my entire life and now i have fairly decent skies, i bought my first telescope (44 year old with a lifelong passion with all science from childhood) and love every second i'm out there. Success or no success...it's all great. To those who have yet to catch a glimpse, keep going, I know I will. Would those who saw it, agree with this map i found of its location on the 23rd feb? EDIT: I would estimate lowest magnitude i could see with the naked eye was 5 or JUST 6

Thank you for the in depth reply mate. And yes, I meant 25mm..oops

Thank you all for the replies. Yes, it is quite a low magnification. Still, seems pretty darn sharp to me. I have been a 3D animator for 25 years and my eye is good at spotting even a hint of blur insets is an image. That being said, I could be wrong of course. I think the view through my eyepiece is sharp as a tack, but maybe I'm wrong. I'll take head of all the advice given and decide tomorrow whether to tamper with it. To be honest, I would like to learn how to collimate my scope, so it's probably worth trying. I was just curious what the likelihood it was perfectly collimated from the get go was. Cheers

Thanks buddy.

Hi all, My brand new XT was assembled today and taken out for the first time this evening. I let it cool down for an hour, but even before that, the view of the Orion Nebula, Sirius and Mizar and its double (gap clearly and cleanly visible) were all crystal clear. I was expecting to have to collimate the tube to get the best view, but this seems perfect. No aberration, no fringing, everything pin sharp through the supplied 2.5mm Plossi. So, my question is this..does this mean i am lucky and the scope doesn't need to be collimated? I cant imagine the view being any sharper or better than it is to be honest. But i am a newcomer to telescopes and i thought i would ask the experts. That's you! Cheers, M