Nicola Fletcher

That would be great!

Yes re. dog friendly - I bring my poodle on all my trips away so that is an essential feature! Some places would be wheelchair friendly - especially bungalows. I suppose it’s just a matter of checking with the owner before booking 😊

I know - it’s difficult when you want to get your car to sites and there are gates. Definitely check out the Sugarloaf car park, and I’m sure there are places around Glendalough that would be suitable. Hopefully we can meet some Irish SGL’ers in person at some stage at an event!

Hi @Jasonb, I know a group meet at the Sugarloaf car park sometimes, and Glendalough is another lovely place. I’m in the fortunate position of having a small farm with great views so I tend not to travel unless meeting with others. I have rented cottages in Wexford with lovely dark skies and of course the west is another fantastic destination (there are a couple of sample photos below). @Bogmonster, the Irish Astronomy Week is coming up this month and has loads of events - see https://www.irishastronomyweek.ie. I’m also a member of the Irish Astronomical Society. There are several clubs around the country and the midlands astronomy club is having their COSMOS star party on 25th March which I’ll be going to - see https://midlandsastronomy.ie/cosmos-2023. Hope this is useful!

Welcome! I’m from Wicklow so not too far from you. Best of luck with your new scope. It’s great having dark skies, I know what you mean about simply looking up. I also love to use binoculars and have ‘discovered’ plenty of things using them!

It’s simple and just a photographed copy from my sketchbook, but this is the best night I viewed comet C/2022 E3 ZTF. It’s the first comet I really observed properly and followed over time. I’ve sketched it on multiple nights and I’m glad to have a record of my observations over time. I use white chalk pastel, paintbrushes, pastel pencil and a white Gelly roll pen on black paper.

I also really like your sketch. It’s instantly recognisable and gives me that same wow feeling as I get when I look at M42 through a telescope. I also like to make a rough sketch at the eyepiece and then a better one once I’m inside. I really like sketching with white pastel on black paper as I like the idea that the sketch matches the eyepiece view as much as possible. I don’t really worry too much about errors, you can always sketch the same target several times and refine your technique.

Yes, that’s just what I was thinking of! It would be even lighter than my current travel setup. Thank you 😊

That’s such a cool setup. What is the mount?

This is what I grab - here it is mounted on an EQM35 Pro but I prefer it on a Giro Ercole mini mount with a Gitzo tripod. It’s light and can travel almost anywhere with me.

Welcome and best of luck with your new interest in this great hobby!

Isn’t that brilliant! I didn’t think that would fit in the Airport essentials backpack. Such a great way to take a telescope on a plane. I love being able to take mine away to dark skies and places with completely different views of the sky.

Well…it kind of does if you buy an FC76-DCU!

Looks like ‘A Decade in Stargazing’ is out of stock already! I will have to read it on Kindle 😊

I’ll keep trying - I’ll get there eventually! Thanks for your help!

I used a Tak prism diagonal and my 9mm Nagler followed by the 3-6mm Nagler zoom. Everything just looked over bright with colour fringing (the scope is an Altair Starwave apo and I definitely gave it plenty of time to cool). I have a set of Celestron planetary filters and tried the red and yellow ones but both just made everything so dull it was difficult to see anything. I doubt the equipment was at fault so maybe it was the weather/me/lack of patience. I realise Mars is a challenging target but honestly I thought I’d see some features! Any advice would be gratefully received 😊

I’m really glad you’ve asked this question as I’ve been observing for a few years and still haven’t figured out Mars! I was all geared up for the opposition this year but only saw a red over-bright disc through my 3 and 4” refractors. I think I just need to have more patience and keep trying. I suspect the conditions just weren’t good enough each time I tried observing it. I also doubt I gave it enough time - I just got frustrated and moved on to other targets! Your post and the encouraging answers have made me determined to keep trying. Thank you!

I was out at the same time as you looking at the comet through my Olympus 10 x 50s. I still can’t believe how easy it was to find and how enjoyable it was to observe. The clouds were also threatening but I ran in after about 15 minutes and got my 3” Tak. The clouds were really closing in but I got a glimpse through the telescope - I have to say it was nicer through the binoculars though. Still waiting for the clouds to clear but the binoculars will go everywhere with me for the next few nights just in case there’s a break in the clouds! Magical is a great way to describe it.

Me too, and I completely agree, I’m so glad I bought mine. The focuser on them is really nice to use as well. Still can’t believe I got such a nice refractor for that price!

That’s an absolutely beautiful thing, just imagine having that set up in a true dark sky site. I have a Tak and love it, but having thought about this, I find amazing-looking telescopes fit the bill. Great idea for a thread topic @Sunshine!

I’ve never seen one nor observed through one, but I find the Planewave scopes to be just so amazing looking. Plus giant dobs - all of them! I’m not sure I’d like these in my living room - I’ll stick with my utterly beautiful 3” Tak for that 😊

Hello and welcome 🤗 I think you’ve some great books there and I also found that chatting to people at my local Astro club was really helpful and it was brilliant to try our different equipment before I bought my own (don’t be in a rush to buy anything)! The one book that was recommended to me on this forum, but I didn’t discover until I was involved with the hobby for a few years, was a book called ‘Starlight Nights’ by Leslie Peltier. It’s now one of my favourite books and I’m so glad I found out about it. It’s out of print but you can sometimes get secondhand copies and it’s available on Kindle. I hope you enjoy discovering more about the night sky.

I got a used copy online for peanuts. I bought it after re-reading Starlight Nights, and was interested in the first book Leslie Peltier read on astronomy from his local library. It’s a lovely book, beautifully written, with a chapter devoted to each of the brightest stars and then a section on constellations. It would be great for someone learning the night sky but is also just a really nice read if you already have a good knowledge of the night sky.

Fabulous sketch and also, lucky you getting to use a 12” in Namibia!

Thank you for writing this - I loved your descriptions! The sketch of Jupiter in particular makes me imagine how much detail you must have seen. Fantastic!