pipnina

Yeah, I usually check Clear Outside and BBC weather... Thing is I'm an optimist and always hope that when one says it'll be clear and the other says cloud... I always stay up hoping it will be clear haha. Though I share your observation that BBC is usually more accurate.

I tried to last night, but the forecast wasn't accurate (as usual) and it was cloudy

Oh well, there's another 150 days in the year to see it, we might even have a clear sky for one of them haha.

I don't see much scanning the sky from home. I only just managed to detect M51 in my 250px from home- stands out like a sore thumb at the dark site. Summer is a planetary-only time of year for me :/

Have fun & clear skies!

I look at my dob, imagine something twice as big and wonder where people put those 20" beasts!

My cousin might be getting her license soon, and she's already got some wheels.... Maybe I can persuade her, hmmm.

Unless Plymouth is ready for utter mayhem and I'm ready to be evicted I don't think so!

It's possible that, maybe if the weather holds I'll get 40/50 minutes at the dark site tomorrow. (astro dark starts about 20 minutes earlier than I thought it did, hehe). I'll start making a proper list I guess... I can't foresee any sessions beyond that, though. 

Well, planets are still possible from home (Maybe pluto exempt) but attempting deep sky from home is a no-go. I tried to look for M51 the other night and I couldn't even make out the right star patterns to find it by, washed out. From home the sky is mag 4.2 in the best spot, M51 is probably in the region of mag 3.7. Since I can't drive I can't get to a dark site by myself and my dad goes to bed at 11 on work nights (6 days a week). Until september when the clocks change back there isn't much for me in deep sky at this point. I might try a few but I'd guess it to be fruitless. If daylight savings weren't a thing I'd probably have another month...

Planets are possible all year round, thankfully. So it's not an astronomy blank spot in the year at least.

As luck would have it, the clouds cleared tonight for me to try the SLV out!

It's definitely a huge step up from the standard eyepiece, the field of view is remarkably sharp throughout the field of view. Though, despite the eye relief being long enough for me to use the eyepiece with my glasses on, it requires me to get my eye in just the right position or some serious CA occurs which is made difficult by the glasses, but by holding my fingers around the eyepiece it makes it a lot easier. Glasses overall degrade the viewing experience quite a bit, with several optical issues arising with point sources (in this case I'm talking about Jupiter's moons). It doesn't seem to be related to the eyepiece, just my lousy glasses . It is definitely a spectacular eyepiece for the price, just a shame I need to wear glasses to get the most out of it. It's too light polluted to test M51 & the clusters from home, I'll have to be patient and wait for an opportunity to go to the dark site for them. Let's hope British summer time doesn't throw a spanner in those works!

If the weather improves: Jupiter first, the moon (if it's still around by the next clear sky), wanting to take another look at m51, find the eskimo nebula. C25, M53 and M3 are also on the list. The 10mm will probably help later in the year when I start hunting for the blinking planetary again. (I got close to finding the right spot with my 5", i went home after one attempt at finding it and realised it was probably in the FOV aghh!?)

*Nothing as in dispatch confirmation

I likely will call if I get nothing by the time I get home tomorrow. As it is I'm just assuming it's not dispatched yet or the e-mail is being sent by carrier pigeon.

Unsure, it told me "Order processed" but hasn't sent me anything else since the 22nd. Usually you get an email like that and then a day or two later you get an email saying "Your order has been dispatched" or something along those lines. It has only been 3 days... but that's one day longer than normal!

At least it's cloudy right now so I don't have to worry about having it but not being able to use it! When I ordered my first scope it was clear skies for the whole week until the day the scope arrived and it was overcast for 2 weeks afterwards haha.

Well, I'm gonna have to try and get first light with M42 M45, M1, M78 and try for NGC 2024. M51 is right there, too. My favourite galaxy that I haven't seen yet  The OIII filter is going to have to be a 2nd purchase, though. For after I've sold my current kit (hopefully).

Sure hope so!

Got targets planned already, bit pre-emptive but hey-ho!

For me, whenever clearoutside says something like "14% overcast" or "25% overcast" it ends up being more like "14% not overcast". Like the other day when I got all set up with my camera to see clouds forming over the horizon and engulf the whole sky...

We'll make one each, make an array. 24/7 astro imaging lol

My weather is much the same as yours... But my forecast is to get better at around 10PM-1AM so here's hoping!

I put £10 on maybe.

I've compiled a list for tonight, too. Shame the forecast keeps lying about the visibility. It always predicts "Very good" or "Excellent" but i only ever get "Good" at best...