Wolflady

43 minutes ago, cjdawson said:

Something wonderful to look at... try this.

tonight look to the south, about 40 degrees up you'll see three stars in a row (the belt of Orion).  Below you will see two bright stars (one of them is called Rigel, the other Saiph).  Between this bright stars you should see three dim "stars" in a vertical line (ish). These will be a bit dimmer, when you look you'll have trouble focusing your eyes on them.   Now get you telescope and point it at the middle of those three stars.   You'll know when you hit the target that I've described, I can guarantee that you will love that one.   Enjoy your evening.

How exciting thank you! Def going to give that a go! ??

14 hours ago, johnfosteruk said:

How did you go Wolflady?

I was out looking at Venus earlier this evening too and being about 50 something % illuminated it's approx a half disk. I was well focused and atmospheric conditions (seeing) were good so I also saw some slight variations in the shade of grey which is about all you'll see of Venus with the thick atmosphere and all.

We're all looking forward to reading your first observing report

 

Hiya, the weather turned a bit sour in the end so we couldn't get a good viewing but we are planning to go up onto Pendle Hill some time this week and read through this thread again to take all the wonderful tips you have all kindly offered and put them to good use ☺??

Thank you Laudropb we're looking for it now ☺✨

Thank you Dave, just downloaded the app ☺ Managed to align ok. Thanks for point of reference too that has helped. Looking forward to learning so much more now! ??

Brilliant thank you we'll do just that now. Learning as we go along really but got excited wanting to see something amazing. Thanks again!

Hello,

I bought my husband the Celestron PS1000 for Christmas and tonight he is trying it out. The moon isn't about for a point of reference but we can clearly see Venus and Mars with our naked eyes. Problem is we can see them better just by looking than we can through the telescope! Any ideas on what we're doing wrong? Thank you, Paula.