Waddensky

Just went out for the first comet hunt since the last full moon. Armed with my 10x50, C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) was - as expected - nowhere near as bright as it was the last dark nights before the full moon. A dim, slightly elongated smudge near 42 Cam. According to the latest observations, the comet is now around mag 9.3. C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS) was a whole other story. Bright, large, and easily seen without averted vision near Gam Cam. Mag 8.2. The other bright ATLAS, C/2019 Y1, was a bit doubtful. It's easily located in Cassiopeia's 'W', but it's quite a crowded field over there. According to SkySafari, it's very close to HD 3224 (mag 8.8) but I noticed a small patch of light about the same brightness a few arcminutes lower. A bit more concentrated and smaller than T2. Not really sure. Mag 8.7 according to recent estimates. Nearby NGC 129 was wonderful, with a few individual stars resolved using averted vision.

Yes, Polaris is not the pole star on the Moon but as far as the night sky goes, everything looks exactly the same as seen from Earth. The distances to the stars involved are just too large to make a difference on about 400.000 km (remember that Earth travels way larger distances around the Sun through the year). Even the planets are on the same location, maybe with some slight parallax on the nearest planets Mars and Venus but I doubt that it will be visible by the naked eye. The Sun looks the same as seen from here, but without daylight. A mag -26 disk in a pitch black night. But! The most eye-catching, unsettling difference would be the appearance of the stars. No scintillation, no twinkles, no flickering, just steady, constant, lifeless points of light. Stellarium is great to visualise this. Software like Celestia or Space Engine allows you to land on any planet (or any star) to observe the night sky from there. Really insightful!

I have one. You can't go wrong*, it's a great all-round scope that comes with eyepieces that are good enough to get started with. *edit: as long as you're a visual observer.

What equipment are you using? If you wait a few days, the Moon will be below the horizon during the first hours of astronomical darkness. That will make comet hunting a lot easier. Look out for a small, fuzzy patch of light. Small apertures won't reveal a tail or other details. Since the desintegration of C/2019 Y4 the brightness has plummeted (it's now mag 9.8), so bear in mind that it might be difficult to spot, depending on the conditions. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Welcome Gavin! Yes, a dobsonian is a great scope to get started with. You can get a decent second-hand 6" or 8" dobson for your budget, if you are able to stretch your budget a bit you may even be able to find a new 6" dob (I'm thinking mainland Europe prices, maybe it differs a bit in the UK). They are great scopes that will give you a lifetime of stargazing. But some people find them a bit heavy and cumbersome, especially the base. Are you able to observe from your own home or do you need to travel to a dark location? What kind of celestial objects would you like to observe? Planets, galaxies, nebulae, double stars? A dobson is only for visual use. Maybe you can take a quick snapshot of the Moon or some other bright objects, but that's about it. To start with photography, you need a different scope and some other equipment, and as far as I know, we're talking about much higher budget requirements. But I'm strictly visual myself, so I'm sure others will chime in.

Yes, the Moon is roughly on the ecliptic, so if the Sun has a high altitude (in the summer), the full Moon (opposite of the Sun) has a low altitude. That's because the Earth's axis is tilted about 23 degrees with respect to the ecliptic (the orbit of the Earth around the Sun). Another way to look at this is the constellations on the zodiac. In summer nights these constellations are low above the horizon from the northen hemisphere (like Scorpius and Sagittarius), so all objects moving through these constellations (the planets and the Moon) have a low altitude too. In the winter, the zodiac constellations are high up: Gemini, Taurus, and so are the planets and the Moon.

Yes, there's an Astronomers Telegram on the recent developments, and another one confirming the change. The expected light curve based on recent observations is updated too, with a maximum around mag 3-4. Still, comets are erratic and unpredictable, so we'll have to wait before we know anything for sure.

Lovely! Look at the speed of the planet. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, birds most likely. Nice catch though.

It suprises me that SkySafari hasn't adopted the IAU names. I never noticed it, but there are other stars too that have names different from the list of the Working Group on Star Names, even if more than one proper name is listed. Still, the star names represent a rich tradition from different cultures. Making one name 'official' has the risk of losing those traditions and that would be a shame, IMO.

On this website, a graph displays the estimated light curve of C/2019 Y4 based on recent observations from the COBS and the MPC. Seems like the expectations are getting a bit more realistic: the peak brightness of the comet is now estimated to be around mag 0.0, with forward scattering maybe adding half a magnitude.

What a wonderful sight! A brilliant Venus against a backdrop of a myriad of Pleiades stars. Really lovely.

Forecast looking good but some clouds rolling in... Fingers crossed!

Maybe you need to update the orbital elements. The procedure for Stellarium is described here. Good luck and clear skies!

GSO dobs are great scopes, and a 6" will show you much more than a 70 mm refractor. An 8" even more. Light pollution is not so much a problem for lunar or plantary observing, but you need steady air to see details. While you can experiment with imaging the brightest objects, a dob really isn't suitable for astrophotography, as other have said. But for visual use, a dob gives you the best bang for the buck. Good luck!

Not an expert, but (447) Valentine is in the neighbourhood according to Cartes du Ciel.

I think it's better to use ecliptic coordinates, not equatorial. The Moon is also not exactly on the ecliptic plane, but this will give you better results than using the celestial equator, which is inclined to the ecliptic by about 23 degrees

Another succesful observation of C/2019 Y4 last night, although this time some averted vision was required using my binos because of the increased interference of moonlight. The comet was now way past HR 3182, close to the mag 8.2 star HD 65871 (HIP 39616).

What a wonderful, deep picture and the annotated background information is incredibly interesting. Thanks for sharing!!

You can drive a lot of times to a dark spot with a small telescope for the price of a large telescope 🙂. But if you're restricted due to corona (don't know your country-specific regulations), then I guess aperture is the key. Or patience. Maybe EAA can be of some help, but my experience is virtually nil in that area.

That's a tough one. Light pollution will always interfere in your observations. A light pollution filter may help a very little bit, but not so much. For emission nebulae a good UHC or OIII filter will be of benefit. Try to switch eyepieces on the deep-sky objects you observe. Sometimes, a bit less or more magnification will improve contrast just enough to make an object visible or to see more detail. And although not everyone will agree: a larger telescope will show you more, even under heavy light pollution.

After the succesful observation on Friday, I had some difficulties to find the comet Saturday night. Last night however I was able to see the diffuse glow of C/2019 Y4 about 15' west of the star HR 3182 with my 10x50 binoculars, despite the moonlight. It's moving faster each day!

John above has some great advice. Your 10mm eyepiece will give you the largest magnification available with your current equipment (100x). A 5mm eyepiece will result in 200x magnification (just divide the focal length of your telescope - 1000mm according to the Celestron specs - by the focal length of the eyepiece to calculate the magnification). A 2x barlow will produce the same result with your 10mm eyepiece. Keep in mind that planets will always be small at any useful magnifications, and that the maximum available/usable magnification depends both on your telescope and the stability of the atmosphere. For planetary observing I rarely go over 150/200x.

Thanks! Sounds like your focus is spot on, Venus should look like a small dot in your telescope. What you're trying to do, is getting Venus closer by using the focus wheels. That's not possible. If you want to see Venus larger, you'll need to use another eyepiece with a shorter focal length, or perhaps a zoom eyepiece. What kind of eyepieces were delivered with this scope?

Can you post a screenshot? I'm not really sure what you're referring to.