josefk

Hah. You've made my day! Obviously i didn't do my homework first :-). i'll have another go at the Double Double at that mag. I have the 8" GSO/StellaLyra Cassegrain and i'm loving it so far. Cheers

end of the night.heic

I knew the sky wouldn't be dark last night but i was keen to get out nevertheless. Fineshade woods (a forestry commission site in Northamptonshire) is a site about 10 or 15 minutes from my house so i thought i would give it a dry run. The moon was SO bright i still don't know if its a darkish site or not. Online checking suggests it should be Bortle 4. The pay & display machines seem to be left on all night so there is some ground level light pollution. I like it because you can observe from the side of the car and that suits me a lot. Being a bright moon in the S and SE i had the vague intention of viewing between NW and NE. A little cloud in the first few degrees above the horizon also pushed me up a bit. Success: M35, M36, M37, M38. These were all lovely even though the sky wasn't properly dark. M37 was especially nice. I will definitely pick these out again on a much darker night. 2nd success: M81 and M82. I actually looked at M81 a couple of weekends ago but after the fact had a nagging doubt wether i'd actually looked at M81 or M82. Last night i watched both for a while to be sure and took note of distinct E/W orientation (M82) versus a more diffuse and much less striking M81. No doubt about seeing them but not striking against the non dark sky and moonshine on the ground around me and scope parts in my peripheral vision. 3rd success: Looking at Vega, the Double Double and Zeta1 Lyrae in binoculars. What a lovely arrangement. Failures: Double star splitting. Couldn't split either of the Double Double, nor Vega, Sirius, Arcturus, or Capella. Not sure if it was a seeing, kit or skill issue. Maybe all three. Sirius i knew to be hard but expected one of the others at least. Cheers Joe BTW: Fineshade looks like a good option at least on the ground:

First light with this kit a couple of weekends ago - a dry run of sorts. Nearly an epic fail for not having read even the quick start guide on the Nexus. Did figure it out in the end and here i'm pointing at M53. Arcturus showing brightly on the left.

Thanks for this tip Ron - i'll definitely look it up.

Thanks everyone for the welcome. Hi Harry - my "dark sky" site is Burghley Park. Its not exactly dark but it's very close by and not soooo bad especially from the point of view of there being no nearby local light sources. Cheers

Hello all. I've been along time passive browser of these pages and always found it a great source of insight and food for thought. I'm saying hello now as PAS at Kettering recently set things in train such that i've bought back into the hobby after a period without kit and therefore a period of inactivity. i'm very much looking forward to (re)developing the interest and renewing time in the hobby clear nights willing! Cheers Joe