HutchStar

The way it should be in my opinion. At the very least they should turn off say, 50% of them at 11 and have all off by midnight. Round by me they don't turn off until 20 past 1 (or 20 past 2 in the summer) and they're back on again a few hours later.

So like most places in the UK my local council is slowly changing all of the old sodium street lights into the dazzling bright white LED lights. I'd been pretty annoyed about this because I have a street light directly outside my bedroom window and (more importantly) a couple visible from my back garden which I was worried would ruin astronomy. However, few nights ago I happened to be walking through an area which had been completely switched over to the new street lights and I was pleasantly surprised. The lights themselves were very bright and would kill your night vision if you looked directly at them, but the area between the lights was lovely and dark. The light seemed to be very carefully directed with very little spillover into the sky or across the road. I'm now starting to wonder if this switchover isn't so bad after all. My back garden is bathed in orange light all night at the moment, maybe it'll actually be dark once the LED street lights are put in. Anyone else noticed an improvement with LED streetlights?

Tonight I saw the black eye galaxy and the needle galaxy for the first time. The needle galaxy was actually very difficult to make out, seemed to drift in and out of view. Not sure if its always like that or as you say the transparency isn't good? Either way, pleased with my nights observing. Although it was shorter than I hoped for because the cold got to me. Now sat up against the radiator waiting to get feeling back in my toes 😆

Watched this last night. Had me in stitches, he's a very funny guy with a dry sense of humour.

You'd think given the sudden interest in astronomy now would be the perfect time to make some decent shows about stargazing.

"On tonights Episode of the Sky at Night I'll be showing you how to get some really good images of clouds"

I do have a finder scope. I'll try this out, thanks!

I'm trying with an 8 inch reflector. 48 times magnification. Do I need more magnification or less?

Diplomat when explaining to the wife why I need to spend more money.

I found M1 relatively easily but I can see why people struggle. Think it was a fluke I found it because calling it a smudge would be overstating it. It was a whisp of a smudge which I just happened to catch a glimpse of in the corner of my eye. The messier object thats driving me nuts at the moment is M33, pinwheel galaxy. I feel like it should be easy-ish to see but I've tried for hours without luck.

I do get exasperated when I see people say we shouldn't invest in space exploration because of XYZ problem on Earth which needs the money. I fully understand the sentiment but wish they could see investing in space, science and technology will help improve our lives on Earth. Both in the short term and for generations to come.

I watched this last week. Absurdly superb, may rewatch soon. Highlight for me was this part; Q: "What would you say to Galileo if he walked in the room right now?" A: "How are you still alive?". 😆

It's a skywatcher 200p. I'm in the South West. Was thinking I'll probably look at joining a club once lockdowns are over. In the meantime I'm just relying on online guides and this forum for all my questions.

Thank you, I appreciate the pictures. I'll use them as a comparison in future. Took the scope out tonight and its significantly better than it was. Still not perfect but I can get a clear focus again which is nice. Was able to find M81 and M82 for the first time which has really made my night. All in all I feel like I'm just about getting the hang of this now. Will try to get the collimation even better tomorrow. 👍

Does this look any better? Apologies for the poor picture quality, can try again if it's not clear.

Ok thanks. I'll have another go tonight and see how I get on.

Thanks very much! It did cross my mind that the fuzziness was down to the atmosphere (or my scope still cooling) but I just couldn't shake the paranoia that I'd completely screwed up the collimation. I've got a laser collimater coming this week which I hope will help.

Having read a few more guides I think my primary mirror is off?

Hi all. I'm really struggling with collimation. I've read multiple guides and watched videos but I just cant seem to get it right. Pic attached is as good as I've managed. I know it's not perfect but is this at least usable? I've gone out with it and everything is a little fuzzy so I guess not? Unless I'm just imagining it? Any tips would be much appreciated

Thanks all, lots of good advice here Hoping to get outside and have another go tonight. Kids go to bed at 8ish and its supposed to be clear until 10 so fingers crossed!

Hi all, so my telescope finally arrived this week. It's the skywatcher 200p dob, so far everything's going smoothly. Set it up ok, checked collimation which looked fine to me, got the finder scope lined up. Perfect. Just 2 issues so far, was hoping for some advice. 1. I'm struggling to find any objects in the sky. I managed to find mars and the moon, but I've failed at finding specific stars/m31. I know the best way to find things is to star hop but when I look through the eye piece I struggle to work out which star is which. Any beginner tips? 2. When I was out tonight I got dew on both my eye pieces. I know I can get a dew shield for the telescope but is there anything I can do to stop it happening to my eye pieces? Or is there a way to dry them while I'm out? The scope was fine. Thanks as always!

My guess is they've discovered a planet similar to our own. Similar atmosphere composition, maybe oceans like ours.

There was a journalist on twitter saying it was to do with "astrobiology" but theres an embargo on reporting until Monday.

I may be missing something but first light optics has that exact telescope for £289 I believe. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html

Thanks all