Kon

I was not planning to be out tonight with cloud forecasts but there was a brief window of excellent seeing and I though I would target some nebulas before we lose astro darkness. I wanted to see a few diffuse nebulas in Cassiopeia and Cygnus. I used my 25mm EP with the OIII filter from the start. I was after the Bubble nebula near M52. I could make a very diffuse nebulosity; M52 was barely visible with the filter on but some stars were coming through. I was expecting to see a more defined nebula but I was maybe misguided from the APs (seeing that time was not that great with clouds coming in and out). I then moved to Cygnus to see the North America and Pelican nebulas. I was blown away from their size. I switched to my 32mm EP but it still did not do justice to them. Lovely diffuse nebula with defined edges (going from light grey to black for the sky). Last but not least the East and West Veil nebulas. OMG!!!! Totally blown away! I just could not believe my eyes. Absolutely stunning filaments of nebulosity. The West Veil looked amazing in my 32mm EP (I wish I had a larger FOV). I panned around to observe it in its glory. What totally made my night was the East Veil. Defined nebulosity filament that I could trace all the way. It totally resembled the AP but I could see it with my own eyes!! I know many of you have seen them several times but as a beginner I am totally mesmerised and these images will stay with me. I was told by @John and @jetstream that spending £100 on my OIII filter is worth just for the Veil. They were absolutely right! Thank you guys! I also tried the Crescent nebula. Did I see it, not sure, I was too excited from the Veil to focus; I gave up and revisited the Veil before packing everything back in. There was a post a few days ago asking why they should buy a telescope when they can browse the internet. Well the answer is here. You can see things with your own eyes and take it all in. This has been my best night observing nebulas as a beginner so far! If the skies stay clear this week I am definitely revisiting the Veil!! Absolutely buzzing with excitement! I do apologise if I sound childish but who cares, I loved every moment tonight!

The fact you can see it with your own eyes is an amazing feeling. I am new in the hobby and I am loving every moment of it. I love searching the targets in the sky and observing them. I love the little fuzzy lights that i know have travelled thousands or millions of years for me to see, you see things in the past. BUT be aware, if you are after coloured nebulas as you see in astro photos then you will be disappointed. This link here is pretty spot on on how things will look. If you think that' not what you want then astrophotography might be an alternative option. I love the grey fuzzy targets. Have a look at the observing reports in this forum and you will see how we all get excited with our observations. Before you buy a telescope, it is worth looking to see if there is an astronomy club where you are and take a look on how things appear. Others in this forum would suggest binoculars (I have never tried them). I have found this link quite useful when I plan things and what I may expect to see; these are sketches which gives you a true feeling on things during visual observation. They are pretty spot on. http://www.deepskywatch.com/messier-dso-sketches.html

Nice report Joe. I envy your Cone nebula observation; did you use a filter? NGC 2261 was one of my highlights and the fact that it looks a bit like a comet is rather fascinating. I hope to be out soon for some fuzzies after the bright moon is gone but our skies are getting brighter every night.

I love the sharpness of the image. Looks great.

Like the above two posts, the BSTs are really good EPs with my 8" Dob. I have the 8 and 15mm and a 2x barlow. I find that I mostly use the 15mm for faint fuzzies and open clusters and if conditions allow I use the 8mm. I find the supplied 25mm EP not too bad. I am contemplating the 5mm BST. The feel really solid and I have not noticed kidney beaning (maybe a tiny bit at the very edge) but I mostly observe faint nebulas so I mostly look at the centre of the EP.

Thanks. Yes, we were spoiled with the weather, we cannot complain.

As part of the cosmos in motion competition, I captured single shots of the moon and made a gif between 16-26 April. Single shots from my 8" Dob on prime focus using a Nikon D3200 and manually aligned. The weather is not looking promising for the next few nights. I hope summer might be better to capture a full cycle.

I captured the phases of the moon from Waxing Crescent (16 April) to Waxing Gibbous (26 April); the weather did not play ball to get the full moon tonight. I captured them on my 8" Dob at prime focus using a Nikon D3200 (iso and exposures varied on the phases). I combined single frames as a gif animation to show the movement of the earth's shadow across the moon.

Nice report and good targets. M13 is quite spectacular especially as you up the magnification. Ring nebula is pretty amazing and worth trying to get your son out for it if you can; my 5 year old has been amazed to see the owl and eskimo nebulas (in winter). I think tonight is looking promising so far so have an enjoyable night again.

I could not make a dark shadow as you described but I will have a look again tonight since we are spoiled with clear nights.

I have been lucky to see through this telescope when I was a student at St Andrews many many years ago. It was the first time to see the Saturn rings.

I loved seeing the moon in the afternoon sunshine with a beer today (but not as many details) but also at night with prominent features. The afternoon session was awesome with the warm weather and the kids loved seeing the moon. At night, I was captivated by how symmetric some of the craters were, nearly perfect circles. I got a nice view of the Golden handle as suggested by @Dark Vader. I had not paid much attention in the past but some rilles were nicely visible (also last night). It makes me wonder why the two poles have disproportional amount of craters. I also took a couple of shots at daylight and night time. I hope you all enjoyed your sessions.

It is looking pretty good tonight again, and it is warm as well!

Getting ready for some moon seeing tonight. I had a nice early session as well.

Very nice pics and great details. I had a nice visual session of these areas last night.

What Heather said. I use a 200P SW Dob and my most used EP for DSOs is the 15mm BST and I am at dark skies; the 8mm EP BST is a good option to replace the 10mm that came with the telescope since it is pretty poor. I find that the standard 25mm that came with my telescope is not a bad EP so do not hurry to upgrade that one; it gets used quite a bit with DSOs. I would hold on filters for now and see how you get along, it also depends on your skies; I ended up with a TV OIII filter after suggestions from SGL members and it makes a huge difference for some nebulas but that was £100. A RACI/Telrad would be better with your Dob.

Thank you Nik. Your pic is very nice and sharp. I am kind of limited by my barlow; although I have a 2x barlow it is not threaded to accept attachments, I may have to invest one a new one at some point, thus the heavy zoom in to show the feature. Even last night the seeing was not too bad despite the thin haze.

Amazing details! Fantastic work!

My son is really interested in my hobby and he wants me to get him an astronomy book; he is 6 years old. He likes science and asks questions about nebulas, black holes, where does universe come from, the kind of curiosity questions. So, are there any astronomy books that you recommend for children (it could be for older than 6 years old) or maybe for a total novice (I can help him with explanations). At that age he will probably enjoy some nice pics as well. He enjoys my Turn Left at Orion. I thought this might be a good place to ask this question. (By the way, I could not find any book section in SGL and it would be good to have a section dedicated to books.)

Being new in the hobby I had to google what V and X meant🌛! I can see them now!

Thanks. It looked great last night. I would not call my shots serious astrophotography 😅. But i enjoy a few shots every so often. I prefer visual.

I took some singles frames of the moon with my Don and Nikon on prime focus. 23 frames iso 200, exposure 1/100 and stacked in siril and some editing in gimp. The viewing was amazing tonight!

I love your colour images of the moon!

The seeing has been really stable the past few days and the moon has finally got my attention. It is the first night that I had WOW moments with it using my 8" Dob. It looked so crisp and steady even with my 8mm EP and 2x barlow. What got my attention, and I had to come get my wife out, was the Arristillus and Walther craters near the terminator. The Arristillus amazed me since I could make out some of the crater debris around it. The Walther was the second Wow; it was the shadow inside the crater. On my head, in order to see this shadow on my telescope that peak must be high; coming back and an internet search suggested 10,000 feet with a crater of 100 miles!! I am not going to snob it again over faint nebulas. I have attached some quick pics i took with my DSLR and Dob.

Beautiful images!