Kon

After some excellent suggestions from members of this forum I was on a mission to see some nebulas and galaxies despite the bright moon since we have bad weather prediction for the next few days. I got out around 8pm with my 8" Dob and my first target was Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392) since it evaded me the other night. A bit of star hoping and there it was. A little fuzzy beauty! I had to double check that I was not imagining it. I was so excited I got my family out (wife and 3+5 year old) to show them; even my wife got excited. My 5 year old son loved it although his favourite is M42. You could just make out the nebulosity, a little grey circle. I spent 30min or so playing with my 15 and 8mm BST EPs. The sky allowed me to use the 8mm EP and get it a bit bigger in my field of view. Then I aimed for M81/82 which i thought i saw the other night but i needed to reconfirm. Much better views tonight and easier to find based on my previous experience. Again mind blowing seeing them. At this point i had frozen toes and hands...rookie mistake to go out with a pair of thin socks. I warmed up myself and put some doubly thick socks and a nice cup of tea. Next on my list the m33. I think i saw it with averted vision since it was washed out by the moon. Since i was in the area, i glanced M31/M110. They both showed really nicely on my 15mm EP. Feeling confident and warm, I moved to M101 and M51. I found the M51 with easiness and I could see it with averted vision; I could not make any features so i will have to revisit it. Same was M101. It was there but hardly any details. I finally went back to M42 and the nebulosity was really nice but less detailed compared to my previous viewings. I tried to see M78; maybe yes maybe no. I think i saw something with averted vision. For completeness, I had a look at the Moon and its craters, a glance over Mars and managed to spot Uranus appearing as a nice greenish/blue disk. Overall, I feel like a kid in a candy shop! Spoiled for choice. It has been yet another successful night for this beginner. Looking forward to some darker skies after the moon. My Dob was covered in ice outside, but surprisingly EPs and RACI were absolutely fine tonight. Both telescope and myself are thawing now. 🥶

It sounds like another great night for you.

Excellent ideas everybody, thank you. i tried a few of the suggested targets last, M81/82 (i think i got a glimpse), tried the Eskimo Nebula but I must have missed the area (still learning how to star hop). Later the high mist made it nearly impossible to spot others. I agree the moon was gorgeous and managed to see Mars with Uranus closely (a nice blue/greenish disk). M42 is always a safe bet to go at the end of the night just to go to sleep at high spirits.

Nt sure if it has been mentioned, but I seem to have huge grey bubbles when I try to use the right hand side buttons. Not sure if it is a browser specific thing.

Nice report. It sounds like a very successful night. I saw some of your moon pics on the other post and they looked great.

You will nor regret the purchase. I got myself a SW 200P back in December and it is great. I am a total beginner like you. The manual tracking is not too bad. Things stay in the field of view for a few seconds especially at low magnification. At higher magnifications you need to keep nudging more often but the views are amazing. So overall you can enjoy the views before they move out of the EP. Just remember that everything is the wrong way round so the first few times you will be nudging the opposite way that you want.

What a difference the setup has made! Lovely processing in my eyes.

Thanks for the suggestions @John. I will have a go at them. I saw M1 when we had the new moon and I went back to it last night for comparison and yes it was just about there but not as much definition as when the sky was dark. I suppose they will all get harder to track as the moon is getting brighter.

Nice amount of detail! Its nice to have a break from this awful weather. I find very exciting going back to my book to identify the craters from some photos I take at the EP. Good job.

I am on bortle 4 skies and last night it was a complete washout with the moon glow (I tried a session from 10-12 trying to hunt for some nebulas). I have a SW 8" Dob. I am a beginner, but is it worth bothering with the smudgy DSO nebulas when the moon is out or focus on other targets? (Orion and clusters looked fine).

You can easily capture it without tracking with a basic setup. I have the same camera as you, D3200, and i shot it with my basic 18-50mm lens. I stacked 50x10s. No the prettiest compared to others in this forum but i was over the moon when i did it. The views are a different story from my 8" Dob.

Excellent to see that you enjoyed your first telescope. I have followed your thread a bit. In my limited interaction with this forum, it has been excellent. Everybody is supportive and you will get loads of hints and tips. Excellent first light as well! It will only get better and the excitement will hopefully get bigger and bigger. I have been 'blessed' with rainy days since my last wow session, and I am so excited to get out again! Looking forward to read more of your reports.

Great report and very inspiring! It seems time well spent in the cold! That's impressive! I hope I can get on that level in the future. Very jealous of your 20" Dob, it must be a monster in size.

Could it be a weather balloon? In the second pic it has moved and much fainter.

Thanks. Not quite first light but I would say first proper searching. I am under Bortle 4 skies so viewing is pretty good. I think I will try combine M80/81 and M101 on my next outing.

Lovely report. M42 is my 5 year olds favourite night seeing as well. Precious family moments. I call him my astronomy buddy.

Nice capture. i feel I am hovering above it!

I am glad you enjoyed it. True, I am absolutely hooked! I wish you some clear skies soon!

Thank for the heads up! I think it will be on my to-see list in the next session.

Yes it was hard work but got there in the ned. I need to learn more about efficient star hoping. I suppose practice makes better!

I have the SW 200P Dob and it is an excellent telescope. I am new here as well. So my thoughts are: the 25mm EP that came with it is fine, the 10mm Is pretty rubbish with me. The 25mm gets nice sharp stars. I added the 15mM and 8mm BST EP. The 15mm has seen a lot of action with DSO and the moon. The 8mm has been awesome for the moon and some DSOs. I plan to upgrade on BST most of my EPs as well, so they pretty good budget EPs. If I were you I would go for the 8mm since you will use it more unless you are more kin on planetary observation.

After a long long wait for the clouds and fog to clear, I finally managed to get a few hours of excellent viewing tonight with my SW 200P Dob from my back garden. I started with the familiar Orion Nebula to warm up. Nebulosity was amazing and the features were really popping out at both by 15mm and 8mm BST EPs. I think I managed to see both the E and F doubles of the trapezium but with the help of my barlow. I then moved to the Antitank and showed some nebulosity with some features. Pleiades was next and always a nice site. My main target, as a beginner, was M1 for tonight. I spent ages looking for it. Using Stellarium I managed to get in the approximate area but i just could not get my head around it....while searching i managed to spot M35, NGC2175 and NGC2129; what beauty! So many stars. Even my wife was blown away with the amount of stars. It was pretty obvious that I was way away. Anyhow, i persevered and after some careful star hoping I managed to find my eluded M1! On my 15mm BST it looked amazing. A smudge but an amazing one! I tried the 8mm EP but it did not do it justice. Back on the 15mm EP and i felt a moment of overexcitement to see it as described in the 'Turn left at the Orion'. My final target was M101. I got in the area but i just could not find it. The clouds rolled in and the night was over. So overall, an excellent night for a beginner with a few of my targets ticked off the list. Lets hope it will not be another 'wet foggy spell' but some clear skies.

I thought I would give a quick update since my last session. Without collimating or touching the optics, the viewing was absolutely fine tonight. So the above suggestions that the bad seeing was due to the conditions seem to be the case. The 8mm EP was giving really nice views tonight.I also did a start test with the defocusing and the collimation was absolutely fine as per chessire confirmation prior to viewing. Thanks again for your suggestions (i still do not know why i thought the mirror might have moved, maybe too tired after the viewing to look carefully).

The amount of detail is amazing!

That's an amazing photo!