Capt Slog

I was told by my optician that the problems occur when it detaches incorrectly. Mine has totally detached now, which is normal for my age. There was a problem a few years ago when it was still attached at one point, which was causing a strange effect of a tiny 'area of confusion' in my vision. Once it let go completely, that went away. I've never seen or had any flashes at any time, and as i described above, this wasn't what i would call a flash in my eye. It was so tiny that I could easily have missed it and although I can't tell you why I'm sure, I AM sure it was something coming through the optics of the scope.

Yes, I've heard of that. Apparently caused by cosmic rays, always a chance of course. I find it very difficult to describe accurately what I saw, but if I was looking at this, say (M80) I'd be seeing it as a fuzzy grey blur with maybe a few discernible faint stars around it... Now imagine a blue-white star at about a 1/4 diameter of the frame popping into the sort of brightness represented in that photo, for a fraction of a second, and you're somewhere close. It may remain a mystery, but I'll look out for it in future..

I did wonder about a satellite, but I'm used to those and generally see movement, especially at that mag. I like the idea of the head on meteor though, I hadn't considered that

At the moment I'm down in Dorset on holiday enjoying the clearer skies compared to home. The other night I was looking for the Messiers as usual and whilst I'd got one in the view, I saw a tiny flash of light. I'm sorry I didn't think to note what I was looking at or even the magnification, but it could have been M58 with a 10m ep (750mm d=150 telescope). What I saw looked like a camera flash when viewed from miles away, that sort of duration and brightness, although I understand that's subjective and meaningless It was as if one of the stars that made up the field suddenly blinked. If it had carried on staying bright I would have paid more attention of course, but any ideas on what I saw please?

I don't use any paper or 'real' maps. I rely very heavily on Stelarium. I'm looking for faint fuzzies in bad skies, so most of the time I can only see what I looking for by comparing the exact location on the PC screen to what i see in the eyepiece. Maybe it's made me lazy? but I don't really care

I never have early morning commitments now. I rarely wake up until 8, and don't get up properly until way after that (cups of tea etc) and @mikeDnight, it was a bit tongue in cheek, I'd never bother with the equation either.

Certainly very similar. But the 'weekend' factor doesn't take into account retirees It was annoying last night, because for the last week or more the skies have been dreadful here; what I term as a 'mustard' sky. A lot of it is light pollution I know, but there seemed to be more dust up there than usual. If I look outside and can barely make out Ursa Major, i know there's no point in getting out the scope.

In this month's Sky at Night magazine, there was an article about the number of nights you can observe, written out as an equation. It was adapted from the 'Drake Equation', which estimates the number of civilizations it would be possible for humans to communicate with. N=R_* x f_P x n_e x f_l x f_i x f_c x L N = number of civilizations with which humans could communicate R_* = mean rate of star formation f_P = fraction of stars that have planets n_e = mean number of planets that could support life per star with planets f_l = fraction of life-supporting planets that develop life f_i = fraction of planets with life where life develops intelligence f_c = fraction of intelligent civilizations that develop communication L = mean length of time that civilizations can communicate But reads N= Y x Fc x Fm x Ffr x Fbw x Fbt x Fd where N is the total number of nights it's possible to observe. Y = number of nights in a year, Fc = fraction of clear nights, Fm= fraction of moon free, Ffr = fraction 'free' nights, Fbw = Fraction with bearable wind, Fbt = Fraction with bearable temperature, and Fd = fraction where all equipment works. They left one out, "F lurgy", Which is the fraction of nights you don't feel like the contents of your head are trying to drain out through your nose! (or other ailments) The clearest night we've had in ages, with all the other factors looking good, saw me afflicted with the "too poorly to venture out". To stay in the good books of Mrs Slog, I thought it was best to stay indoors, keep warm and watch the telly. Ah well.

^^ @Nik271 Thanks for that. I see from what you've written that a 10mm sounds right for my telescope, which is f/5 I'll still have a look into the exit pupil thing, to get it clear in my mind.

I haven't got my head around the idea of exit pupil, yet. I'll look it up.

Last night, a combination of clean sky and technique bagged me the troublesome M97 and M108, plus a few more. I looked for the two above first, but couldn't see them using my 150mm Skywatcher and a 32mm eyepiece, so I looked for something else. I've been meaning to look at the load of objects which are around the pointy tail-end of Leo. i positioned the scope in around the right place and found that sort 'letter box' shape of stars to the side of M58, I worked my way across and thought I just might be able to make out a smudge. Looking carefully, "yes, definitely something in the right place", then i wondered what would happed if I upped the magnification? So, I changed to a 20mm and then combined that with a 2xBarlow. WOW! Sure, everything is dimmer, but suddenly the contrast has gone up, and there it is! Having that epiphany, I moved a bit with the 32mm and tried again, further 'up' (towards Leo) and found where M87 should be, out that came with the 20mm 2x. "Ah, If it works on those, perhaps it works on M97 and M108? " Yes it does! It also got me M105 plus NGC3384. Now, I must qualify the above with the comment that some of what I saw was VERY faint and barely an observation. For some of the objects, they were only apparent by their absence if I moved the scope a touch, but I'm logging them as seen. I'd heard of the contrast thing, but not thought to use it to that extent. I'm now going to get an EP around 10 or 12mm, working on the assumption that EP without Barlow is better than EP with. Well done if you read my waffle this far

I just looked at my records, and found that when I saw M33, I was on holiday in Wales where the skies were a bit darker, bortle 4 instead of the 6 i have at home. I can't recall seeing it, but I would guess it was the usual ... "if that is that star, and that one there is that star, then that barely visible haze two lengths from them must be XYZ"

I would say, patience But to be honest, i think you'll find it a doddle with a goto. I've spent hours in the past just trying to find the right piece of sky. I'm terrible at translating back to front up and down. I was MUCH better once I'd got a RACI, but even then, i struggle to know which star I'm looking at if the field is full of them.

A couple of miles from J25 of the M1 motorway. Light pollution is bad, but oddly not affecting south as I said originally, despite being able to see the glow from Leicester etc. M97 is not one I've seen either, but although I said I've been looking for M108, I've just realised that it's actually M97 that I've looked for, the mix up is due to them being in the same FOV. I don't know if anyone else is having problems, but I can no longer find objects which I've already logged as spotted. It seems like the sky is very 'dirty' at present, and light pollution has worsened suddenly.

Yes, it was first in that I got up to observe. It wasn't very clear I suppose. I have stayed up, observing until about 1:30am, but actually getting out of bed, observing and then going back to bed was a first. Small distinction I know, but never mind. Thinking about it the other day, I realised that I did get up once to see a meteor shower in about 1993 or 1994. It was HUGE. I recall that the info said it was the 6th(say) and took that to mean 'from midnight on the 5th' which turned out to be correct BUT not what they meant at all. We sat in the garden in the early hours watching the sky filled with massive meteors, often more than a couple at a time. When I got into work next day there was excitement about the coming show, and I said "It was last night" It turned out that I accidentally got the best night. I've resigned myself to the fact that i won't see all the Messiers, he was a bit further south than me after all. But some are very frustrating when they shouldn't be.