timothy4

Thank you White Dwarf, that is worth knowing

Thank you gfamily for the great advice; will definitely try your recommendations

Thanks, yes I can understand that. Big difference between observing and imaging.

Cool, thank you Matt, I might try that in those locations. Really useful to have a local heads up on those targets.

That is really useful to know; thank you.

Thank you Supernova that makes good sense. The scope came with 40mm and 13mm eyepieces. I heard some advice to avoid cheap short focal length eyepieces so if I went for a 5mm would make sure it was at a mid price point.

Hi, the only other possible view was of Andromeda galaxy but am very unsure about it even though I thought I could see a very faint smudge. The scope positioned Mars pretty central in both eyepieces whenever I slewed back to it so lack of proper alignment seems unlikely as you say.

Thank you Mark. Useful to know about the jetstream effect. I have a copy of Skyportal on my phone and will definitely double check my alignment next time even though I think it was okay last time

Thank you, that al makes good sense and I think showpiece objects are where it is at for me so good to approach my observing in this way. I wiil use my planetarium software as you say. I was hoping Saturn, Jupiter and the moon would be visible but alas not the other night, not for me at least; the steep surrounding hills probably obscure quite a lot. Judicious use of my planetarium software is much needed! Think with all the useful comments on here that I am beginning to join the dots now.

Thank you, will definitely beart that in mind

Thank you for that David. I think the right approach to observing is obviously key and think I learned that this week. I need to have a more considered approach. Very interesting comment about Mars. I am beginning to appreciate the fleeting nature of seeing conditions and had not really fully considered this.

Thank you for your comment; why would carefully selected eyepieces be better than a Barlow; is it due to the light reduction you get with a Barlow?

Thank you for the reply and useful comments which I will definitely bear in mind.

Thank you for the reply and encouraging comment about my scope. I thought alighnment was spot on as I panned around in the sky tour at various inntended objects none of which I could see and when I panned back to Mars several times the planet ended up in the middle of my eyepiece. I don’t think there were dew and cooling issues but could be wrong; I think a dew shield and lomg cooling down period would be sensible precautions. Yes, I love Orion nebula so will definitely keep at it and thanks for the link; I will read with interest (if I have not already read it).

Thanks, that all makes good sense. The forecast said seeing conditions were meant to be reasonable/good but of course it is only a forecast and hard to accurately predict local conditions. Useful to learnt that I need to spend time at the eyepiece and I will bear in mind the collimation too. I thought another eyepiece or two or more specifically a 2x Barlow may help but am also mindful of making bluriness worse. Cooling down time should have been fine but it was forecast dewy on the first observing night; I wrapped the tube in cardboard. Images on the secod night were just as blurry as the first night but the dew point was lower. I think the upshot is I need a dew shield to eliminate/ reduce this possible cause of poor observations.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I was disappointed with the view of Mars as I found it underwhelming, small and blurry; however, I thought I could sometimes see some dark areas which was pleasing but not sure if I was seing things. It was nowhere near as good as the view in your pic. The scope only came with 40mm and 13mm eyepieces; scope focal length is 1.5m so that equates to 38x and 115x magnification respectively. Scape was cooled down with very good oberving coditions, pickering, seeing etc.

Hello to everybody on the forum. I am a newbie and after literally decades of putting it off recently bought my first scope after beng gifted some money; I bought a 150mm Celestron Nexstar Evolution and used it for the first couple of times during the week. I live on the edge of Stroud; a moderate sized market town in rural Gloucestershire so there is some lght polution but not the worst. I alighed the telescope and took the sky tour and literally the only thing I could see (trying both eyepieces) was Mars. I feel very disappointed as about 25 years ago I bought my wife a Tasco refractor telescope from Argos and using simple star charts got amazing views of Saturn and Jupiter from our home in SE London! These planets were not observable from my location using my Evolution during the week but I am keen to compare with the old Tasco refractor when they are above the steep hills which are close to my home. I was also outside at around 4am in September at a site near Coventry doing a dawn bat survey (I am an ecologist) and for the first time ever saw the Orion Nebula and just with my naked eye! Was even better through my binoculars. Being a very prudent person to the point where it took me 25 years to buy my own scope I have surprised myself that I obviously had somewhat unrealistic expectations of my Evolution scope. I would have thought I could see at least a few of the sky tour objects but saw literally nothing apart from Mars. My inconsistent observing experiences that I have outlined are quite confusing! I was going to post about what I can do about this observing disappointment and have just seen an excellent post on here with practical information and which more or less answers the question but any feedback welcome. Thank you for your time and for reading this if you have got this far