Spier24

I used the sky safari app to check what it was. Although I assumed it was either a satellite or the ISS

Only my fourth every observing session last night and I managed see what I think was ISS Zarya was I was aligning the telescope. Appeared at 20:54 GMT time next to Rigel. I wasn't sure what it was at first because it was pretty bright! It moved up into monoceros as it started to gradually dim before disappearing.

They're more common than I thought then. It was only my second night of observing so I thought seeing one streak across the eyepiece was quite interesting. Couldn't help but crack a UFO joke or two 😂👽 especially because I was observing M81 and M82 as I saw it.

So I was out observing in the back garden earlier and I saw what I think were two satellites within about 10 minutes of each other. One travelling straight across the sky from the south to the north and another moving across the western sky. Then as I was looking at M81 I saw something quite bright fly across the field of view in the eyepiece, I looked up to see if I could follow it but it was gone. Happened between 19:30-1950 GMT time.

A bit late to this thread, but i recently got my first scope and M94 was the first galaxy I saw through it. Managed to notice it quite easily despite being in bortle 7 skies. A great target for a beginner.

I think I may have tried to view M81 without success but I will try again. I was very pleased with my view of M94 though.

Tonight was the big night. My first outing with a telescope! I planned to observe originally from about 7-8pm although unforseen cloudy skies delayed my outing in the back garden until 12am! When I finally got out I had have my first crack at doing the two star alignment. After a few minutes of nervously trying to pick out an easy start to get to I went with Regulus. It was my first time viewing a star in a telescope and I don't think I'll ever forget it. I then selected arcturus as my second star, the scope slewed over to it and it was pretty much bang on in the middle of the eye piece. Now it was on to picking my first target. Obviously I had to scrap my original plan do I decided to fire up sky Safari on my phone and see what was good at the time. I decided to go for the M67 open cluster, I didn't want to start with something too tricky and thought it seemed like an interesting target. It was actually better than I expected! Quite a pretty looking thing to observe as it showed up well in my 23mm eyepiece. Next it was over to the beehive cluster, it was only target part of my original plan that was still observable at the time. I can see why it's called the beehive now due to its shape, I think M67 has a bit more about it but the beehive was still nice to see. After that I decided to be a little more ambitious and try to go for a galaxy. A target that was suggested to me on the synscan DSO tour was the M94 spiral galaxy near Ursa major. Despite my Bortle 7 skies and not having a large 8 inch + dob. I was still able to make our the core of the galaxy after relaxing my eye and having a look for 5 minutes. It appeared as a faint smudge between two stars. One star quite close to the south and another star slightly further away to the north. I then decided to finish off my nights observation with a globular cluster and decided to go for the great Hercules cluster. I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw, a neat tight fuzzy grey ball in the center of the eyepiece. Im very pleased with my first experience actually quite pleasantly surprised with what I can see even in the urban skies here. I used an Orion Starseeker 130mm reflector. Targets that I tried to observe but failed to see: - M101 -M51

I'll be staying out for when Virgo comes into view too. There seem to be lots of DSO's around virgo.

Thanks for that given me some new stuff to check out. I think Auriga might have moved out of view but I'll double check.

Soooo weather conditions mucked up my viewing schedule and I've had to delay for a few hours anything any of you would recommend near Leo, Hydra and Ursa Major? Thankfully the beehive cluster will still be in view.

I am in android 11 so that'll be the issue. Sky safari is good to couple with the handset, you can check to see if what the handset is suggesting on the tour mode is visible in the area of the sky you're observing.

I already have skysafari on my phone, I've been using it to plan my first night out with the scope.

I did try the synscan app but it doesn't work on my phone, there seems to be quite s few bad reviews about it with other people having similar issues. Lucky that I paid extra for a setup that came with a handset! The handset also has a tonight's best function that'll show you some of the deep sky objects that are visible in your area at the time. My birthday is coming up soon so turn left at Orion will go on my list along with a good Barlow lense.

Unfortunately it doesn't but I imagine that'll be a future feature of GoTo scopes. That's why I've already done a bit of research about which objects are easy enough to see with the scope I have and what part of the sky they're in since my back garden is south facing. I know that some of the fainter DSO's won't be viewable due to my Bortle 7 skies and my telescope size, although from what I've read there's still plenty to look at along with the option of going to dark sky sites

If I didn't have a GoTo scope then I'd buy a copy, seems to get good feedback.

That's given me some food for thought for tonight. Thanks I'll be observing towards the south at first.

If the weather clears up then I plan to try out my new (and first) scope for the first time! Struggling to joke the childish excitement. I have a 5 inch goto reflector and unfortunately I live in quite a light polluted bortle 7 area, what dso targets would you recommend to start off with? I'm already planning to have a look at the Orion nebula the Pleiades and the beehive cluster. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated

Having a little bit of trouble entering my longitude and latitude on the controller. I know what they are but I'm not too sure how to type it into the controller. Especially because my longitude starts with a minus.

Indeed it was, the one thing that held me up was the non collimateble primary mirror on those scopes, Although after speaking to and reading from people who've owned these scopes I feel more assured. Happy with my choice.

Cloudy skies here for all of next week unfortunately but next week should be better. Will let you know how it goes

After a lot of back and forth, reading reviews and looking at various scopes etc. I finally settled on the Orion Starseeker IV 130. Not much else to say except it feels pretty exciting! Now all I need is a clear night...

The small issues you've highlighted there are the ones that niggle at me. With the Orion skymax 127 it only costs about £3 more to get the model with the handset. What's sky safari like to use? I've heard a few things here and there about it but I haven't actually learnt about it in depth.

I saw a video on a Celestron astro fi kit. The guy tried for hours to get it to work and ran into multiple issues and eventually gave up. There have been quite a few complaints about that particular range. I was leaning towards a WiFi mount but a handset is the safe option.

What are your experiences with WiFi mounts? I've been looking at the Skywatcher az gti mount but remain undecided as I know some people have had issues with various WiFi mounts.

Just had a look, the Orion 150 optical tube weighs in at about 5.5kg and the capacity of the star seeker IV mount is 6.0kg.