pandoraefretum

I'm in Bristol... M51 difficult but definitely possible at zenith but not always.. requires averted vision as you said.

I showed crescent Moon and Venus to my wife yesterday evening at around 9 pm. She was so impressed she said Venus was on a par with Saturn ! In fact the crescent was so well defined that she thought it was some kind of an eclipse... a good description of it, I though.

By Jove I just did it... Now you would think Explore Scientific could have written a line or two of text in their manual... Well, I had given up, and was assembling it back together again... when just at the last stage I realised the simple solution; the key is in the design! How stupid I am getting as I grow older!

Thanks Red Dwarf, the rod is indeed stuck... must have been screwed in so tightly and kept under tension i cannot budge it to save my life so i think i will save my life and give up...

Hi Rob I find Venus easier to observe at the earliest opportunity in the evening while the sky is quite bright It helps reduce contrast.... been watching it too.. ciao, Roland

Hello Stargazers, aren't the skies wonderfully clear now the Moon has bugged out? My Explore Scientific Twilight 1 mount is driving me mad. All I'm trying to do is remove the mount from the tripod. I can't unwind the centre shaft / column.. I must be missing something... maybe it just needs a tap ? (reason is I want to tighten the bolt inside the mount that controls Azimuth, which is a bit wobbly.. even when I lock the axis.) Thx. The person who helps me will surely deserve clear black skies for the rest of their life !!

My first thought would be to get a good 4mm eyepiece

I'm in, definitely

That is a very good question... I once went to Lacock which was certainly darker than Bristol. I tend to think South of the city is good.. because more things (including ecliptic) lie South. But really not much of an idea... it's only really dark from midnight to 2 am at the moment. I've just come back from a Greek Island.. I could see all of Scorpio right down to the tail including Ptolemy's Cluster. Was spectacular!

Let's have us a Star Party!

Check the moon is not going to interfere with your astronomy sessions (with planetarium software). I have found 66x in my 4 inch newt vastly superior to 10x50 leica binoculars. If your sky is significantly better than what you normally get you will regret not taking 80x observing equipment. The other thing not to underestimate is your health and stamina for night time viewing sessions in the summer when we have to be up late to get away from astronomical twilight. Good luck. Ciao

Did I just witness a supernova? I am on holiday in Kefalonia Greece. Unfortunately the Moon is in the way during most of my stay. However on my second night I observed moonless from 3 to 4 am. I have leica 10x50 and a 4" reflector with me which can go up to x66 magnification. Firstly the milky way around sagittarius was spectacular.. It really felt like looking into the centre of our galaxy.. The milky way looked like one of those long exposure Wide angle photos and the shape of the central galactic bulge was obvious. I was looking at M22 in binoculars and was very puzzled to see how large this beast is compared to M13 in my 10x50s. I spent the better part of an hour hour on M22 with the telescope. It looked like a globular with criss Cross lines all over it and individual stars detected with averted vision techniques. At a certain stage just before packing up feeling very sleepy I may have been scanning capricornus in binoculars maybe around Algedi.. maybe I was still in Sagittarius.. Suddenly I saw a mag 3 star flare up to mag 1 possibly brighter then disappear.. which means mag 10 or dimmer.. All in the space of 1 second. My first thought was a satellite flare but there had been no movement of the star in question. It definitely remained still from start to finish.. The date was 12th July 2019 around 4am GMT +3.. I only told my wife today because I thought what I saw was so fantastical it could not possibly have really happened. But it did! Anyone else saw it or have an opinion?

I really appreciate all these answers; they are all very good... I will study each very carefully Yes, my latitude and declination of Saturn nebula is all I need... I also noticed the graph function can help me.... Still, IMO, there's room for a function which calculates the optimum / ideal time during the year to observe any given object Thx again, Roland

Thx Supernova, but my question is slightly different. I know how to find the transit time, and centre it for any given moment.... but what I want to know is on what day will it be at its highest for the whole year... ie. culmination Any help appreciated, Roland

Thanks, but I am specifically trying to get this result in Sky Safari 6 Pro... Thx anyway...

Hi Group, I was wondering with Sky Safari 6 Pro, how can I find the best time to view the Saturn nebula ? I need it to be as high as possible in the sky... so I need to know the culmination of Aquarius, which is October, I think. I live 52 deg N, obviously I have my location entered into Sky Safari, but I need to know how to find the maximum elevation of the Saturn nebula. I thought it would be simple, but I can't find a definite procedure... I am just able to fiddle things with the Time buttons, and get a rough idea. Thx, bye for now, Roland

That's not good... I ordered the very same eclipsmart... must check it carefully as I haven't used it yet

Let's say rare Earths or Lead in the lenses then... probably no different from your average eyepiece. I'll post the answer if I ever get one.

I did think about the plastics.... But more likely to be lead in the glass, I think.

The sticker is on the bottom of the box... It reads WARNING Cancer and Reproductive Harm www.P65Warnings.ca.gov just above a larger sticker which reads "Part number 07733 Made in China bar code Copyright Meade Instruments Corp. All rights reserved." I also thought it may be the packaging, rather than the eyepiece itself. Still I am curious to know what's going on.

Hi group, just got a Meade 12mm HD-60 eyepiece from China (listed on UK Amazon) it arrived with a P65Warnings.ca.gov / Cancer and reproductive harm sticker on the box I looked up the warning, so I know what it means, but can anyone tell me some specific info on Meade eyepieces; why or how dangerous this eyepiece is to use?!! Thanks, Roland, Bristol

It's not a great scope, by the way, so don't expect much

About the Celestron Astromaster 114 eq : Not a great scope... ditch it and start again !

Hello SGL, I thought it more appropriate to introduce this as a new topic, in case it went unnoticed. I too want to get into Solar observing. I am thinking of getting a dedicated Celestron Eclipsmart Solar Filter (Solar Film) for my Nexstar 6se. I hear it's safe, a good fit, reliable, etc... yet still, I'm a little apprehensive about going for it. Over 40 years ago, as a 10 -12 yr old kid (I was a lot smarter then) I used to do a lot of Solar observing, often drawing and following Sunspots day by day... quite fascinating. I can't remember exactly what my best method was... I rather think projection from the Telescope, and later (to save melting my scope completely) an old pair of Binoculars. I had a 2.5 inch Refractor with Sun and Moon filters which screwed onto the back of 0.965" eyepieces. I'm pretty sure I used the Sun filter once or twice, but quickly realised this little filter was near lethal, given the tremendous heat and focus of light it had to endure (not obvious for a kid to work out). So fairly quickly I deduced it was a dangerous filter and I had already risked much by using it .. I later took my scope apart and was horrified to see how much plastic had melted inside (probably from projecting, at that stage.) Very naive, you say, but one must remember these were pre-internet days... and pre-any-kind-of-safety era... Anyway, I soon realised I had been playing with fire!! The one phrase that echoed endlessly in my head was from the late Sir Patrick Moore who proclaimed it "horribly dangerous to look at the Sun" (I think his "Story of Astronomy" was maybe the only Astronomy book I had for years until I got "Astronomy Today" by Fred Hoyle) Now there are a zillion Books, YouTube clips, Forums, Scopes with Sun warning labels, etc. etc... but good old Sir Patrick probably saved many a person's sight in pre-internet days! My uncertainty persists: Is this Eclipsmart Filter really 100% safe? Can scratches damage it ? I will remove the finderscope for safety (and point the scope by minimising its shadow on the ground).. ..but I'm still a bit uncertain about looking through a powerful 6" scope directly at the Sun... Could the filter fall off by accident ? Get knocked of by the dog ? Will the remote hand control even allow me to look at the Sun ? I guess it will issue warnings at the very least ? I guess there are many similar posts to mine.. and I'm sure my story is not entirely unique. So many Stars are so far away ; yet Sol is right next to us... so how can any Astronomer ignore it? I'm also thinking of using a lesser scope for the task... but if solar filters really block 99.99% of sunlight, how can I possibly damage my Nexstar 6se? Any comments welcome, and thanks for reading... ps. I'm sure my post is full of ignorance; please forgive! Ciao, someone please shoo away the rain, clear skies, & happy observing!! Roland

Goto scope a great choice for me I can't find many objects in my finderscope, due to light pollution, but once my scope Goes To the object I finally get to see many things I have been unable to locate in the past Goto scopes allow more viewing time, less hopping time (nothing against star hopping; I've been doing it for 40 years)