Search the Community

A local scout group got in touch with our astro society and asked us to help them with getting their astronomy badge, so John (a fellow astro council member) and I arranged an evening session this Thursday (27th Jan), at a local fishery car park, about seven miles from the city. Not exactly a dark sky site, but at least away from the city lights enough to see the constellations properly. They'd tried to see the constellations from their scout hut but the light pollution was terrible. [ I took my 10” dob, and tried to get them to arrive for 6pm as Jupiter was still in the sky, but most turned up at 6.45, after having their tea etc. The few that did turn up early got to see the planet and all four observable moons, before the planet disappeared behind a hedge. At such low altitude, only one cloud belt could be seen, and the disc wasn't sharply defined. To earn their astronomy badge, they needed to see three objects in the night sky. So we thought a nebula, a galaxy and a star cluster would be perfect. So our first stop was M42, and I checked that every scout could see the nebula, and all four stars of the trapezium clearly. I was quite pleased with the view we got, (I do most of my observing from a rural campsite so I’m used to observing under much darker skies). I could see a blue hue to the nebula, very obvious shape and ‘buffeting’ (for want of a better word) as it extended southwards in the eyepiece. I used a 38mm eyepiece for all these observations by the way. On sessions like this, you don’t have time to do hardcore observing, where you can take your time to get your eyes relaxed, and tease every last bit of detail out of your subject with long viewings. I only ever seem to find new objects when I’m on my own, and can study my maps (in peace, basically! Insert smiley here). No, this is a different kind of observing session. Next was M31, and it was a very useful object to see, because we could use it to explain how the elongated fuzz was a cloud of millions of stars two and a half million light years away. As a test of the seeing, I looked for M110, and yes, it was there. This galaxy can be quite tricky anywhere near the city, so I was pleased to see it. It’s not really dim (my book puts it at mag 8.1), but any nearby streetlights can erase it from the sky. My primary mirror needs a clean too I’m ashamed to admit, so M110 was a welcome sight. I didn’t ask the scouts to look at it as I’m sure most would find it underwhelming. I was going to show the M35 for the star cluster, but John suggested the Double Cluster in Perseus, which was a good idea. Both cluster jest about fit in the field of view. Some of the parents also looked at it, and the scout leader enjoyed the views too. He had more than a layman’s basic knowledge of astronomy, and told me later that he was interested in all sciences. I think this particular scout group are probably lucky to have this guy in charge. He made sure they were all wrapped up well and had thermos flasks of hot chocolate. We showed them the constellations, Ursa Major, Taurus, Orion, Gemini, Canis Major and Minor and told them about the hunting dogs etc. While people were talking and milling about I took in some extra deep sky objects, and did the ‘Auriga line’ of open clusters from M35 to M38, and showed them Alcor as an example of a double star. At one point, a bright meteorite streaked towards Orion’s belt, and left a dust trail. Most saw that as we were looking at Orion at the time, so that was a bonus. The clouds drifted in around 8pm, but that was okay, they’d seen their objects and the scout leader told them they’d all get their badges soon. Later, I thought how it was unfortunate that the ‘wow’ objects weren’t in the sky, as Saturn’s rings, Jupiter’s moons and the craters of the Moon are the things that can really enthuse youngsters new to astronomy. But they enjoyed what they saw, and hopefully it will have encouraged some of them to dig a little deeper into this fascinating hobby.

As our home thread is getting pretty massive and can be a tad hard to follow at times, this will be the official thread for WADAS events. To make it easier for members and potential members and members of the public to follow and see what we are doing please only post relevant events related posts here, including, but not limited to, meetings, observing meet ups, star parties and other relevant events. Please keep posts to a miminum to make it easier to follow. Thanks Soupy

The summer equinox has passed and people are looking forward to Star Parties. I have never been to one, don't know what to expect, have never met the participants. As a solitary observer tucked away in my small North West garden I have been happy to gaze the night skies alone (Mrs Polar Bear often pops out for high mag views of the Moon and Planets) but otherwise I enjoy my own company and get along very well with myself. So I have taken the plunge and committed to attend CSP9 oop North in Cumbria. Watching the CSP9 thread develop I noticed comforting words such as friendly, whisky, bacon butties, and with a host called delilahtwinkle what could go wrong? Being a tent snob, and loving Glamping my 'usual' nights out are spent in a Cabanon that is the size of a Jovian Moon and takes 2 people an hour to set up. Not ideal, so ebay to the rescue and luckily a smaller Cabanon (think Europa vs Ganymede comparison) was found just up the road from me. Sleeping will be the usual twin air bed and duvets, a single burner will suffice for snacks, unsure as to whether to take the BBQ and the fold away hanging wardrobes ! So camping equipment sorted, onto the scope. Easy decision as I only own one (this week) so the C8 will be coming. Do you put the scopes away each day? unsure, so I found a new moped cover on the local car boot for £3.00 that will do the trick of protecting it. Red light etiquette is an unknown to me, I always observe at home amongst the fairy lights strewn around the garden. As a smoker I worry about lighters, do they affect dark adapted vision? Can I open my car door or do I need to shield the interior lights if I do? So much to learn regarding Star Party etiquette. I am really looking forward to it, and to meeting up with like minded individuals (whisky drinkers) :wink:

Finally the skies cleared yesterday, and at last a chance to do some observing. It turned out to be a really good session - one of the best I've had for a long time - and I got through a good number of targets in just over 2 hours. I started off with the 4" refractor, hunting galaxies - the Andromeda Galaxy and companions, and M33 in Triangulum. These were really well placed at around 8.30pm, and despite a knackered red dot finder (!) I was able to get a great view of M31 with the 24mm Panoptic eyepiece (giving x20 magnification - ideal for large, diffuse objects like this). M31 showed a bright central core and an extended haze of light which stretched pretty much across the whole field. M32 was clearly visible as a small blob just to the south, and with averted vision M110 also came into view as a faint cloud off to the west. A quick star-hop through Andromeda led me to M33 - much fainter than M31 but certainly visible with averted vision. This gave an impression of being quite large, especially when I jiggled the scope around a bit. After a quick look at Lambda Tauri (to check it off the Moore Winter Marathon list) I had a look at M44, just rising out of the murky eastern horizon. A really lovely object this, one of the best in binoculars for sure - the 4" at x20 gave a great view too. Next, on to the undoubted highlight of the sky at the moment - Jupiter, by now high in the south and fantastically placed for viewing. At this point I rolled out the big guns - the 10" Dob got to work. This was probably the best view of Jupiter I've ever had - at times the seeing was crystal, and the detail on the planet at x171 using a 7mm BGO eyepiece was stunning. Lots of fine detail, especially in the northern hemisphere, with a prominent dark spot on the NEB and a white storm right next to it. Awesome. By this time the Moon was well above the horizon and the sky transparency was deteriorating a bit. So, one last target - M34 in Perseus. Very nice at x20, and some nice colour contrast amongst the group - one yellow / orange star in particular stood out. Overall, a really good session. Let's have some more of that kind of weather please....!

Not much chance of any actual observing in the coming days, so instead I've been thinking of targets to look for when the weather finally improves. I was browsing around on SkySafari on the iPad and noticed that there's a globular cluster in Cygnus - M56. I realised I'd never seen it, and I sort of wondered how I'd missed the fact that there's a glob so well-placed at this time of year. So, that's top of the list. I'm also keen to have a go at M33 through my 4" refractor - I've only ever seen it in binoculars before, and a few months ago I failed miserably to see it at all in my 10" Dob at 50x. I suspect it's just too large and diffuse to show up against the skyglow with that setup, so I'm wondering if the 4" at 20x will be a better bet. There are a few others I'm keen to see, mainly drawn from the Moore Winter Marathon which I'm about halfway through at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to report some success at some point soon...

As the poor weather and short nights are limiting my observing projects, I have been busy finishing a heavy duty aluminium and stainless steel parallelogram mount for my large 100mm APM binoculars. Here is a summary description of its build: http://refreshingvie...rammount.htm�.� It has been derived from a wooden version that I built last summer. I plan to give away the wooden model to a fellow SPOG astronomer who wants to do some bino observing while his camera is capturing photons on the scope. The parallelogram mount is an extremely comfortable to observe the night sky – the eyepieces really do seem to float in front of your eyes. If you are observing at the zenith, simply push the binos higher or if you are looking at the horizon, simply lower them down. This really does make a refreshing change from my Newtonian where the eyepiece remains where it wants to and I have to crick my neck down to meet it!! I have yet to use it for serious astronomy as the awful weather and long summer days are getting in the way. That being said, I have managed a few sessions at dusk scanning the brighter stars against a blue sky before it gets properly dark. To put the mount through its paces, I have had great fun tracking numerous airliners and high flying birds. The mount moves with ease across the sky with wonderfully smooth and controlled motions in pan and tilt at all altitudes. It is quite something to see high altitude airliners in detail from the ground as they slowly cross the sky! This mount is clearly going to be a pleasure to use once the observing season starts up again. This setup is definitely a keeper and will be used my observatory and under the dark skies of Salisbury Plain.

The latest edition of the Binocular Sky Newsletter is ready. As well as the usual overview of DSOs, variable and double stars, owing to the very short period of darkness this month we only have a few lunar occultations and not a lot else. Nevertheless, I hope you find it useful. To grab your free copy, or to subscribe, log on to http://binocularsky.com and click on the Newsletter tab.

On the 2nd of July I closed my curtains one night before I went to bed but, before they were shut I noticed a strange multicoloured light flickering low in the sky in the northern celestial hemisphere. I Thought to myself if that is a star it looks amazing. The next night (3rd of July) I decided to take another look at this multicoloured light which was still there, Only this time I used my binoculars, I was seeing blues, greens & reds. We have all seen stars by looking up into the sky but, I have never seen a star create multi colours before. It makes you feel excited inside and you think that no one else can see this until you tell them and share the same experience together. I believe I was looking at the Capella Star which is the brightest star in the constellation Auriga and your not kidding it is bright. I cant wait to have another look tonight to see if the multi colours are still there. I would like to have taken at picture of it but I am not setup to do that just yet as I am very new to star gazing. I wish someone here can confirm what I saw and to post a picture of it would be awesome. Nikon Prostaff 3s 8 x 42

I just recently got 15x70 Celestron Skymaster binoculars, and finally got a nice clear sky. I'm in bortle zone 4. I looked up online how to find certain messier objects, and looked for them, but i couldn't find them. (btw, i do have a tripod, and i used that most of the time) Why couldn't I find ANY messier objects?? I was certain i would be able to find some.... Any tips?

The February 2016 edition of the Binocular Sky Newsletter is ready. As well as the usual overview of DSOs, variable and double stars, this month we have: * Several lunar occultations, including a graze of 64 Cet * Two asteroid occultations * A mini-review of the Helios Stellar II 10x50 binocular I hope you find it useful. To get your (free!) copy, go to http://binocularsky.com and click on the newsletter tab.

Hello! I am looking for variable star databse using which I can practice star light curves in spreadsheet programs. I am doing this as my statistics project where I can do visualization, little bit of error reduction etc. I did see a few ones like AAVSO, but they either need some specific job title or specific star etc. I need something to have in general, like here is the data-choose what star option you want etc. Thanks!

Hello to all! Just posting some of the images I took recently! (Total first attempt from someone who can't even hold a camera properly) I was out to conduct a public overnight sky observation event, which was the last event before 6 months of monsoon. For a lot of time, we had cloud cover too! These images don't include much of editing more than just some basic stuff in cellphone. I forgot to take the photos in RAW so either way I can't do much! Quite happy with the first attempt. Will improve even more in next season! Nikon 5300, with the basic 18-55 lens. Any suggestions appreciated! Thanks!

Hello, Unfortunately, I will be moving from my Bortle class 3/4 skies overlooking the Cotswolds, to somewhere with class 6 skies Does anybody with any local knowledge around the Stotfold area have any observation site suggestions? Away from any local light pollution at least. It would seem driving east maybe productive according to https://www.lightpollutionmap.info Thanks Mike

Hi everyone, I really want to get out and do some observing- it's been a long summer! Does anyone know of anywhere near Glasgow that you can get to by public transport that's ok for observing. I'm not looking for super dark skies- I just want to do something. I don't drive so mugdock, campsies etc are out of the question. Kelvingrove has been ruined by that glasglow event every winter. Thanks for any help!

Hi all, not sure where else to post this, but I've managed to secure access to a handful of pretty good observing sites over the years I've been at this, and wondered if anyone in the Dorset area is interested in sharing them or perhaps arranging meet-ups/stargazing sessions. I don't want to post the locales publicly, as a couple are on farms to which I've been granted access. I kinda wish there was a Dorset community sub-forum, but I don't think the mods are too keen on expanding that section of the site. Anyway, let me know if you're interested. Kev

Seems to have come round again very quickly! The latest edition of the Binocular Sky Newsletter is ready. Despite the short, not-very-dark nights, as well as the usual overview of DSOs, variable and double stars, this month we have: * χ Cyg is brightening nicely * Neptune and Uranus are now becoming observable * We have the grand total of 3 observable lunar occultations To grab your (free!) copy, or to subscribe, log on to http://binocularsky.com and click on the Newsletter tab

The latest edition of the Binocular Sky Newsletter is ready. As well as the usual overview of DSOs, variable and double stars, this month we have: Several lunar occultations, including one of AldebaranComet Catalina now visible in the morning skyAsteroid Vesta in the same part of the sky as Uranus and NeptuneA mini-review of the Helios Stellar-II binocularI hope you find it useful. To get your (free!) copy, go to http://binocularsky.com and click on the newsletter tab.

Ok guys, So I was reading an article in Astronomy magazine about finding and viewing Pluto. According to them, Pluto can be viewed with an 8" scope and great conditions coming up next week to mid July....supposedly. It will be transiting nearly in front of a star (I'll have to find the SAO #, don't have the magazine with me at the moment) making it a little easier to find I'm guessing? I haven't seen any posts about the little fella (didn't look very hard). So who has seen it? I'm imagining a dark shadow about the size of a grain of sand. I have an 8se and I plan driving a little ways to get to high ground and better my chances if future skies cooperate. But not gonna try if it wouldn't be worth it.

The weather last night was blustery until around 10:30pm here, then it died down. The sky was clear when I stepped outside at 10pm, but with some hi altitude thin cloud scudding across, but got out my ST120 refractor to observe Jupiter none the less. Seeing was at level 3 at best until 10:30pm when the wind died down. Jupiter settled down very nicely after this (level 4+ at best), and I could push my scope to x200 and still get a decent view. Sadly, this was mostly always through the hi atlitude thin cloud, but even so I could see Jupiter and it mains belts and polar regions quite well. I'm pretty sure that at this time the Jetstream was not over most of the UK at the time. All in all even though the views were filtered through hi altutitude thin clouds the views were pretty good. At least the steadiest that I've had for a while when observing any planets. During this time, with the thin cloud, Jupiter was the only object that was worth observing. Hope others got some good views of it too, or even better last night as well.

My regular news-sheet for binocular observers, the Binocular Sky Newsletter for August 2012, is now available: http://binocularsky.com/newsletter/201208.pdf There is also a printer-friendly version: http://binocularsky.com/newsletter/201208p.pdf

I have been waiting for this telescope for almost five months. Since May, 19th, to be precise. The day I went to the TS Italia store and saw for the first time the SLD model, model now discontinued. I even missed the last available piece just for a few days, once I finally placed my order, June, 25th. It was to be replaced by a newer model, available at the end of the Summer. Boy, am I glad I did miss it. The wait was definitely worth it. The new and improved model is simply beautiful. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it on the Tecnosky website a few weeks ago, when they posted the product sheet. But in person, it's even more beautiful. So, the people from the store emailed me Friday, October the 2nd, telling me that it was finally available for pickup. I read the message only a whole hour later and it was soon going to be closing time. I started calling at 4:30 PM and I finally managed to get my phone call through at around 5:05 PM. The store closes at 6:00 PM and doesn't reopen until Monday. And it's 40 minutes away from where I live. I made it there in 35. There was no way I was going to have to wait till Monday, knowing my scope was only a few minutes away. So, here's the pre-unboxing picture: - top left, brown box, behind: Vixen clamp for guide-scope - top right, white box: 60mm f/4 guide-scope - top left, white boxes: T2 Nikon ring, 30mm spacer, adjustable spacer - center, behind white boxes: Optolong L-Pro 2" filter - right of filter: spacers mounted and already calibrated for 55mm backfocus, for eventual use of the ZWO ASI 224MC camera with the refractor - top right, Bahtinov mask - underneath the white boxes, top left: Losmandy bar to attach telescope to my NEQ6 Losmandy saddle - big box underneath all of the above: Tecnosky 80mm f/6 FPL-53 OWL Triplet, with carrying case and 0.8x 4 elements flattener/reducer - ZWO black case: ZWO ASI 224MC guide-camera / planetary camera - front left: Talisker 57° North and two glasses (don't mind the shape of the glasses, they are the closest to Whisky suitable glasses that I currently own...) ready for me and my wife to celebrate the end of the wait - front right: box for the aforementioned Whisky I actually waited for yesterday (Saturday, the 3rd) for the unboxing, because I wanted my best friend Omar to be present and help me with filming and taking pictures. We have been friends since we went to kindergarten and we always have had astronomy as a common interest. It just so happens, to my immense surprise, that my telescope is actually SN. 0001, so I own the first telescope ever produced of this new series. The certificate is also very promising, with a Strehl ratio of 0.974 and a Ronchi test that seems very well behaved. I like a little less the red edges on the lenses, but I guess only time and a proper visual - and astrophotographic - session will be able to tell. Obviously the "new equipment curse" didn't help, but we got almost a whole hour with clear sky patches and obviously I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I quickly setup with the bare minimum necessities for a visual observation and me, my wife and my best friend Omar - who helped with the staging, recording and directing of the unboxing event - took a quick look at the Moon, Saturn, Mars, M31 and Perseus Double Cluster. I can definitely understand now, even if the seeing wasn't perfect, and my eyepieces didn't offer enough magnification (25mm and 10mm give me 80x and 200x, with my C8, but with a native focal length of 480mm, even with a Barlow 2x, we could only achieve about 38x and 96x, respectively), what people mean when they say that an apochromatic refractor brings out the objects from the background sky. The contrast was stunning, the stars were absolute points, pinpoint, small and sharp (with my C8 they always have kind of a "blob" feeling), the contrast on the Moon was fantastic and I could see many details, despite it being almost full, and only at 48-96x. I think it passed the visual test with honors. I was also very happy to be able to see the Double Cluster all in the same field of view for the first time. Saturn was well defined, could clearly make out the rings - don't recall, in all the excitement, rush and cycling between me, my wife and my friend, if I saw the Cassini division, but I'll definitely try again next clear sky night. Mars was also beautiful, could clearly see its rusty red color, the polar cap and some darker, black features on the surface. I really can say it's a beautiful telescope, very well made and machined. The attention to details is really of another level, the paint finish is very nice and matte. Also very lovely all the different red and black anodized surfaces, they really give it a nice finish and personality. The focuser is also the best I have ever had on a telescope. Very smooth, precise, with no backlash. Coming from a C8 where every touch of the focuser throws off the image all over the place and the backlash is quite significant, I really appreciated how easy it was to fine tune focusing with a proper focuser, especially with the 10:1 focusing knob. I can't wait to be able to take the first pictures of some star field, to check if even photographically the telescope lives up to my expectations. I hope to get pinpoint stars corner to corner and that the backfocus won't be something too hard to make perfect. Here's some accessories. Optolong L-Pro 2" filter, Bahtinov mask, Losmandy dovetail to replace the Vixen one the telescope comes with, Nikon T2 ring and spacers to use the ASI 224MC with the correct backfocus directly on the telescope, instead of a guide-camera. Here's the 60mm f/4 guide-scome, with Vixen clamp. And the ZWO ASI 224MC guide-camera. Here's the mandatory celebration beer, at Corte dell'Orso (the Bear's Courtyard). It's a Belgian sour beer, lambic style. Oudbeitje by Hanssens Artisanaal, with added strawberries. A very nice beer, sour, tart and fruity. Could definitely taste the strawberries. Cheers! Here's a couple of pictures of the full setup, with everything mounted on my Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro. The setup is in its astrophotographic configuration: mount, telescope, guide-scope, guide-camera, filter, flattener/reducer and at the end the Nikon D5300 astromodified. All controlled by Astroberry on my Raspberry Pi 4 4GB, conveniently mounted on a bar across the two telescope rings. And finally a close up of the rig.

Hello! I have been really inactive here, so apologies. Here are a few images of the Solar Eclipse, happened on 21 June 2020. It was annular, but partial from Mumbai region (around 60% covered). Maximum phase of the eclipse was at around 11:30 a.m. IST. This is actually onset of our 4-5 months of monsoon season, so getting decent skies was a tough part. Luckily got decent cleared patches here and there with occasional rains. I had to use whatever I had to make a comfortable view of the eclipse, thanks to the lockdown. I simply took a box, made a whole of the size of the eyepiece on one end, cut the opposite side and attached a paper. I had to do little bit here and there attachments for perfect angle. But was really happy with the results. One of the best experience was when I was seeing the Sun while it was drizzling at the same time. Thanks! -Rhushikesh Deshpande.

Hello stargazers! I am a 14.5 year old boy currently exploring the hobby of astronomy! My first Telescope is the Celestron Firstscope! This post is going to contain mostly everything i do from now on! i will occasionally post some tips and tricks as well as some images(rarely) I am soon getting a 8" dob , but that doesnt mean i wont be using the Celestron firstscope. Hopefully, one day i can look back to this and remember the beggining of my journey as i am intrested in studying astrophysics/ astronomy in university . And if not, i will continue exploring this hobby. So Lets start! Astro Journal #0 So this is almost everything i ve done so far, i have had the telescope for almost 3 weeks now and have used it quite oftenly. The first time i used it was in relatively okay skies,i had no idea what focusing was and just looked at unfocused stars for that day.I cant believe i had such ignorance! After i tried finding why the stars were like that, i finally unsterstood the purpose of the focuser! The next day i used it on the cresent Moon, it took me 10 minutes to find with the 20MM eyepiece supplied with the telescope XD. ( even though it was righ infront of me) It was quite nice! I was able to see some craters on it and focusing was pretty good. Then i turned to the 4mm eyepiece.(75x) mag it almost covered the entire fov. For some reason the 4mm eyepiece isnt able to focus very well in general. And it was kind of blurry , but still enjoyable! Here are some pictures i took with it: i continued viewing the moon for a couple of days, then i decided to do some nebula viewing. I was despirately trying to find orion,as the orion nebula was and Is my FAVOURITE Nebula, it took me some time to realise that what i thought was pegasus was actually orion 's belt and sword ?. The night i first observed orion was a full moon night. It took me around 3 minutes to find the orion nebula in the scope. I just happened to notice it because of accidental adverted vision. I ve heard of adverted vision , but hadnt had the chance to use it , until then. I had reasonably high expectations for a 3" reflector, and wasnt sure if i was looking at it or not. It looked like a faint colourless fuzzy blob. After reporting what i saw to the forum they assured me that i had indeed saw the orion nebula.( this all from quite light polluted skies!) Even though i had high expectations i was pretty satisfied with my views. 3 days after, the moon wasnt very visible so i went out to observe. What i saw amazed me. It was considerably brigher than before ,using adverted vision. The idea of looking at the nebula itself in combination with the even better view, astounded me.(in the same skies) I loved it!!!!!!!!!!! After some though i was very suprised that such a cheap instrument(got it for 60euros , but you can usually get it for around 50) can show you that much! Yesterday i woke up to see the moon venus and jupiter( I wasnt able to view the jupiter-venus conjuction because of clouds, same with the Super Blood Moon. Guess i gotta wait another 19 years ?). I was able to find venus before i left for school. it was okay with the 20mm eyepiece. I just didnt have the time to view it in the 4mm( i know the timing was very unfortunate , didnt want to miss the buss) Astro Journal #1 So here we are! Today! I used the telescope in my backyard(they skies are okay! i can make out around 50 stars in my fov (around 180 degrees) I took a view of the orion nebula! You know what they say! You ll never see less than you saw yesterday!(except if the seeing conditions are worse ?) I was able to see quite more using adverted vision than the first time! { For those who dont know, adverted vision is when you dont look directly at the object you are observing ,as the areas in your eyes that focus on something arent as light sensitive as the areas who do not. So this way you achieve better brightness and clarity } Then i took a look at Taurus! i noticed some stars and then headed right for The Pleiades! The Pleiades , filled the entire Fov of my telescope . It had a pretty clear view. I did not however notice any colour or blue tint surrounding the stars. I wasnt expecting much to begin with so that was okay! I took some pictures of the Orion nebula! This pictures indicate what you will see with bad seeing full moon some light pollution and no adverted vision. However, the results with clear skies, adverted vision and no moon will be WAY better , i Promise. Dark skies will help you the most when looking at Deep Sky Objects Also FOR BETTER VIEWS Dont forget to DARK ADDAPT: DARK ADDAPTATION ALLOWS THE EYE TO SEE MUCH FAINTER LIGHT . TO ACHIEVE DARK ADDAPTATION TRY AND SPENDING AROUND 30-40 MINUTES IN DARKNESS ( AND NO CLOSING YOUR EYES FOR 40 MINUTES WONT WORK) And be careful. Even a look at your cell phone will take the dark addaptation effect away. So if you want to see somehow, use red flash torches,as red is the lowest wavelenght in power. The views you will get on the orion nebula will be amazing! Guranteed!

Hi guys, Any tips for observing Mars? I've observed Jupiter and Saturn many times and am able to extract a good amount of detail using my ED 127 Apo and my C9.25. However Mars seems to yield no detail at all. It is less than 20 degrees up in the sky and I'm not using any filters. Are filters the solution? If so, which colour? Cheers Fish

I saw another post similar to this on here and the replies seemed to be very believable and informative so I thought I’d ask here. For the past week or so I have been sitting outside at night between 10pm and 12pm and just watching the stars come out. I haven’t been using my telescope because I didn’t feel like I would need it. The skies have been very clear and the stars beautiful but I’ve been noticing some strange happenings in the sky. I’m not saying ufos I’m just wondering what these may be, so let me explain further. First my mother and I witnessed a singular light, white light flying through the sky. There were no navigation lights or sounds. Just a singular light flying by, we ruled out airplanes because it was two low to be one but was also way too fast to be a helicopter. I’ve seen them twice and they always seem incredibly high up and barely distinguishable from stars. They aren’t shooting stars because they fly completely differently. Another thing I have noticed are flashes, like stars that get bigger and then suddenly disappear, like a flash. And I mean completely disappear! Now I’m sure I’ve read of these things before in one of my astronomy books but I’m honestly not sure what they could be. They fly and react different to any aircraft or stars so I’m intrigued. They also appear as if they are stars and look like they fly or flash right next to real stars. Now I feel like I need to note that I know a lot about astronomy it has amazed me since childhood and I am a skeptic. My family has a long history of being in the airforce, mostly as engineers and creators of new technology so when it comes to lights in the sky we usually have a good answer, but no one could explain these sightings. I also live near an airfield so I don’t understand why (if these aircraft were from there) were flying so incredibly high up, so fast and so far away from the airfield, they seemed to come out of the night and fly off and back into the dark. It was also completely clear nights with little clouds during these sightings. I’m asking here because I believe anyone who reads this will have a good answer for me and won’t immediately ridicule me for thinking I saw a UFO. Please let me know if there’s anything you think this could be or any questions you have! Thank you so much for reading and happy stargazing!