Clear, but lousy seeing!

[F15Rules]

Got the Lomo out last night for a proper session, wanted to look for a few galaxies, but the transparency was poor, and the seeing was lousy here..all the images were pretty mushy. Looked at the double double in Lyra and although I got a clean split ok at about x100 it was not a pleasing image.

The Lomo cools very quickly for a Mak, so it wasn't that. In fact, I got out the Pentax F12 frac, a real double star killer in good skies, and the image was, well, underwhelming. I must admit I felt a bit cheated so I went to bed after an hour. Even Saturn was rather "soft" at anything over x100.

Did any of you guys find the same conditions??

cheers

Dave

[tbird]

Worse tonight, fog here

[Space Cowboy]

Sky looks like soup! Need to emigrate this country is rubbish...even when we have sunny weather the sky lets us down!

[Takahashi]

Sky looks like soup! Need to emigrate this country is rubbish...even when we have sunny weather the sky lets us down!

It's been this way for a few years now. Most annoying.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Dave I totally agree with your view on the sky over the past few nights. I took out the 6" Newt on Tuesday and gave up after 30 minutes. Did the same last night but tried to use the 4" APO. Again I only lasted about 30 minutes.

Will try again tonight with fingers crossed.

Mark

PS - the only highlight over the last 2 days was using my PST and the 4" APO with an Orion Solar filter to view some good proms (PST) and a nice sunspot group (frac)

[John]

I was to tired to observe last night having returned late from a long, hot (for April !) day in London with my family. Sounds like I did not miss too much !.

The previous night though (Tuesday) there was a lot of haze which made DSO's out of the question but Saturn was the best I've seen it for weeks - perhaps the haze was acting as a natural filter in someway ?.

I found I could usefully use more magnification than I usually do as well - 240x was showing a lovely crisp contrasty image with my 6" mak-newtonian

Overall though the seeing has been very patchy lately though

[Bigdaddyjeff]

I've been out most nights just to have a naked eye view to see if it would be worth getting the 250 out and even though it's been clear i've not been able to see much...so the 250 is still sitting patiently for a good crisp clear sesh

Gaz

[rawhead]

Smog Alert

BBC News - Smog alert in England and Wales

[George]

Lots of muck and moisture in the air at this time of year which amplifies the LP badly, Ive spent the last few nights tweaking the polar alignment and getting thru a problem with guiding.

Imaging as been out of the question even tho its clear

[zedds]

The sky around here has been a shade of orange for a good few nights now. We need a bit of a rain and wind spell to get rid of it methinks. Not too much though.

[F15Rules]

Yes, I think the gardens need some rain too. My car has been covered in fine dust for the past few days, apparently from the Sahara!

[malc-c]

Due to other commitments I've not been out with the scope the past few nights, but as it's a holiday tomorrow and I don't have to worry about work I've got the scope out cooling down now. However, the sky don't look too good in terms of transparency, but at least its an excuse to check out my new camera release cable

[JamesF]

Well that dust won't be doing the seeing any favours either, I imagine.

It's quite depressing watching the visual satellite image on sat24 just fog over as the twighlight approaches. I'll still probably go out to play for a while though, even if I was out until 3am this morning and am not feelng entirely bright as a result.

James

[Rorth72]

I took delivery of my very first ever telescope yesterday, a SkyWatcher 250PX. I put it together last night and took it out in the garden. I was so disappointed, I thought I could see sharper images of the sky through the viewfinder than through the scope itself, mind you... today I read the manual and I lined up the viewfinder with the scope correctly. So this could have been part of my problem? lol

But when I used it today looking across the valley (to line up the scope and viewfinder), the image still looked sharper through the viewfinder. The 25mm eyepeice was not too bad, but when I used the 10mm eyepeice, even though things were a lot closer, they were not so sharp or colourful. Do you think it was because of the atmosphere, it was hazy in the distance and also you could see the thermals rising from the ground.

I am hoping for a clear night tonight so I can take it out again.

[ZEbbEDY]

is it collimated?

any light pollution?

these things with the poor seeing can all make the image worse

also have read that the standard 10mm isnt too hot cant wait till ive got some more choice in the ep department

[Rorth72]

Took 'Dobbie' out last night as it was a clear night, and all I can say it made a whole world of difference with the viewfinder lined up. Got Saturn in my sights and popped in the 25mm eyepeice. And bang.. right in the center of my view was Saturn.. could see the rings and a few of it's moons! WOW. Never ever seen Saturn (or any planets through a telescope before). I just stood there open mouthed, after a minute or so I had to run in the house and drag my girlfriend out for a look. She was suitably impressed too. I then popped in the 10mm EP and even better! Now.. I just have to get myself a better eyepeice for planetary work (the scope only came with a 25mm and 10mm EP). Could anyone suggest a good EP?

My girlfriend left the scene after about 20 minutes and I carried on observing for about another hour. I moved the scope around a little and looked at Arcturus and had a look around Ursa Major too, but just had to keep going back to Saturn.

I have family around today for a BBQ, but if the night stays clear then I will have show them the views of Saturn. I haven't learned my way around the sky yet, but am going to try to learn a bit tonight. I read up today on star hopping from Ursa Major, to Ursa Minor and then on to Cassiopeia. Will also see if I can find the Double Cluster close to Cassiopeia, and maybe search out M13 if I have time for this too.

I think I have got the astronomy bug!

[F15Rules]

Hi Rorth,

Congratulations, that's a good sized scope there, especially as you first one!

The scope is worth investing in a few better quality eyepieces, such as Baader orthos for high power (5 or 6mm versions) and televue plossls for medium/low power, eg 11mm/15mm/20/25/32mm

You can often pick these up at good prices and just buy the best you can, when you can.

Good luck with your new hobby...and wait til you see the Moon, and Jupiter later this year!

cheers

Dave