first clear night in months...

[binabik]

or at least that's what it feels like. second night i've had the scope out since i got it. i recently got turn left at orion and a telrad, so i put some telrad charts together to help me find some of the objects.

started off with the easiest target of the night, the moon. looked at some of the craters along the terminator and was half blind after about 3 minutes. lyra, cygnus and hercules were nicely overhead, so i started checking off the list:

• albireo -- WOW. absolutely amazing to see. this is one i'm going to go back to again and again and again [etc.]
  
• eps lyrae -- windy night, shoddy 2x barlow. split the first double easily, couldn't split the double-doubles. will have to go back and try again on a dark night with no wind
  
• m57 -- this is the reason i wanted to get a telescope. lined my telrad up according to the chart i made, and the fuzzy donut was bang in the middle of my 25mm eyepiece. amazing.
  
• m29 -- fun little asterism.
  

those are the ones i found in an hour, here's the list of the other ones i wanted to try:

• m13 -- moon had washed out hercules
  
• m27 & brocchi's cluster -- same story
  
• m81 & 82 -- sun had still washed out skies 2 hours after sunset, couldn't find the guide stars to starhop or point the telrad.
  
• m8 -- too low and washed out
  

i'm happy with my second night out observing, especially as i found everything i pointed the scope at first time round. now, time for bed.

g'night world,

simon

[swamp thing]

Hi Simon

Sounds like a successful night the moon does male finding DSO much harder.

Once you get the hang of pointing ya scope the sky's the limit.

Regards Steve

[philj]

Its nice to get out observing again isnt it?

Albireo is a lovely sight, the two contrasting colours give it a wow factor.

Epsilon Lyra usually splits with my scopes around the 100 mag mark but it does depend on the conditions, Ive actually split all components with a 60mm refractor, (it was Tak optics however)

The moon will reduce the contrast alot on the DSOs, they will fade into the background and loose definition, if observing on moonlit nights I spend ages drinking in the views of the moon and then move onto double star observing, these are less affected by the moonlight.

Philj