A great nights viewing last night

[M4lcs67]

Had a fantastic night outside last night and bagged a load of new objects for the first time.

Set my alarm for 02.45 this morning. Got my scope set up outside, went indoors to make a coffee while the scope cooled down, then to work.

I had heard that Mars was moving close to the Beehive Cluster, so put my 25 mm ep in and had a lovely view. (Blimey, Mars is small). Bagged that. Then onto Orion. It is the first time I have seen it this season and the first time I have seen it through a telescope. The nebular is beauitiful and even looking at it through my scope and 25 mm ep it looked great.

I found the 25 mm one to be the best all rounder that gave the clearest sharpest image. I also have Google Sky and Skeye set up on my mobile phone so they were very useful in me identifiying what was what.

Then across to Jupiter which was by now high in the southern sky. Again the best results came with the stock 25 mm ep that came with the scope. The image was sharp and clear. If I tried to increase magnification by changing ep's then it just blurred up. Just practice I guess in seeing which ep and Barlow combinations work the best.

Then zigzagging across the sky again to the Pleiades. Again using the 25 mm ep. Nice clear sharp images. I am still on the lookout for some better ep's, but for now my 25 mm stock Celestrom one is the one that I am getting the most use out of. Using the 9mm and/or the Barlow just seems to give a blurr. Im sure everyone would prefer a slightly smaller but sharper image to a bigger but blurred one.

Decided to call it a day at 06.00 when the clouds rolled in. Last night was my first proper stargazing session and all in all had a brilliant time. Even had my shorts and t shirt on. Will be a whole lot different in January.