First (technically second) light with the Skywatcher 250px

[Crimson Sunset]

Hi all.

I got to take my new beastly baby outside for the first time last night after an agonising couple of days waiting inside thanks to our lovely climate up here. Now, i'm very new to the hobby so i might not know what im talking about here, but this scope seems to be on the verge of what i would call "practical", in the sense that anything bigger would be a bit of a pain to move in and out of the house.

Anyway, on to the obeserving!

First port of call was, as should be expected, Jupiter. My goodness it's a thing of beauty, especially after only seeing it through binoculars. That initial "WOW" moment was only with the 25mm eyepiece (48x mag), so i upped the mag to 120 with the 10mm eyepiece and was amazed. I could only make out the north and south equatorial belts at first, but with a bit more searching there were hints of other small belts, i can only imagine what it'll look like at 200x.

Next were M31 and M42. M31, as i had read before, isn't terribly impressive. It's just a big smudge, less detailed than in binoculars. Thankfully I was expecting just a smudge so wasn't let down horribly!

M42 on the other hand is much nicer, i could make out the general shape, with darker bits protruding into the nebulosity. I imagine it will look better with a filter, but stilla good looking object compared to m31.

After that, i decided to move on to a star that have seen before but only with a spotting scope: Hind's Crimson Star (R Leporis). It took me a bit of time to get familiar with the patch of sky but after that it was easy to star hop to the star, which is possibly my favourite object so far. It stood out well enough with the 25mm eyepiece, but with the 10mm it showed itself in a way that i would describe as a red laser pointer being pointed at a black piece of paper: top notch! If anyone reading hasn't got around to looking at it, you're missing out. Sadly the rain started shortly after finding R Lep, so i stuck a rubble sack over the tube and a small bin bag over the focuser.

Thankfully the rain didn't last long so i was able to get back to observing. The last object i was hoping to get was the Blue Snowball (NGC 7662), which seemed a bit of a long shot but worth a try when the sky was so clear. It didnt take long to star hop to the nebula, but it took me a while to realise that it wasn't a star, at 48x it just looked like an out of focus star but at 120x it showed itself a little better. Sadly it wasnt that great, no colour and, strangely, it appeared very bright and obvious in my averted gaze but disappeared completely when focused on. Oh well, i guess that'll wait til darker skies, better EPs or a filter (or all of the above!).

That was the last thing i looked at, it was getting nippy and the warmth of my bed was calling! I think that i had a fairly productive night, but i guess i'll be able to find a lot more in due course.

There's still one thing i don't quite understand though, i'm sure somebody could help me with this: What are stars actually supposed to look like through a big newt such as the 250px? I dont have experience with a professionally collimated scope of any kind so i don't know how to tell if my collimation is good enough. Most bright stars look slightly jagged when properly focused on, which is what i expected due to the spider vanes, while any stars that are dimmer appear as dots. Those near the edge of the FOV are rounded at the side closest to the edge (like the "W" on the sign of the shop "New Look" if anyone knows what i mean by that:D).

As usual, Clear skies everyone!

Cameron.

PS: Sorry for typos or sentences that don't quite make sense, i'm writing this while tired and bleary eyed after my second night of observing.

[Double Kick Drum]

I haven't managed any colour in the Blue Snowball nebula yet either. I do have some new eyepieces that I hope to try out on it at some point. Maybe that will make a difference.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The Blue Snowball is a great object. Quite easy due to its high surface brightness. The only difficulty is its compact size. It can handle quite high magnification.