What a great weekend that was

[Citizen]

Two very clear nights to the SW of London and managed a full 3 star alignment on the Celestron 6SE SCT. Used Pollux, Sirius and Venus. Best alignment I've had so far and centred everything in the middle of the eyepiece after that. Chuffed. I'd been using Castor and Hamal on a two star align previously, to good effect.

Think I made out the Andromeda Galaxy on Saturday night, a very faint smudge through the 25mm eyepiece. Is that about right for the 6" scope? Had the usual wow success with Jupiter, Orion Nebula, Pleiades and a few of the Messier objects.

Mars was hard work and didn't really show me too much. Could be my scope limitation or else the street light I was competing with to the east side of my back garden!!

Any top tips for nice easy views with a 6" scope, in a partially light polluted garden (facing south with hardly any view of north). Will I have much luck with M81 and M82? Not tried them yet. I do get a view of the Plough, so should be able to point that way.

Best Regards

[Slim]

Two very clear nights to the SW of London and managed a full 3 star alignment on the Celestron 6SE SCT. Used Pollux, Sirius and Venus. Best alignment I've had so far and centred everything in the middle of the eyepiece after that. Chuffed. I'd been using Castor and Hamal on a two star align previously, to good effect.

Think I made out the Andromeda Galaxy on Saturday night, a very faint smudge through the 25mm eyepiece. Is that about right for the 6" scope? Had the usual wow success with Jupiter, Orion Nebula, Pleiades and a few of the Messier objects.

Mars was hard work and didn't really show me too much. Could be my scope limitation or else the street light I was competing with to the east side of my back garden!!

Any top tips for nice easy views with a 6" scope, in a partially light polluted garden (facing south with hardly any view of north). Will I have much luck with M81 and M82? Not tried them yet. I do get a view of the Plough, so should be able to point that way.

Best Regards

Excellent stuff. Why not download Stellarium? It's free and once you get the hang of it you can set it to your location, choose any day and time and see what is in the sky. You can even set it to replicate a light polluted sky to see what will be visible in your skies. I often use it during the day to plan my nights observing.

[perrin6]

Light pollution doesn't affect bright objects like planets much. I find very high magniication shows mars at it's best because it is dazzlingly bright and high mag reduces glare in the eyepiece. I use 300X - 400X on my dobsonians and think I prefer 400X.

Bright galaxies eg M81,82,65,66 should be visible in a 6 inch unless you have very bad light pollution, they may need hunting a little. Try using a medium rather than low power as the background sky will appear darker. Also ensure the eye you observe with has not seen light for 30+ minutes so it is really dark adapted. I walk about with it closed as much as possible, eg whenever I go indoors.

[Double Kick Drum]

I agree. A six inch scope is capable of quite a lot in good skies (I use a 5" refractor in a semi-rural location and have spotted nearly fifty galaxies to date). Hopefully LP won't be the decisive factor is denying you a few more DSOs.

Happy hunting!