Observing with the coulter 8

[garethmob]

Well I'm outside now been out here for an hour the astrotrac clicking away with my dslr taking test shots on my makeshift "mount". Was going to set up the kson and goto but thought after swmbo complaining of being cold I gave up and took the coulter out instead. The joys of having a dob

Well. First I went to beatleguise fairly easy lovely colours in the 32mm. Just watched for about 20 mins then went looking for the belt and the nebular. Sadly where Orion is its hanging directly in the orange glow of Newport so I couldn't see any nebulosity just the stars inside. Trapisiom. Next went alooking for venius and Jupiter again my sights were dashed because they are quite low now and hiding amongst the only trees in the area . Could make out some banding as it moved though and a moon so not all lost. Didn't see any point in going to the 10mm

So I moved onto the next obvious target. Mars directly behind me. N getting quite high too . Went to 32 and nice and sharp. Could see the obvious red colour and my breed were telling me there was something else there just on the edge of my vision. Moved to the 10mm and not as sharp there was a obvious flare at about 2 o'clock so either optics or collimating quite hard to do sadly on the scope but it's just out. Thought I'd give a filter a go see if I can see any more details. Tried a 25a red but too dark so went to a 38a and could just about make out the polar caps woooooo

Put the filters away and just tried collimating it pulled the drainpipe out and could see the large donut. Black dot in middle both perfect circles. And the double bar spider was just off the centre dot. Is that ok? My lasers saying its just off but not very good at this.

I'm looking directly up now the only dark I have is south west and easy and I can see the plough clearly and Polaris but the Northan sky's out cos of my house:(

Gonna go in in a min set the canon to take darks while i pack up been a really good night I thinks 3 planets and a nice large juicy star .

Thanks for reading

Gaz

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[Double Kick Drum]

Thanks for sharing. I've not managed to pick the Martian poles yet.

[garethmob]

The coloured filters helped a little but I think I would of seen more of the scope had a better focuser. But my pleasure

The only downside was the glow of Newport obscuring everything and the next neighbour turning kitchen light on n off every 5 mins for tea:(

But thanks for reading.

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