To quote the four seasons...

[PapaPlanets]

Oh what a night

Clear skies over Berkshire so I got out about 7pm along with a friend (who came to buy the telescope with me, but hasn't done any viewing since Melsky was kind enough to set it up on his driveway)

So early doors, I'm determined to sort out the GoTo malarkey which I hadn't got perfect yet. Two star align on Rigel and Aldebaran and then added a calibration star (Sirius). I'd not added a calibration star before, so I was hoping this would make the difference...

Find me Venus clever mount...

Boooo... it stopped many degrees away from the target... hold on... it's not finished...it was just having a think...it's moving again....HOORAY bang on.

I started on Venus as the previous time I'd viewed it, it was a little underwhelming... not this time I was amazed how good it looked... really nicely defined and you could clearly see the transition from night to day. Amazing. What a start.

On to Jupiter for my best views yet...clear definition of the bands and moons... even stood up to the 8mm Televue.

Next up the Orion Nebula which again was the best I'd ever seen it (out of the two times I have) again looked good through the 8mm. It was my mate's first Nebula...'Wow, errr wow' which seems to be the stock comment for looking at cool space shizzle.

What next...errr dunno...let's try the tour button to see what it points at. The next hour or two are a bit of a blur as we slewed around the sky looking at a number of Messier object, star clusters, double clusters, the Pleiades, etc. etc. It never ceases to amaze me how you can point at an apparently starless (in my light polluted area) part of the sky and suddenly feel like your in Star Trek

Oo look, Mars has move above the house... again preparing for a little disappointment, over we go, but again it's the best view yet... I'm not sure if I could see a slight whiteness at the top or if that's just my eyes / reflection / imagination... is the polar ice cap at the top?

Ok, cold and hungry now...must stop...need some dinner. Lens caps on, towel over the mount and went inside, got warm, had dinner and played a little Syndicate & Cities XL to bide the time until about 1am. Quick check on the iPad and yep, Saturn should be visible.

Back out...OMG it's a bit nippy... light the chimnea and keep your voices down. Fortunately the neighbors myriad of lighting is out, but the mist has rolled in. I'm not certain how things will look. Turn the mount down to slew rate 7 and slowly move around to target Saturn (you may I ask why I didn't move it manually...)... anyway we eventually get round to what I'm guessing is Saturn and BOOM! RINGS!...my precious...I can see Saturn and it's rings , over to my friend 'Wow' (he's not normally so monosyllabic) looks great through the 25mm and I think I can maybe make out a slightly dark patch in the middle of the rings, but again it may have been my eyes or imagination. I literally danced a jig...stepped away from the telescope and boogied (I don't dance, but could not contain my excitement).

An amazingly satisfying night... four planets which all looked great plus a bundle of DSO's as well. Thank someone (err probably Melsky) that I got a GoTo mount... Galileo would have killed for one of these

Now I just want to see more and take pictures...and...and...and...oh the excitement.

I'm thinking I might want something in between my 25mm Meade and 8mm Televue EPs... maybe a 15mm?

And a DSLR

And a bigger SCT

And a huge Dob

And a shed with a retractable roof

And a house somewhere darker.

Just too much fun

[SHUTTLE ATLANTIS]

now thats awsome just fantastic you had a great night ive yet to see saturn and as i have a dob manual i star hop about still learning this one . but i like that as you never know what else you will find on the way

[stargazers friend]

Hehe, i'm the "friend". Pretty awesome seeing Saturn and it's rings and the goto mount doing it's thing. Terrible light pollution looking towards Reading and a neighbour with half a dozen Halogen lights in his back garden didnt help but still, very impressive.

Looking forwards to some viewing in the future at somewhere with less LP. I saw TWO shooting stars while he was adjusting things.. although not sure if he believes me lol.

[PapaPlanets]

'course you did mate

Of course I believed you, it's just it wasn't Saturn or soemthing else magnificently exciting there's another post here about someone seeing a couple last night too.

[iwatkins]

"Space shizzle", I like that

I'm glad you are having fun, that makes me happy. When you stop having fun, then that's when to stop doing it.

Hope you have many more nights like it.

Cheers

Ian

[m_j_lyons]

WARNING: Deep Sky Object observing may cause addiction.

Happy hunting!