Multiple OMGs

[pajr777]

Sorry, I'm a beginner, a lot of this will be old hat to the vets on here... BUT!

I'm 45 - until tonight I'd only ever seen one moon. Now I've seen 7; and my five year old daughter has seen 5 (Saturn was after her bed-time!)

At least I think seven - observing from Cirencester around 12:10am 22/3/12 with Saturn centred I saw one object at 9 o'clock about 3 Saturn widths distant and another at 4 o'clock about 6 Saturn widths distant - moons and if so please identify them for me! (Saturn widths including bands) Edit: Looked it up on Sky Safari - Titan and Iapetus . No Cassini division for me tonight.

That was worth staying up for alone, but also the Gallilean moons and cloud bands on Jupiter - wow! Venus at about half-full (daughter said she could see a sunset in the 'scope!) - wow!

Then onto the Pleiades - beautiful, M42 but still no M43 - is it much fainter than M42?

Following Turn Left At Orion I also observed Iota Orion - I could make out A and C and a slight bulge in A but no split of A and , Struve 747 and 745, Sigma Ori and Struve 761. Still following the book I tried for M35 - I found an open cluster but couldn't relate what I observed to the diagram in the book so not sure.. tried for ages and kept arriving at the same cluster. Bit frustrated at that point.

Then a search for M101 the Pinwheel. Could split Mizar and Alcor naked eye, but again following the book just found empty space where M101 was supposed to be - also confused that the orientation of the diagrams seems to have rotated by 180 deg - up is now North whereas it was South? I need to get my head around RA/DEC and probably read some of the book in daylight too!

Then.. the crowning glory of Saturn - what an amazing sight!

Only my second night of observing with a 'scope and I've seen so much already. I'm truly awestruck by it all.... and rambling - sorry

[John]

Don't apologise - you are making great progress and the learning curve is pretty steep. You have seen some wonderful sights already and there is so much more to come !

M51 can be quite ellusive, especially if you have some light pollution to contend with. With a 6" scope it's going to look like two pale spots of fuzzy light with condensed centres. As your eye adjusts you will see that one is more extended than the other.

My 10" newtonian will not quite show spiral structure in M51 from my back garden but I'm hoping it will when I get the scope to a dark site later this week. I've seen the spiral structure with a 12" and with a 20" it was simply amazing !

[swamp thing]

Hi

M101 is a toughie from any sort of LP sky.

You may well have been on it and failed to notice it.

Face on spirals like this need dark skies to be seen well if at all.

Keep at it buddy.

Regards Steve

[John]

Hi

M101 is a toughie from any sort of LP sky.....

Quite right ...... so why was I rabbiting on about M51

Because I got confused, thats why

Moving on ...... M51 (also in Ursa Major) is a face on spiral that is easier to see than M101 so it's worth a try in any scope from 4" aperture upwards.

Sorry for the diversion from M101 though

[Toejam]

Sounds like you had an exciting night...me too!!!! Finally got to try it with my finder scope set up (so much easier! lol) and got to see Jupiter and the moons which were amazing. I didn't want to get over excited so I called it a night at that. lol

Congrats on Saturn, thats the 1 I really want to see!

[pajr777]

John - I put it down to the early hours - I did re-read my own post thinking 'M51??'

I bet if I go back to Turn Left it will say " Dark Sky" as a requirement for M101 - again, it was late

In my back garden there is a tall hedge to the East and the house it belongs to to the SE - so tempting Saturn was visible for ages by eye before I could get the 'scope on it. Well worth it though, it's a majestic sight, and the moons were a great bonus too.

Right, time for a coffee or three

[johnboy999]

hi pajr777

I've just bought the same scope as you , did you have to collimate the scope when it came ,as I had to because the secondary mirror was loose.

Also how do you find the finder on the scope , mines useless cant get anything

through it except in daylight with my eye about an inch off.

Have just ordered a telrad finder as they look pretty simple.

You say you saw the bands of Jupiter, was that with the 7.5 as i've not used that yet, I used baader zoom on lowest setting and could not see the bands , although I did get Saturn but it was very small but clear,no moons but this was about 10.30 when it was not fully up.anyway glad you saw some great stuff.

[Double Kick Drum]

Quite right ...... so why was I rabbiting on about M51

Because I got confused, thats why

Moving on ...... M51 (also in Ursa Major) is a face on spiral that is easier to see than M101 so it's worth a try in any scope from 4" aperture upwards.

Sorry for the diversion from M101 though

Just a further note: M101 and M33 are generally advertised as having quite high magnitudes. This is a bit misleading.

Because they are both large and relatively face on, neither are particularly easy to spot and get washed out by LP very readily.

M51 is easier. As are M81 and M82 which can be seen together in the same field of view.

One other pair of galaxies worth going for are M65 and M66 in Leo, though these are a little more challenging.

[pajr777]

hi pajr777

I've just bought the same scope as you , did you have to collimate the scope when it came ,as I had to because the secondary mirror was loose.

Also how do you find the finder on the scope , mines useless cant get anything

through it except in daylight with my eye about an inch off.

Have just ordered a telrad finder as they look pretty simple.

You say you saw the bands of Jupiter, was that with the 7.5 as i've not used that yet, I used baader zoom on lowest setting and could not see the bands , although I did get Saturn but it was very small but clear,no moons but this was about 10.30 when it was not fully up.anyway glad you saw some great stuff.

Yes I have collimated by eye only, the secondary required rotation but no adjustment to tilt and the primary was way off! Cheshire on backorder with FLO and a spotting template and sticker on order from Catseye in the US to get it bang on.

It took me a while to realise the eye piece on the finder scope rotates - this focuses the 'scope - so try that. It requires alignment at the start of each session, not the best mounting system.

Jupiters bands with the 7.5 but try the Baader on 8mm, much clearer/better contrast.

I also found the focuser really tight as it came, loosened the four screws on the faceplate equally by a couple of turns and it's much smoother.

Great scope - bomb proof and the pier mount is more children friendly than a tripod in my opinion