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Welcome from Manchester, England

hyp78

By hyp78
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hyp78

hyp78

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

I'm Mike, 33, from Bury near Manchester in the UK. Been pottering around the forum for a while picking up tips but its time to make myself known whilst I warm up with a hot Vimto!

Few weeks ago I bought myself a Skywatcher 200P (8" newtonian) on the EQ5 mount, subsequently nicknamed The Great Attractor due to its mystical cloud/rain attracting powers. Managed to colliminate everything and it sat idle waiting for some clear nights.

In a brief clear spell yesterday night I got a good view of Saturn. Was greatly impressed! Sadly the clouds closed over within minutes but tonight had promised to be clear all night.. It didnt disappoint!

Had much longer gazing at Saturn with variety of magnifications. Saw some moons. Simply stunning. With Saturn disappearing behind a hedge I moved onto some faint fuzzies. As everyone predicted it took some getting used to basic celestial navigation. My knowledge of constellations has certainly got a whole lot better in the past few hours to say the least. Spent a whole lot of time gazing skyward trying to pick out faint guide stars and work out where things were.

Since Herc was up I went for M13 and found it remarkably quickly, taking a few moments to enjoy a passing satellite i'd happened upon. Finding M13 probably involved a fair bit of luck too as I hit it straight away.

My main thought of the night was to get the Andromeda galaxy but i'd worked out fairly early on it was behind a neighbours house so until it rose I had a poke around the Ursa Major to try see the fuzzies around there. Sadly didnt manage to pick any out tho.

Finally I went hunting for M31 and, after quite some time working out where it should be, I think I got it. Possibly it was M32 as it was rather round. Not rightly sure! Oh, the thrill of being a newbie.

So thats the sum total of my astronomy experience! Looking forward to darker skies and a lil more experience to light the way.

Clear skies!

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swamp thing

swamp thing

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Hi Mike

Welcome to the SGL

Great scope choice buddy, that's a cracking bit of kit. Some fine objects you managed to bag yourself too. M31 is going to be disappointing this time of year, you are really best of waiting until its really high up in the sky ( nearly overhead is best). That's when you'll see it at its best. It also helps with Galaxies to get way, way out of town. As far from any LP as you possibly can else that will rapidly disappoint.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Mike and welcome to SGL, I am afraid apart from the cloud and rain, our other problem is light pollution, and the only way to get away from that is a trip into the country, then your views will improve appreciably, it is also worth having a pair of binoculars in your kit, as theses are a great aid in finding your way about the night sky :)

John.

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