Success! (M13 + ISS + Satellite/Shooting Star)

[bigrbuk]

My third night of observing ever and my first night of success. I'm sure the seasoned pro's can spot M13 with the naked eye, but I'm starting from scratch here so bear with me

10pm last night, the sky was only really stating to reveal the stars and then there's the Sheffield LP to deal with. I'd worked my way towards Hercules using Vega, Arcturus and Gemma - along the way I saw what I can only assume was either a satellite or a shooting star - not massively bright, but fairly steady speed across my view (I'm going with Satellite). I could see 2 of the 4 stars making up Hercules body and just about make out the other two with my peripheral vision, so lining up with my RDF was a little tricky, but I persevered. I lined up where I thought I should based on the diagram in TLAO and peered down the scope. A few stars sure, but nothing looking cluster like. A little scan around and BOOM! It's there - something that is quite obviously not a star but a bigger, fuzzier patch of light. How excited was I?

I'm sure this is one of the easiest things to spot and there are probably better sights out there, but when it's your first find, it's pretty special

To boot, after my excitement, I happen to glance away to the South East (the region of sky I can see most of from my back garden) and there the ISS shining away.

Challenge I thought. And quickly spun the scope round to see if I could see it. I managed to point the scope in front of the station, but as you'd expect as soon as it entered my view, it pretty quickly disappeared again. But heck, at least my RDF is aligned correctly

So the passion is fuelled and I'm ready to go again, a couple of double stars tonight perhaps?

Quick Q: I couldn't necessarily see distinct stars in the cluster, and I'm not entirely sure what to put it down to - 1) skies not yet dark enough / LP, 2) poor optics, 3) poor focus, 4) novice eyes. Any suggestions?

[andrew63]

Congratulations on finding M13 - once you find one and have some idea of what objects look like in your setup, other targets should be easier to find - and you have a good guide book which helps a lot.

Not sure what telescope you have. But in good conditions with a clear sky in a 4" refractor i can resolve stars in the outer region of the cluster - but you need a reasonable magnification at least 100x and 150x will show more.

andrew

[Spec-Chum]

I love M13

Looks awesome at 150x (8mm in my scope)

[bigrbuk]

I have the 130p heritage and the standard eye pieces that came with it - 10 and 25mm, so 65x. I tried adding the free 2x barlow I got with it too, but couldn't see anything clearly, I'll need to try that again.

[bullettooth]

congratulations! sounds like you had a good night.

i was out for the first time in a while last night and it was good for me too. i saw three meteors. the second was the best as it burned across the sky leaving a nice trail then split up into 3pieces before it died (sweet).

i was happy aswell as i stumbled across m15 whilst tracking a satalite through my scope. ive only ever noticed one satalite before but last night whilst just looking up for meteors i saw 10 i guess its pretty easy to spot a few considering the amount there is up there.

good luck with your next session i hope its just as good if not better.

[Spec-Chum]

I like (wild duck cluster) M11 too, which isn't too far from M13 really. Just find the star above Altair, then down and right to the next star, then down and right again, where you should see 2 stars in a line with the naked eye. Aim for the rightmost of these 2 and look through your finder and M11 will be a fuzzy blob to the left and down (as your finder is inverted).

[crashtestdummy]

Was the first time with m13 for me last night,great sight but i actuappy prefer nearby m92.lots of shooting stars last nighr

[paul schofield]

Congratulations on finding M13 its awesome. Hope you find lots more. Gotta love those globular clusters.

[Jiggy 67]

I'm sure this is one of the easiest things to spot and there are probably better sights out there, but when it's your first find, it's pretty special

Nice one mate, however I have to disagree, M13 is one of the most beautiful objects you can see but I'm biased, I love globular clusters!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[freeflyjay]

congratulations! sounds like you had a good night.

i was out for the first time in a while last night and it was good for me too. i saw three meteors. the second was the best as it burned across the sky leaving a nice trail then split up into 3pieces before it died (sweet).

i was happy aswell as i stumbled across m15 whilst tracking a satalite through my scope. ive only ever noticed one satalite before but last night whilst just looking up for meteors i saw 10 i guess its pretty easy to spot a few considering the amount there is up there.

good luck with your next session i hope its just as good if not better.

i found m15 night before last, my first globular cluster and had a satalite fly past too, it was really cool i`m a newbie and only upto 5 messiers so far but i could not make out any individual stars with my 10" dob but i did only have a 15mm lens as my smaller ones aren`t great quality so only get 80x mag with that, gonna have to invest in a baider zoom, gonna have to start savng.

[MarkMayf]

I have the 130p heritage and the standard eye pieces that came with it - 10 and 25mm, so 65x. I tried adding the free 2x barlow I got with it too, but couldn't see anything clearly, I'll need to try that again.

I have the same kit and what sounds like the same success as you last night. Only my 3rd attempt at serious observation.

I found that with the 25mm it was a fuzzy ball, the 10mm a bigger fuzzy ball, barlow and 25mm it had a slightly speckled appearance to it, and barlow and 10mm I couldn't see anything!

I don't have much luck with the barlow, I seem to run out of focus or things are just too dark to see.

[bigrbuk]

I have the same kit and what sounds like the same success as you last night. Only my 3rd attempt at serious observation.

I found that with the 25mm it was a fuzzy ball, the 10mm a bigger fuzzy ball, barlow and 25mm it had a slightly speckled appearance to it, and barlow and 10mm I couldn't see anything!

I don't have much luck with the barlow, I seem to run out of focus or things are just too dark to see.

Sounds exactly the same. I've been scouring the forum and apparently sliding the scope back in a few mm might help with the 10mm + barlow focus. I'm also reading about alternative EP's too cos I'm pretty sure the pre-packaged ones are basic to say the least - I guess the bug has started to bite already!

[euphony]

M13 is always a winner

My first proper sighting was M3, which just blew me away. For some reason M3 always seemed to be brighter than M13 from my own back garden. I have no idea why as people tell me it should be the opposite!

But M13 is always spectacular to look at, and I never grow tired of doing so

[bigrbuk]

M27 ticked off last night too - not bad considering I was facing over the neighbours garden and they had there security light on all night. I also went back to see if I could find M13 again and went pretty much straight to it

Question. How much difference would adding some kind of shield to the open extension make? I might buy some card/foam to wrap around the try and reduce LP

[MarkMayf]

It made a big difference to mine as there was a lot of glare from my house and other houses nearby. Not exactly high tech, but it cost 4 pounds in total!

[bigrbuk]

Where did you get the foam from? I work near a camping shop so thought a camping mat might work, but foam would probably be cheaper.

[MarkMayf]

From here:

3mm thickness, 600 width, 300 length.

http://www.easyfoam....kaging-foam.php

I then just used velcro strip, although, it doesn't stick very well to the foam so may need gluing.

(thanks to whoever I stole the idea from on here!)