Saturday, october 27th 2012

[Cartman]

After a few weeks without observing (vacation, lots of father-daughter time, work, other hobbies...), I'm hitting the skies again tonight.

Scope will be set up in my sister's garden, on a hilltop with fair to moderate lightpollution, a pretty sweet spot.

What might ruin the night (in random order):

- too much light from the moon

- the low temperatures (we can do something about that)

- the neighbors' security light (switches on on windy nights, can be sabotaged )

Goals for tonight: the usual suspects like Andromeda, Jupiter, Orion... I still haven't nailed the Dumbell and Ring nebulas, I'm still in the n00b stage. Who knows I find them tonight.

If any of you guys managed to get some nice results tonight, please share.

Fingers crossed!

Cartman

[Matt Scunthorpe]

The ring is easy to find. consult Stellarium, it is in between the bottom 2 set of stars in parallelogram shape next to Vega.

[Tinker1947]

Might be a bit breezy on the top of a hill, that's extra cold and the scope acting like a sail.......

[Cartman]

I just installed Stellarium on my old Ubuntu laptop. Will take it with me from now on.

I'll be dressed in layers and ski pants, should do the trick :-) I'm ready to leave, but the moonlight seems to be blinding most of the view on Pisces Pegasus, Andromeda and other constellations in that area of the sky. We'll see...

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Dont be so quick to disgard the Moon. Its an amazing view to look at through the scope. On bright moon nights i often just have a look around the Moon and see what i can see.

[Cartman]

The result of a two-hour observation in a nutshell:

It was cold. Temperatures ranged between -1 and -4 degrees. There was no wind, but the humidity left a fine layer of ice on everything, including the scope.

Very bright moon, there wasn't a lot to see in the part of the sky around Pisces, Cetus, Pegasus, Andromeda... I did some moon observations as Matt suggested, but I'll have to study a good map of the moon to find my way around there and to know what I'm looking at.

Jupiter had a very stable image of the disc and moons, I could clearly see the bands of clouds. No red spot visible though, is the scope not strong enough perhaps?

I learned my way around Orion - Taurus - Auriga, area that I hadn't explored yet. Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix, Orion's belt (easy waypoint) and offcourse the Orion Nebula and Pleiades as highlight. The Orion Nebula is fantastic in the 9mm eyepice, with the bright trapezium in the middle. Pleiades are like a bag of diamonds though the 28mm.

BTW, the Ubuntu laptop with Stellarium didn't boot because of the cold :-( Luckily I have Star Walk on the iPhone and TLaO.

Overall, a cold but pleasant session.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Sounds a very good session. But blimey, ice on the scope? Wonder if that does any damage or not? Sounds like it was a good night regardless. Hope theres many more to come

[swamp thing]

Hi

TBH I would leave the laptop at home. It will only spoil your dark adaption. I never use my iPad at the eyepiece for this very reason. Far better to use a dim red torch and an atlas. I know it may not seem as convenient but it truly is a better way.

Even when the screen brightness is turned right down its too bright. If its a bright moon and you are only hunting for clusters etc it may suffice, but if hunting faint galaxies around the new moon I should leave it at home.

[Cartman]

A very thin layer of frost, i don't think it can harm the scope. I've seen it before with other people, maybe I'll check in the equipment forum to make sure.

Better get some warmer clothing and fingerless gloves for next time :-)

[Cartman]

On the laptop: Stellarium has a night-mode so everything on the screen is in redtones, doesn't blind much. Laptop is about 7 years old or so. It boots but won't login to my account when outside in the cold :-)

I might stick to the red reading light, an atlas and Star Walk (which also has a night-modus).

[VigdisVZ]

Sounds like a good session! I had ice on my scope aswell. After all, its just dew, but in another form I doubt it can harm the scope otherwise there wouldn't be much observing sweden no time of the year (it can harm your handset and computer unless you take care tho).

[Astro Imp]

Nice report.

Your scope is well capable of viewing the great red spot if it's visible.

You may find the following site helpful for timings of Jupiter's moons and great red spot. http://www.skyandtel...script/jupiter#

On a similar note here is the detail for Saturn's moons http://www.skyandtel...t/saturn_moons#

Hope you find these links handy.

[Cartman]

Thanks Astro Imp!