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Sparkliness

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Sparkliness

Sparkliness

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Hello everyone. Just a short note to introduce myself (I'm being brave here as usually I hide behind the scenes). After reading this forum for a while, I decides to join. My name is Vanessa, I have been interested in astronomy since I was a child, but not so much the cold nights that go with observing.... As a child I was lucky enough to grow up on the Yorkshire coast, with relatively clear skies. I saw a number of excellent meteor showers back then. I think my most memorable moment was when I realised this wonderful new sight I'd seen was actually just Mars lining up perfectly with Gemini. Not so special - but at least I had noticed something different in the sky. Until recently I have been based amongst the pink night skies of London, but last year I moved to Dorset, looking forward to dark nights & crisp, clear skies. Of course, since I moved it has rained. And rained.... But, not to be deterred, I treated myself to a Skywatcher Heritage 130P recently, to add to my 10x50 bins... So far I have managed a couple of nice shots of the moon and a fuzzy glimpse of Jupiter. My main issue is that I struggle to focus both scope and bins at times - varifocals and astigmatism don't help! But I guess practice makes perfect!

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Vanessa and welcome to the forum. Well you seem to be building up your kit nice and slowly which is not a bad thing as there is plenty of time to upgrade as your experience grows. Now that you are located in darker skies, you might want to download some free planetarium software called "Stellarium" which you can read about here. It can be configured from your exact viewing location which is great in helping you decide what next to look at along with identifying what you discover along the way. It has lots of great features that will keep you entertained when the clouds come in (...or stay in!) and will certainly improve your knowledge of the night sky and its constellation. One particular useful feature is the advance date/time setting which allows you to fast forward the sky to see what is coming and from where, particularly useful if any part of your sky is blocked out (neighbours and trees etc) and you want to know when objects become available. From a book perspective, I would certainly recommend "Turn Left At Orion" which lists some 100 objects that you can find with binoculars and modest scopes. This book is great as it provides lots of useful information about a given object along with concise written instructions and detailed maps to help you locate them. Hope all this helps you further in your astral journey! :smiley:

Clear skies soon and hope you enjoy the forum

James

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