Jupiter, Pleiades, Orion nebula

[Nick Steele]

We've got the first clear night for a while here in st. helens at the moment, and an auspicious alignment of the stars. Auspicious because everything I wanted to see was nice and high .

I managed to get jupiter in view and then aligned my wobly finder scope to it. Then, being a little more confident in my ability to find and locate objects, I took aim at thr pleiades.

Wow. I was impressed with how many I could see. With the naked eye, I could see maybe 5 stars on a lighter smudge, but with my 20mm eyepiece, I could see countless blue stars - I don't even know how many there were, I couldn't hold them all in view at once.

Next on my list of targets was the orion nebula. I sighted in on the few visible stars and had a look.

Wow again. Less....bright than the pleiades, but that nicely defined grey ghostly glimmer is something else entirely. I must confess, I yelped a bit because it was so impressively big.

It's obvious to me that I need a new finder scope, but the main thing's working just fine. I might even have a crack at those comets coming later in the year.

[Ganymede12]

Sounds like a good night! The Orion Nebula is my favourite Nebula and the Pleiades are stunning!

[Jaywillis78]

Lovely and clear in Cardiff too, Jupiter and the Pleiades looking great. Quick look at Orion Nebula but a big fat street light was spoiling it from the side of the house! Smashing evening in all for a change!!

[Ulysses]

Views like that make it all worth while!!

[Jiggy 67]

I managed to get jupiter in view and then aligned my wobly finder scope to it. Then, being a little more confident in my ability to find and locate objects, I took aim at thr pleiades.

Wow. I was impressed with how many I could see. With the naked eye, I could see maybe 5 stars on a lighter smudge, but with my 20mm eyepiece, I could see countless blue stars - I don't even know how many there were, I couldn't hold them all in view at once.

I always find that the Pleiades looks better through my 9x50 finderscope than through the scope, you can get the whole cluster in the view...lovely

[Astro Imp]

Good to hear you're having fun, the Pleiades are absolutely stunning in a low power eyepiece.

[Nick Steele]

I think I might accidentally end up buying a pair of binoculars for just such an occasion

[nicks90]

i'm very fortunate that i have a very short fl 70mm refractor as well as my 130mm newt, and by far the best views of the pleiades have been through that with a 25mm plossl - x14mag. Stunning!

its also nice to zoom right in on my bigger scope to see the blue of the larger stars and surrounding areas.

[CJE]

I also saw Jupiter, Pleiades, Orion Nebula with Trapezium (first time - Noob) WOW, simply stunning .... also amazed with the beautiful colours Sirius gave off, beautiful and just want to see more ...

I have a copy of Turn Left at Orion waiting for me at the library, which I understand is one the best guide to the sky at night ...

[ether823]

I had some cracking views of jupiter, and i deceided to go to M42, about 5 mins of clear views then the dreaded cloud came in. Went back inside moaning about cloud and her indoors says well thats astology for you isnt it?............Hmmm......(thinks....you stupid woman. shades of alo alo)