First light for 10 mins

[Philk_80]

Hi

Well, I set up my 250px flextube (purchased on Thursday from a nice guy in Horsham) in the garden at around 8pm looking at a sky full of grey cloud but I thought 'what the heck, I might get lucky'.

I checked the scope and ensured the finderscope was in alignment with the scope (big TV mast in distance) and although I don't have a collimator, the mirrors didn't look far out at all so had to trust it would be an okay view should I see anything.

8.30pm came, sky was a little darker but the clouds didn't look like they were clearing but still I persevered! Got out a camping chair, cup of tea in hand, rang my folks etc.

9.15pm - a break in the southwest, not big but big enough to make out Hercules!! I was there (this was my first time with a scope but I had a lot of naked eye skywatching) and instantly made out M13 Great Hercules Cluster - I only have the lenses which came with the scope so started with a 20mm and reduced to a 10mm - what a sight! Just when I went in to tell my wife to come and see, the clouds covered again!!!!

9.45pm - a break in the clouds in the East - went to find the Andromeda galaxy but I found that although I could see the main stars easily by eyesight, through the finderscope the stars increased 10 fold so that I could not easily make out which were the stars of Andromeda and which were not. I was running out of time, found a smudge through the finderscope but through a 10mm and 20mm lens the smudge remained a smudge so not sure what I was seeing. Then cloud.

Apart from knowledge and a star chart, is there an easier way to navigate through the stars in the finderscope which bear little reflection to the night through the eye as there are so many more!

I have to say, though not the best night in terms of visibility, I am hooked!!

[TwoPi]

Although it's been said a million times before on SGL and you'd be forgiven for thinking most of us are on commission, Turn Left at Orion is a great book for helping you find objects. The reason being that each object has a number of charts with it - the naked eye sky, what you will see through your finderscope (and how to navigate from bright marker stars to the exact region of the sky you need) and finally a reasonable representation of what you will see through the scope.

It's great alongside a star chart and your ability to recognise the various constellations.

Other than that, there's always GOTO

Enjoy your scope - it's a cracker!

[dmahon]

Red dot / Telrad might be more useful for you.

[Superdavo]

Nice start! I remember my first light with my last scope (an Explorer 150p), I raced out to catch a small break in the cloud and glimpse Jupiter. Nice work seeing M13, and, by the sounds of it, you caught Andromeda too! A good challenge on a better night would be to try to see the satellite galaxies M32 and M110. If you want a harder challenge, look for the faint fuzz of galaxy NGC 6207 within three same low power field of view. I've never seen it myself, but in a 10" on a good day, it should be possible. Also, as others have said, Turn Left At Orion is an amazing book - it's how I found out about NGC 6207.

David

[knobby]

Glad the scope was OK from the sound of it, you know your way around the sky pretty well, in which case I'd try a telrad... Its a zero magnification finder so the sky looks like, well the sky