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Best viewing night yet!

Fozzie

By Fozzie
in Getting Started With Observing

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Fozzie

Fozzie

Posted
Posted

Just came in from 3 hours of dodging clouds... House sitting at a place with a big back garden on the moor side near Ilkley. not the darkest of places but better than my garden by a hulluva long way..

Recently fitted a Rigel QF to the scope, what a difference it has made, can't tell you how impressed I am with it.. Didn't need to search for anything, it just seemed to be there!!!

So I've had a brief look at M1, M42, M43, M44, M45, M31, M34, M35, M36, M37, M38, Jupiter and her moons followed by the double cluster in Perseus, which by the way, WOW..

Did I mention WOW to the double cluster....

I have to say I was given a 17mm SWA skywatcher eyepiece for Christmas the thing is the size of a hand grenade but it does seem to deliver some good views....

Take the above with a pinch though, everything look right to my newbie eyes, compared with left turn, but I could be wrong!

Still great night, loved it!

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Nigele2

Nigele2

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I have just packed everything away..sky was clear but visibilty was very poor due to moisture and very thin haze. If I cant split doubles this means it is not worth looking for galaxies or nebulae,,, aaahhh!

emadmouse I'm in north hampshire and you sum up what I had.  With my reflector had Jupiter and its' 4 moons but only a glimpse of banding with my 12mm.  With 5mm couldn't get good focus.

When looking a jupiter with the naked eye it didn't look like a star; almost like a tiara of crystals.  Am I right in thinking that on a good viewing night it should look like a bright star?

Sorry just one more nub question: I left my refractor out for 2 hours to get acclimatised but it was unusable with moisture and condensation.  Do you guys just mop up with a lense cleaning rag?  I just bought it indoors and left it overnight with all caps off to let it dry.  Or when that happens do you consider it too wet to have fun?

Anyway despite poor condition still 2 hours of fun but I'm a nub so it's all new to me .  Cheers  :laugh:

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cotterless45

cotterless45

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Super seeing here. An early frost produced a super stable atmosphere.

You'll be needing some dew protection with a refractor. Firstly try a simple A4 sheet of black craft shop foam. Just cut to 1 1/2 of the aperture length and gaffer tape along the seam. If it's worse you can try just taping a re useable gel hand warmer on the objective outer ring. If worse, then it's going to a dew heating band and controller running off 12v.

Any worse, retire indoors !

Nick.

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AstroJon

AstroJon

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It looked clear here but a little too windy to risk taking the scope out, judging by the comments above I suspect the seeing wouldn't have been very good either.

I completely agree about the double cluster. I must admit clusters weren't high on my list of priorities before I got the scope but it is easily the best view I have had yet, asbolutely amazing.

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Orange Haze

Orange Haze

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Hey Fozzie, great to read your report. It's a big thumbs up from me for the Rigel QF as well, absolutely love that piece of kit, waaaay better than the RDF that came with my scope and on my last viewing session I rarely had trouble finding objects.

Looks like you did your homework before heading out with that list of Messiers. Using my ipad app outside night before last, most of the Messiers I wanted to look at seemed to be out of season and below the horizon. Your list therefore is really useful.

Have yet to view the a double cluster myself, but it's top of my viewing list next session, tho it seems the forecast down here is less than promising for the next few days...

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Fozzie

Fozzie

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Yeah I guess the transparency wasn't all that, I had Jupiter with my 9mm & 8mm teased as much detail as I could, no spot but I think after 10mins I could just make out more than the usual two dark bands..

Took me ages to find M1 but no detail just a faint change in contrast, so stuck with clusters apart from andromeda. To say I've only viewed a dozen times this was the best yet, kind of glad I'm still at the stage where any hole in the clouds is a goal worth looking through!

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bomberbaz

bomberbaz

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Slightly miffed I didnt bogher last jight now. Being in lancs, thats the good rose county, we should also have had decent views but swmbo pursuaded (read told me) that I would bebetter of indoors due to cold weather. (in all fairness the wind chill was really bad)

I have yetto bag M1 although my lp'd garden does not help so slightly j3alous on the OP,s comment but here is time yet

Steve

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

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emadmouse I'm in north hampshire and you sum up what I had.  With my reflector had Jupiter and its' 4 moons but only a glimpse of banding with my 12mm.  With 5mm couldn't get good focus.

When looking a jupiter with the naked eye it didn't look like a star; almost like a tiara of crystals.  Am I right in thinking that on a good viewing night it should look like a bright star?

Sorry just one more nub question: I left my refractor out for 2 hours to get acclimatised but it was unusable with moisture and condensation.  Do you guys just mop up with a lense cleaning rag?  I just bought it indoors and left it overnight with all caps off to let it dry.  Or when that happens do you consider it too wet to have fun?

Anyway despite poor condition still 2 hours of fun but I'm a nub so it's all new to me .  Cheers  :laugh:

You don't really need to leave a refractor for 2 hours to achieve thermal equilibrium. Refractors tend to cool down in no time - unlike reflectors.  I usually set up and go straight away.

The last thing you want to do during observation is cleaning the optics. Best strategy is to extend your scope dew shield. Both my fracs have retractable dew shield and never felt the need for more. The only time my 6" refractor got fogged up is whenever I moved it quickly back inside the warm house. Then I just leave the cap off for an hour for the condensation to disappear naturally.  Having said that, I tend to fit  a cardboard sheet around the RACI finder scope if my session is longer than 3 hours. The finderscope dew shield is short and more vulnerable to dew.

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Bart

Bart

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I can't even get to my scope. My shed door has swelled to the point that not even a crow bar would open it.

Sunday roast was some what lacking today as the sack of potatoes are in the shed also. DOH!

Roast with no potatoes!!! I actually think that's an offence punishable under law.....

Barry

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