Finally got some Clear Skies

[bertboy]

After much pondering and reading up I finally plumped for a Heritage 130 as my first scope.  After placing the order with FLO on Saturday I was as giddy as a kid in a sweet shop for it to arrive.

Well it arrived on Tuesday and I couldn't wait to get home and try it out but not surprisingly it was a gloriously cloudy night  , as was Wednesday but I kept my spirits up and finally last night the skies were lovely and clear.

Result, so out I go into the garden and get the scope set, go back indoors to let it cool down for a bit.  Finally the time came to actually use it in anger and boy was I happy.

Started out looking at Jupiter and it was lovely and bright in my 25mm with 3 of the moons very visible, switching to the 10mm I was very happy to see 2 dark bands near the equator. Very happy bunny indeed.

Spent most of time looking at Jupiter but did have a go at the Orion nebula and was chuffed to get a decent view of it.

I think a bit more practice on the focussing on my part is required but I guess this comes in time, learning the foibles of the focuser on the Heritage 130 also seems to be a knack, some teflon tape here should hopefully help.

Have to say I am very impressed with the Heritage, hopefully I'll get a few more sessions in soon 

[Mowbs]

Glad to hear you had a great night. We were probably oooohing and aaaahing at the same time.

I got my Skywatcher 200p a week ago and other than a couple of quick shots of it between cloud when I saw Jupiter and it's moons and our moon through the week, last night was the first proper clear sky.

I didn't expect the weather to clear so I was delighted to set up my scope to let it cool and I was quite amazed the sky was still clear when I went back to it an hour or so later.

Jupiter is an amazing sight and it's great to feel like your telescope is doing something to what just looks like another bright star in the sky. I found it hard to point away from Jupiter but I managed to tear myself away to look at Orion nebula, and I was suitably mesmerised by it's beauty. The highlight of the night for me though was Andromeda. I've tried to find it before (I use an iphone app called Go Sky Watch which I find handy for finding objects) with binoculars but I've never managed to see anything. At first when I had it in my eyepiece it was just a grey smudge, almost like an out of focus star, but when I'd been looking at it for a while I was able to find it with my binoculars and even feintly by eye but when I put my eye back to the eyepiece of my scope I was absolutely blown away (I've used that phrase a few times since I got my scope )

I still haven't seen Saturn and I'm reluctant to get out of my bed early enough to see it just now. Hopefully the anticipation will make it all the more worthwhile when it is finally visible at a convenient time!

Hope you have many more discoveries

[Green Ninja]

I've had trouble seeing the Andromeda galaxy too but I think I have more LP than you Mowbs.

I need to take the scope in the car somewhere nice and dark.

I should be able to see it as I have the same scope as you.

[bertboy]

Thanks Mowbs, as you say it is pretty cool when a dot of light in the sky becomes planet in the eye piece.

I think Andromeda will be next on my list of things to look for.

One thing I do have to contend with is a street light right at the end of our garden and another one slightly further along, It's like the Blackpool Illuminations, not great but you have to work with what you've got as they say.

I'm really looking forward to taking my Heritage to my parents in Ayrshire where there is a lot less in the way of light pollution.

[Mowbs]

Yeah, I'm really lucky where I am, I have no neighbours or street lights so I just have to switch of my own house lights. I do see the glow of Aberdeen in the distance (I'm about 20 miles away) but I wonder what difference it would make with totally dark skies. I saw a light pollution map on google before, it's surprising how little there is north of Glasgow, just us Jocks in our tractors.

I highly recommend Andromeda anyway.

[Astro Imp]

Pleased to hear you managed to get out and enjoy yourself.

You'll be in for plenty of treats in future.

BTW we need to take full advantage of cloud free nights and get as much use of our equipment as we can. With this in mind you don't need to wait for your scope to cool down if you start observing objects with your low power eyepiece and up the magnification as and when you can.

Have fun and enjoy.

[bertboy]

I'll be doing my best to get in any opportunity I can to get the scope out.

Hopefully I'll be able to get to some really good Dark Skies area in The Galloway Forest which is just down the road from my parents and where I hail from.  

Don't think I'll be using the tractor though, would completely knacker the collimation on the scope with the bumpy ride