This morning (26-Feb-14), and the end of my first year

[AndyWB]

So, it's the end of my first year of observing with a scope, and I wasn't able to sleep well last night. In the end, I gave up, and went out with the scope.

The plan was to look at Saturn with the 250px - I've never used it on Saturn before - but somehow I ended up trawling through the Virgo cluster. LP in Reading is bad, but despite that I found M58-60, 88-91, 98 & 99, I followed Markarian's Chain, and with various NGC objects, I racked up about 20 new (to me) galaxies. 

Then I had a look at Mars. To be honest, it was a bit blurred, and I'm wondering if I'm struggling a bit with the BSTs in the 250px. Despite that, you could see phase on it, and definitely some darker patches on the surface, and I think the north looked like it might have a white patch on it, but I'm not sure if that's that likely to see, or just wishful thinking.

Saturn was fantastic. It looked, well, nearly photographic. The Cassini division was, well, just there - no struggling to see it. I guess that's the extra resolution of the bigger scope. I could see the brightest 4 moons easily, and I'd swear that at points I could pick out a 5th; the SaturnsMoons app shows Enceladus in the same location, though I think at magnitude 11.7, and being in Reading, well, I'm not sure if that's just coincidence.

Then I realised I've also not used the 250px on a glob, so I pointed it at M13.

Wow.

The difference was like night and day. Instead of simply a fuzzy blob of light, as most globs looked (though not all - M4 didn't), I could see stars all the way to the middle. It was fantastic - more like a giant open cluster than a globular one as I was used to. 

I can see I'll have to revisit all the globs again.

Then I decided to chase down C/2012 K1 - and found it. It was faint, but definitely there in AV. I also noticed on the charts that there was a planetary nearby - so I chalked up NGC 6210 too.

Finally, seeing as it should've been past the trees, I tried for C/2013 R1 Lovejoy, and after some slightly hairy star hopping, found it too. Again, just a faint patch in the sky, but there in AV.

Then, when packing up, I got to see a very bright Venus, just over the crescent moon. Beautiful.

Rubbish iPhone snap:

So ends my first year of observing. Now, I'm the kinda geek who keeps a spreadsheet, so, here's year 1:

What I've observed (including repeats - e.g. all the time I was looking at M57). 

I only included things I was looking for - so not just satellites wandering through the field of view, or just any stars seen (which would give a much greater number).

How I'm doing on the Messier, Caldwell, and Herschel 400. Note that this is for anything I found, even if I couldn't say I saw it all that well.

And I've managed all 8 planets, 3 different comets, 1 nova, 1 supernova, and the ISS.

I'm not surprised about the number of OCs or doubles - they cut through the light pollution fairly well and look good in the 130p I used most of last year. The number of galaxy viewings was surprising.

I can see finishing the Messier catalog is going to get ... fiddly, though.

[kerrylewis]

Interesting report Andy. I was up early this morning but found that the dew and seeing were a problem. Yesterday evening was great with superb views Iof Jupiter through my new Dob. The GRS was outstanding and other objects like the supernova and M82 crystal clear - even spotted E and F in the trapezium.

So I got up around 3.30 full of optimism. The first thing I has to do was demist the primary and secondary with a hair dryer but even after that seeing was poor. Mars was just a fuzzball as is often the case but Saturn certainly wasn't as good as you found. So I gave up and forgot all about the Venus/Moon conjunction. I didn't even look in that direction to see if the moon has risen! Perhaps if had persevered a while longer seeing would have improved and the moon and Venus would have been obvious. Ah well.....

Such are frustrations of this hobby!

[kerrylewis]

I meant to comment on your Messier count too. I have about the same number but those last few are going to be difficult I think

[Laurie61]

Productive first year's observing  Just shows what can be seen even in an area with LP. 

[AndyWB]

Well, there were a lot of objects notched up on some big nights in darker sites...

[AlexB67]

Very nice Andy.  I hope to do a tally as well at some point.  My anniversary is in May sometime when I plan to do the same and see where I got to with various objects. There is also a vicious rumour you bought that 28mm MV, did you get to try it yet ? The weather has been so bad that I have still not had a good chance to look at those spring galaxies under half decent skies yet. Either rmoon is out, sky is clear or vice versa, but I did get one glimpse of that area under very so so skies wen it was not that high up yet some weeks ago. The 28mm was lovely for all those galaxies there. I got my first glimpse of the Markarian chain from my backyard, a lovely galaxy fest.

[AndyWB]

Yes, I got a MaxVision 28mm, and I've taken it for a spin. I guess at the moment I'm ... undecided about it. I think I'm weirded out by the feeling of being able to look sideways. Where's the edge of the FOV? And there is coma (?) toward the edges - things look kind of stretched - though there's a huge patch in the middle that's fine. I did wonder about using it this morning - something about the exit pupil makes it seem like it gives more contrast under light pollution, which would be better for the galaxies. Changing the adapter is a bit of a faff, though.

It's also a very strange top to it - big and wide and flat.

I think maybe it just takes some getting used to. I'm still thinking about trying an ortho, but that would take a lot of getting used to too.

Ha - I just realised I've looked the supernova in M82 more times than reflection nebulae...

[AlexB67]

Your reaction was very similar to mine on first use, but then it grew on me over time and found using the more of the FOV easier to visualise, if that makes any sense.  You will see coma in the outer field, hence I personally would not want anything wider without coma corrector.  Sounds to me you may also be seeing a little bit of field curvature perhaps, I found this eyepiece does have a little bit of that in the 10 inch Dob, but I find it better than my 25mm BST in that regard.

In a strange sort of way your eyes can adapt and adjust after a while, younger eyes are better at this I gather.  It is like when I got new glasses a few years ago, to begin with everything seemed a little warped near the sides, but somehow the brain corrects after a while and learns to counter that effect. it's a funny old thing the brain versus optical interaction and all that :0)

I also found,  even at this low power I find a good cooled scope helps to improve the views through that eyepiece too, say an hour before it can really be judged more accurately.

[Orange Haze]

Really enjoyable read Andy, thanks for posting. That's an impressive list of targets that you have achieved and as a spreadsheet fan myself, I like the way you have recorded it all.

I had my own first experience of clusters a week or so back and was astonished by the detail and density of them. Have gone to the top of my target list very quickly.

Interesting to read thoughts about eyepieces, as I have a MV 28mm on order at the moment, along with a 6mm BST. Can't wait for them to arrive but seems it may take a bit of getting used to.

Good luck finding those remaining Messiers....

[Fatrick]

Busy year you've had there! As mentioned, impressive list of targets. Iv'e only had my scope for about 6 weeks, and you can count all the targets I've seen on 1 hand But, they were impressive and a joy to view. Just need some decent spells of clear night sky and we can start seeing some new things!