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First time.

Johnny Thunder

By Johnny Thunder
in Observing - Reports

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Johnny Thunder

Johnny Thunder

Posted
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Beth and myself had our first go with her new Skywatcher last night.

The scope was placed outside a couple of hours before we planned to go outside ourselves. While the scope was chilling, I let her start to have a mess around with Stellarium.

We discussed what we hoped to see on our first ever venture ‘into space’.

We were hoping to view the following:

The Moon.

Mars.

M45

M42

M31

Saturn.

As soon as we got outside, I checked the accuracy of the finderscope. A quick check at Capella confirmed that my first attempt to set it up was quite good. Only minor adjustments required.

At this point, I must be honest in the fact that I was itching to find Planets and Nebula, but Beth appeared really keen to view the Moon, so, it is her scope.

If I said our first views were jaw dropping, it would be an understatement. We only have a couple of eyepieces at the moment, but the detail revealed was unbelievable. We took turns viewing different areas, and must have spent at least one hour before we decided to look for anything else.

Next up, we had a look at Mars. No difficulty here, Beth did it all herself. Centred on the finderscope and finetuned with the eyepiece. I was pleasantly surprised by Mars. I was not expecting much, other than maybe a brighter star than the others around it, but there was a faint redness to it which was pleasing.

Pleiades was next on the agenda, and soon enough it was in full view for us to enjoy. Beth could not believe how many stars were actually there, and asked me why it was called the Seven Sisters if there were more than seven stars. I had no answer to this, so I had some homework to do.

I am sure I had read on SGL, that the Orion Nebula is difficult to see at the moment, but I decided to have a go anyway, due to the fact that I could make out the constellation quite easily.

I am still not sure if we could see a very faint cloudlike shape, or we were in fact seeing things. Hopefully you guys can confirm what it actually looks like at the moment.

Next, we spent a fair bit of time trying to find the Andromeda Galaxy. We failed miserably.

We spent quite a while looking for it, with scope and naked eye, but never found it.

That is one for another time.

By the time we gave up on M31, two little white lights, namely Regulus and Saturn, had cleared the houses. This is the one that I have always wanted to see.

I still cannot describe the feeling, looking through the eyepiece for the first time, and seeing the detail that can be seen. Words failed me. Beth was absolutely buzzing. She said to me “Dad, do you know that what we are looking at is approximately twentyfive million miles away!”. I believe she is not far away with that statement. Beth has definitely been reading up on a few things.

We are both hooked, and cannot wait for more.

One last thing Beth said to me before we packed away for the night was, “ Dad, can we take photographs of them like they all do on that website?” :D

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Sam

Sam

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That's a great post JT! and I see your daughter is now ready for the move to imaging :D The look of amazement and wonder must have been something else - I know it was I my kids faces when they first saw the moon. Well done on getting started!

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thing

thing

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Great report. My kids are grown up and gone but i have a 2 year old grandson who is going to be a mini Patrick Moore by the time he's ten............ 8)

The moon is still great to look at, if we have any friends call when I'm out with the scope I always show them the moon, it's a guaranteed breath drawer, especially if you don't go mad with the mag and give them a nice full disc to look at.

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Wedge

Wedge

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Hi!

I Wish I got a 10" Dob for my birthday :D

I could certainly see the 'clouds' you were talking about through my 6" Newt on Monday, so yes, you would have seen it!

I am glad that your daughter was so happy!

My Parents must have thought that about me when I got my telescope in October. It is 6" and that was huge so yours must be MASSIVE :lol:

M31 is now past its best for the time begin. I first saw it in October though my telescope, and it was a wonderful sight. It certainly took time to find, but it was worth it!

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Naz

Naz

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It is a pleasure to read a report like this, great to see one so young getting hooked, looks as though Dad is hooked as well :lol:

Enthusiasm should always be encouraged and nourished. One day she could be the Astronomer Royal :D

Keep the reports and question coming.

naz

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