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Getting ready for August

lonebod

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lonebod

lonebod

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Hi all,

I've onlynhad my scope since April. Managed to see the usual moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn and a little bit of star hoping.

Since the middle of May it's not been dark enough at the time of night i'd normally have time to go out, so roll on August..... Which leads the the question what do you do to get ready for th next observing "season"?

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C7tsj

C7tsj

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Hi all,

I've onlynhad my scope since April. Managed to see the usual moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn and a little bit of star hoping.

Since the middle of May it's not been dark enough at the time of night i'd normally have time to go out, so roll on August..... Which leads the the question what do you do to get ready for th next observing "season"?

I ain't too far from you and all I have done in the past few months is a bit of solar viewing. I doubt I will start again till the clocks change if I am honest.

Mark

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C7tsj

C7tsj

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Normally just in the back garden, not yet found a local dark site. A few times I have thought about heading to Falkland hill car park which is only a few miles from me. Good feeling it should be reasonably dark and close too.

Have also been thinking about joining one of the Edinburgh astro clubs but just haven't got round to it just yet.

M

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Daniel-K

Daniel-K

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plenty to see in august, most of the summer objects are still nice and high like m57 m27 m13 m92,then you will have m31 coming round with m52. me personally i love galaxies and ngc globs and cant wait till galaxy season to arrive !!

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dick_dangerous

dick_dangerous

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August is by far the best time for the Summer Triangle - I'll be turning my attentions to the constellations of Cygnus, Lyra, Sagitta, Scutum and down to Sagittarius. I'll also be playing around with the UHC filter to see if I can catch a glimpse of the Veil or the Blinking Planetary. Should be good, as long as the sky's clear.

DD

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AndyWB

AndyWB

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Good suggestions, though I'd still suggest trying to play the game of 'how low can you go' in Sagittarius. Obviously, being that far north makes this difficult, but the Omega nebula should still be about 15 degrees up, and I think it's worth a look. And if you're looking at that, well, might as well tick off M18, and then M24 is only a degree south...  ...and so on.

Hard work, but there's lots there to reward you. You need a clear southerly horizon, and clear atmosphere, though.

Anyway, as to what to do to prepare for the next season - well, I check that season in the star charts, and draw up a list of things I'm looking for. I try to make sure the list contains everything from faint fuzzies to doubles, just to make sure that I stand a chance on bright nights still. I'll also check the almanac, magazines and online for any celestial events (occulations, comets, conjunctions, etc.).

I've actually got a notebook for 'things to look for' now, which I'm organising by constellation, too, as I go through the year.

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Tyr

Tyr

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I'm looking forward to getting a better look at the highlights of the summer triangle, I managed to relocate M5, 11, 13, and 57 this last week / weekend in the summer twilight, but I'd like to get a proper look before they're gone.

And if we get a really clear night then the milky way running through Cygnus is a great naked eye sight to look forward to.

As far as planning for the next session, well I'm probably not doing enough, often it's a case of dial up the planisphere and then go from memory or get out this months sky at night. I need to get some better plans made though otherwise I'm not going to see much new to me.

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ericdavidheavens

ericdavidheavens

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Im in california near los angeles during twilight hours i normally hunt for satellites. is Scotland a good place to view satellites this time of year. i know this dosent really answer your question and goes off the topic but it might help time pass.

clear skies

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ronin

ronin

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In reply to the question: What do you do to get ready for the next observing "season"?

I am presently making up or adding to a set of constellation cards, 6" by 4", that are little stars and blobs in them. The stars being the constellation stars and the blobs (OK Ellipse's) being the objects that are present in them, some Messiers and some NGC, and a few of which I have no idea.

Means I can print a card or two then go and find whatever is present.

Means I just have to find the constellation and I have a sort of ready observing plan.

So far I have 15 of them, will probably make up another 5.

What I really need is a colour printer and a laminator.

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Tyr

Tyr

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Satellites? there's a website for that (and an app too I think) to be honest I've not used it really much before but I remembered the name.

Normal I just go outside look up and sooner or later I spot one or two and then follow them with the binoculars.

However if you were interested in actually planning to spot some, you can put in location (near the top of the page) see configuration, then click on "daily predictions for brighter satellites" a bit further down.

Here I set it up for today, in the town where I live and asked for only things brighter than magnitude 3, which means I should be able to easily spot them with the naked eye.

http://www.heavens-above.com/AllSats.aspx?lat=51.4543&lng=-0.9781&loc=Reading&alt=45&tz=GMT

Back on the subject of next month, the sky at night fortuitously dropped through my door yesterday and the "planet of the month" is Uranus. Which I've never observed before so I'm going to see if I can find that. It should apparently be visible with my binoculars as a tiny blob (3 arc seconds), but I'm hoping for a little bit of colour with the 5"/6" scopes.

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