2nd night with new scope

[milkyjoe]

The skies were clear when i got in from work so I decided to get the dob out again for a nights observing session.

Down it came from the bedroom and I set it up outside and left it for about 2 hours to cool while I ate and put the little one to bed. So I got out just after 9 and begun trying to align the finder to polaris, I found it quite fiddly and it tool me half an hour of messing about!! I finally managed it and targeted Vega.

I looked through the finder and then through my 25mm plossl, hmm... where was it.., bah, finder not aligned so did it again, managed it this time though in a few minutes.

I thought I would try and take a look at m57. No matter how hard I tried I could not find it. I don't understand what I was doing wrong, I look at the map of the sky on stellarium on the laptop and again through the finder, I even checked with just my eyes?! Is it my ep as I thought m57 would be visible with 8"of aperture to play with or is it something else; the moon light perhaps or do I need a decent ep with a better fov??

I gave up in the end packed up as it was getting cold and there wasn't much else to see in my garden.

Is my scope capable of seeing dso's "in all their glory" being an f/6 or do I need something faster say an f/4, objects didn't seem the bright either, but I am assuming that might have been due to the moonlight?

Anyway, I can't wait to use it on the moon and planets as hopefully that will be a better experience.

Rick.

[LeeB]

Remember m57 is quite small, and while it can be seen at 48x (25mm eyepiece) it can be less than obvious, once you have found it you will notice it, but try 80x and you should have no problem, also align the finder in the day to a distant target its easier and you will be sure you have it.

[John]

The moonlight in the sky tonight would not have helped but M57 should still have been faintly visible with your scope. It's really quite small so, with your 25mm eyepiece it's possible that you saw it but did not recognise it as such. At the 48x that eyepiece gives it would have looked like a faint slightly bloated star.

An 8" scope is capable of showing 100's of deep sky objects and pretty good views of the brighter ones. Light pollution / moonlight in the sky really does make them harder to see though and even the bright ones become rather "shy" when the moon is in the sky.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

The Ring is pretty small. I've seen it in a 12" newt and it wasn't big in that, and I had to use averted vision to see it well. Moonlight also makes it much more difficult to observe DSOs, globular and open clusters are easier targets than nebulas and galaxies when the Moon is out.

For visual the f-number of your scope can be misleading, what matters is the f-number of your scope and eyepiece combination. A fast scope doesn't necessarily produce a brighter image than a slow one if you have to put a higher power eyepiece in it to achieve the same level of magnification.

[HighHo]

I managed to view M57 last night (1st night with my scope), since yesterday I must have knocked my finder scope, I was struggling with polaris alone and gave up to just look at the moon. From my very brief experince having the finder scope aligned makes a massive diffrence, even if its just to identify something near the object to move from.

[Dave In Vermont]

Yes, my 200mm F/4 (8") Newt. does a nice job of bringing out some detail in the Ring. My 12" brings the central star out quite well. Those ring-nebulae are rather finicky.

Clearest Skies,

Dave

[Steve777]

Getting a telrad might help

[wheresthetorch?]

Managed M57 in a 4" last night with moon up and some LP. The benefits of goto! :-)

[happy-kat]

I need averted vision to see it in my 5 inch.

[milkyjoe]

What is a telrad Steve777?  I have seen them on flo, but not sure how they work?!  Would a red dot finder be any good as I can hardly see the cross hairs in my finder?  I was very tempted to get a goto "wheresthetorch?", but decided on the dob after much recommendation and didn't cost too much either, the only niggles I have still is the weight of the tube as it is quite big and if you need to relocate you have to take the tube off the base, but once it is setup at least I can sit down to observe. ;-)

I am still contemplating buying one or two good eps, either something from Televue or something equally as good but for a bit less money.  Astrobuysell is a good place to look for second hand gear. :-)

Rick.