First steps.

[cotterless45]

My eldest granddaughter aged 6 was over for the weekend. As it got dark early and before the Moon got up we went out to see the stars.

As I showed her the square of Pegasus, the Summer Triangle and the Northern Cross ,we saw the ISS halfway through it's early pass and watched it set in the east. Katie was so excited to see it and asked what they did up there !

Then I pointed out the W of Cassiopeia and eta. Explaining that is what our Sun would look like from there, "dull little star".

We saw a plane from Notts airport all flashing lights. Then I pointed out the constant light of a satellite passing under Cassiopeia.

Mrs.C then joined us and we saw the double cluster and M31. Firstly by eye, then through a £5 charity shop pair of Japanese 8x30 bins.

I pointed out where the chain of Kemble's Cascade ran, one top width of Cassiopeia to the left . We spotted the Coathanger of Brocci's cluster , by continuing the line from Altair to Tarazed. A very bright disc of Uranus was found , just above the conifer at the top of the garden.

They were both surprised by how simple it was to find targets by eye. Katie's going on the ipad in the morning to do a drawing of the ISS and a page of her findings for school.

I left Mrs.C to the tv and got back to the scope just in time to have a good view of NGC 6995 through to NGC 6992. Then some clear views of the blue of NGC 7662, M27 and NGC 6826. All these including the Eastern veil were thoughly bright with a 2" Baader UHC filter in the diagonal.

Moon light blasted the rest of the seeing. Now that the evenings are drawing in, get the young wrapped up and out there. Even Mrs.C appeared to enjoy the sights, hoping for those,

Clear skies,

Nick.

[Scooot]

That was a lovely busy few hours. I had a good look at some if those, the dumbbell was great at 120x with my UHC. The surrounding stars were bright and framed it really well. Even if some of them did have slight green bits due to the filter but the contrast was excellent.

[Gazabone]

If only all beginners could have someone like you to show them around! Fingers crossed, they may now be hooked.

[Qualia]

Sounds a really nice evening, Nick and good on you for getting the little one involved I've taken note of some of the gems you've seen, and although I think some of them I've seen, when it's not cloudy, rainy or what have you, I'll try to pay them a little visit