Time to get the scope out

[Irvine6]

Hi all

I was around a few years ago but never got much time to use my scope because of various things but now its set up again.

I have a Dobs 200p 8" with the standard 10mm and 25mm ep and a 2x barlow.

What can i expect to see at the moment and should i invest in a 3x barlow and some better eye pieces?

Thanks for any help

Gav

[knobby]

If it wasn't for all the clouds , Jupiter is popping up at about 9 ish, and Orion is just ahead of it so plenty to look at .

[Qualia]

The Winter skies are gorgeous but do wrap up warmly. If you haven't used your gear much, give yourself a good number of sessions to appreciate your gear. Get to understand their virtues and limitations, value and evaluate before pressing the buy button for your next astro purchase. There's no hurry, there's plenty of time for getting new gear and there are plenty of mind blowing creations of nature to view in the night sky with what you've already got .

With that said, you might find it handy to download Stellarium - a planetarium software which can be downloaded for free and is extremely useful for planning sessions, seeing what is about, learning the positions of constellations, distances and sizes of chosen objects, planetary motion through time and much more.

I would also advise you to purchase a decent star atlas. Out in the field and for planning your sessions, you’ll find it indispensable. They’re not that expensive to buy, they’re pieces of art in themselves and are extremely useful. Quite literally, you’ll be lost without one.

Another thing to bear in mind is that stargazing requires time, patience and comfort. You need the patience to spend time at the eyepiece and to have this kind of patience you need to be comfortable and so you need to be seated. This cannot be stressed enough. If you want to do some serious viewing, do yourself a favour and buy or make an observing chair. It'll add an 1" to your aperture .

Other than that, you might find the following sights of nature quite stunning and beautiful to observe this month:

The Moon.

Jupiter.

M34, M41, M42, M46, M76, M78, M93

NGC 869, 884, 957, 1023, 1245, 1528, 1545, 2022, 2071, 2186, 2174, 2175, 2237, 2261, 2264, 2280, 2359, 2392, 2438.

Happy hunting and let us know how you get along

[Irvine6]

Thanks for the info.

I will download the software now and I think I will collimate the scope again as I have moved house since it was last out and may of been knocked.

Ive just got astro panel and Tuesday night is looking great for viewing.