suggestions please!

[0030]

Ok, getting really excited for tomorrow night. We are supposed to have some really nice, clear skys Saturday night here in Michigan into the late hours. I need some advice from the members on anything particularly interesting I might want to look for. I have a 12” dob with a 2” 30mm erfle and a 1.25” 9mm plossl. Thanks in advance for suggestions/advice…

[ghostdance]

Hope you have a good night with that 12" - you lucky thing.

Recommendations will depend on what you've observed already I think, and what your particular interests are 'up there'...my particular interests lie more with clusters and planets than faint fuzzies for example, due to size of my scope and the state of my skies. I still look for the faint grey stuff, and am chuffed whenever I see something, of course. I always look up M57 when it's visible, but have a hard time finding/seeing galaxies so my galaxy count thus far is one: M31  Sorry, make that two! M32...or was that M110? Right next door to M31 in any case, lol.

[0030]

Thanks Ghostdance. This will be the first time I really get use my new scope and I am really excited. Also you stated something in another post that I am now facing... the prospect of all my cash going to lots of nice upgrades.... I just bought a giotto rocket blaster and I think my next purchase will be a barlow, but I will be attending the local astronomy club"s open house in a few weeks and it looks like they will be nice enough to let me try out different eyepieces on my dob

[kalasinman]

Globular clusters are a treat. M3 quite good right now.

[sheldondave]

Hi,

If its the first time useing your new scope, then you will probably have your hands full getting used to using and controling it,  know I did. So have a go at some of the brighter targets at first like Venus and Jupiter, which are bright and well placed at the moment. Also why not download the free software Cartes du Ciel which will give you all sorts of new targets for the future.

Best of luck and clear skys.

Dave.

[ghostdance]

Sounds like you have it all under control which is great! I second sheldondave's recommendations. I've never looked with a 12" but I imagine you'll be mesmerised by Jupiter using it. Venus is showing a nice, er, shape ( meaning not round!) at present so should be interesting too. Very near Jupiter (to the right) is the Beehive cluster, M44, a sweet little gathering. With that much aperture, I'd be tempted to see what galaxies can be found (in Leo, for example), but plenty of time for explorations later. Hope you have many clear and rewarding nights!

[Dave In Vermont]

I don't know if you ever mentioned having Stellarium, but if not - you'g love it! It's a free and EXCELLENT planetarium program. In other words, it's star charts of the sky as seen from your location - which you enter when you initially set it up:

http://www.stellarium.org/

One of the developers, Lex Wolf, is a member here.

Enjoy the night!

Dave

[0030]

Jupiter is for sure on my list. Not sure if it is in the right place, but I would like to see the Christmas tree cluster in monoceros if possible. It was the first cluster I saw with my first tellescope, a toy refractor a few years ago. I’m actually geeked just to check out the moon! I will definitely report back on what I looked for and what I saw. I have used sky orb, but not stellarium; I will check it out. Thanks again everyone.

[Calculon]

Jupiter is fantastic, I make a point of checking it multiple times during any session with good seeing. After viewing them myself last night I can recommend M81 and M82 in Ursa Major, the near zenith location makes them easy to pick out. Depending on your local light pollution the Auriga Messier objects could be worth a look too - my jaw hit the floor when I found M37 a couple of months ago.

[0030]

Thanks, will check them out. Not set up for traveling with the dob yet, but I live 15 minutes from the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and about 45 minutes from Manistee National forrest. You can't find less polluted skies anywhere else in Michigan!

[cotterless45]

Wow ! I'd go for the spring galaxy show. Just go off the back of Leo for Virgo, Coma Bernices and Ursa Major. Any aperture heading there will be in galaxy heaven,

Nick.

[mdstuart]

I would have a look at M51 off the bottom of the big ripper which is well placed to the NE...see if you can see this "double galaxy". what about the embedded field star in the halo of the main galaxy and can you see hints of the spiral arms?

http://freestarcharts.com/index.php/20-guides/messier/161-messier-51-m51-the-whirlpool-galaxy-spiral-galaxy

Mark

[Paul73]

Beehive Cluster (M44) near Jupiter

M35,36,38 Clusters in Auriga

However, as Ghostdance says, don't be surprised if you spend the majority of the session learning how to steer it!

Paul

[ghostdance]

Sheldondave has the credit for advising re learning to control the beast

You do realise 0030 that you now have a gaggle of us salivating and twitching at the prospect of hearing how your first mighty aperture sessions go?

[0030]

Thanks again all. Getting really excited. Working on my itinerary right now. We are going to have nice clear skies from sunset to sunrise. I don’t think I am going to stay up late enough to view Saturn though. I’ll chime in, in a bit with what I plan to view.

[0030]

Ok, dob moved to 3 season porch to equalize with outside temp. Radar good. Not a cloud in the sky. Sun sets in about a half hour. Moon will not rise for about 6.5 hours. Stelarium wouln’t install on my tablet, so I am using SkyOrb and Sky and telescope’s Pocket Sky Atlas (doesn’t fit in any pockets I have). Here is my list for viewing, not necessarily in this order:

Jupiter

Andromeda galaxy

NGC 2264

M-3, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 44, 57, 81, 82, 110

General areas: Auriga, Lyra, Leo, Ursa Major, Coma Bernices

I’ll let you know how it went.

[Dave In Vermont]

I don't know if you ever mentioned having Stellarium, but if not - you'g love it! It's a free and EXCELLENT planetarium program. In other words, it's star charts of the sky as seen from your location - which you enter when you initially set it up:

http://www.stellarium.org/

One of the developers, Lex Wolf, is a member here.

Enjoy the night!

Dave

How did I manage those typos? Odd. I hope this computer doesn't blow up next....

That's ALEX Wolf is a member here. And you'd love it, not the funky 'you'g' typo. Must be the huge Sunspot coming around at us.

Strange Days Indeed,

Dave - down the Rabbit-Hole...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rabbit+Hole

[0030]

The good the bad and the ugly or what I learned about my new dob:

Bad news first- I was wholly unprepared for the onslaught of light pollution, not in the sky, but at ground level. Porch lights, and streets lights were an absolute pain. My other nemesis was the beautiful trees that line my back yard; they completely obscured the whole of Andromeda and most of the objects on my list. In the end, a lot of my planned viewing went out the window.

The ugly- Jupiter was amazing as always, but I learned firsthand what it means to have the aperture of a 12” dob: light, and lots of it. I couldn’t see as much detail on Jupiter as I had hoped, because quite simply, the telescope gathered and reflected too much of Jupiter’s light. The white bands on Jupiter where so bright, they obscured the darker bands. My next upgrade will definitely be filters to reduce brightness and glare. I’m not even going to try to view the moon even at quarter without a filter.

Steering the dob wasn’t much fuss, but definitely upgrading to a soft knob asap. I will say that those who are used to an equatorial mount like second nature will probably find steering a dob a bit frustrating, but if you learned on an Altazimuth like I did, you shouldn’t have any problems.  Also, due to the nature of the steering, I will have to get two inch eyepieces when I go for greater magnification as things move pretty quickly on the 1.25 eyepiece.

The good and might I say beautiful-

Too many stars… the sheer volume of stars I saw was mind blowing, and this in fairly polluted night skies. With the 30mm erfle, ngc 2264 just fit into the wide view. The christmass tree cluster (notice anything about my avatar) was pretty cool; I couldn’t make out the cone nebula, most likely due to polluted skies. Finally saw those diffraction spikes which I’ve heard so much about. My impression on diffraction spikes ranged from completely indifferent to soul inspiring. Sometimes the diffraction would flicker and fade in and out like with Jupiter and was neither impressive nor a bother. Other times there was no diffraction at all and in the case of one particular star near Bootes(sorry, I found it randomly and didn’t do a good job recording where I saw it) it was awe inspiring. This star was bright and orangish/brown and 6 diffraction spikes danced around it getting longer and shorter. I also found by random what I think was a galaxy(also somewhere vaguely near Bootes). It was a huge white fuzzy oval shape. By the time I switched to my 9mm plossl, I lost it and couldn’t find it again.  And this is where the big dobs are supposed to shine: stars, galaxies and nebula and I can see why. I totally get the reference to a light bucket now.

After a couple of hours, my hands started to get numb and I decided to call it a night. Not feeling like I had my full stargazing fix, I decided to drive to the beach 15 minutes from where I live. You just don’t realize how polluted your skies are until you get out of the city. I was freezing cold, but as I looked up to that beautiful sky I came quickly to simple but hauntingly beautiful realization: Only in that absolute darkness can you see just how much light you are truly surrounded by. I could only imagine what my dob would have shown me of that galactic light show… I am more excited than ever to get my dob out to good dark skies. All in all it was a really great star gazing night that left me more excited, more curious and more fulfilled. Despite the problems I faced with viewing, I learned a lot and walked away with experience and knowledge. Can’t wait for my next night of star gazing. 

[ghostdance]

Great report! 

I am imagining through your eyes...glad it was such an inspiring night for you

One question - what's a 'soft knob' (steady....)? I assume from what you say it's a variant on the steering knob? Interesting - I didn't know you could get different versions.

[0030]

Yes, just a stearing knob.

http://www.opticsmart.com/soft-grip-guide-knob.html

I feel like I let every one down, because I had such a big list and most of it just wasn’t possible to view. It was still a really great star gazing session for me. I don’t think we will have another clear night for a while, but next time, I’m packing up the beast and going to the beach. Also I sent a message to John after reading his thread on catching galaxies to see what he thought of my report on Jupiter reflecting too much light. I will ask the rest of you as well what you think? I am wondering now if it might have had something to do with sky conditions or just using cheap eyepieces. I had better contrast with the lower magnification, but the white bands seemed to have glare around them at lower magnification as well. What do you think? I am pretty excited to attend the open house for the local astronomy club, weather permitting. It will be a good opportunity to get advice and tips and to try out different eyepieces.