what to look for from light polluted london at the moment?

[mwainwright]

hi all. 

was outside last night with my nextar 5, only just started to play with the goto on it..    but i`m still very much a sky newbie!     i know little bits and pieces from looking up in my countryside childhood..    so i started browsing the sky tour, but i have no idea what is and isn`t going to be visible in my nextar 5.. 

i went straight for venus and jupiter before i switched to goto...     and then had a look around and saw the beehive cluster and the double stars of polaris, but couldnt find much else, I was mainly looking for clusters as I dont really expect to see much in the way of galaxies/nebula from my north london back yard, though i have seen the orion nebula but thats heading off now..     it wasnt an especially crisp night either, though jupiter was pretty and venus was nice to see for the first time.. 

any pointers to fun stuff to find this evening?    i think its going to be clear!  

cheers,

Mark

[SteveB72]

There are some good objects in the list at the url below that should be visible with your scope, I managed a lot of them with my Nexstar 127 SLT.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/111-deep-sky-wonders-for-light-polluted-skies/

You will get muck better contrast for faint objects if you use a dew shield ro stop stray light getting in to the OTA.

Good luck and happy hunting.

[ghostdance]

Over in E10 I was out briefly last night around 10, but gave up quickly as despite the sky looking clear, everything at a higher mag was just, as you say, not 'crisp'. Scope was nicely cooled but stars looked so mushy at anything higher than 15/25mm that I came in and checked collimation (which was fine)! However a wideview Beehive looked good and was a pleasure to observe as always. I don't know if it's me/my location, but these last few clear nights just don't seem dark enough for me to see much in the way of clusters like M36/37/38/67, let alone something like M101...or my eyes/brain/scope are just not working well at the moment

Edit\ or maybe 10-11pm is just too early. Perhaps I should've gone back out later, but that may have started divorce proceedings!

[mwainwright]

yeah, it was still pretty light really, and there was the occasinal slight haze a little later,i went out around 9 and was out til about 11..  

[mwainwright]

last night i saw the double cluster (very pretty, but i think i might get the 6.3 focal reducer to get a wider view of DSO`s)  and I even managed to get a look at the ISS on its first approach, and could clearly see the solar array and their golden colour, when it was overhead it was too bright and very fast to see much more than its overall shape, but the early view on its approach was great and easier to chase!

 

[Droogie 2001]

I was out last night and I am only about 20-30 miles from London (Redhill, Surrey).

I was imaging M3 but gave it a quick view before I started the imaging run so well worth a look.  Look at Jupiter to and it looked ok but not pin sharp. i could see the atmospheres effects bringing the image in and out of focus.

Its starting to get to that tricky time of the year were it only gets properly dark from 10pm onwards. I stayed out till 12.30am as it was a school night.

Made a pleasant change to not be frozen still by 10pm though!

[mwainwright]

i tried to see M13 but couldnt see anything...       i`ll try again tonight for M3 and M13

[Stu]

i tried to see M13 but couldnt see anything... i`ll try again tonight for M3 and M13

Both of those should be relatively easy even with LP

[Astro Imp]

If you're in the vicinity of M13 give M92 a try as well.

Good luck.

[mwainwright]

still no m13 or m3   i was using the goto (tested it back and forth between a few stars i know and it was pretty much spot on)      probably have to wait a few days for a clear sky now. 

[Stu]

If you align on eta Herculis and you have setup properly then it should get you there (M13).

I take it you are using your lowest power eyepiece when trying to find it?

Sorry if I've asked before but what are your skies like ie what is the dimmest star you can see with the naked eye?

[mwainwright]

If you align on eta Herculis and you have setup properly then it should get you there (M13).

I take it you are using your lowest power eyepiece when trying to find it?

Sorry if I've asked before but what are your skies like ie what is the dimmest star you can see with the naked eye?

i found them!       yeah, i was using my lowest power eyepiece, but the goto must have been a little off, despite managing to target most stuff pretty spot on, i had to slew around a little to find them, they were dimmer and smaller than I was expecting, maybe explains why i missed them before, they were pretty hard to pick out, though the sky hasnt been especially dark when ive been looking,  I think I need to be out there at 2am or something. still, good to see them, I bet they look great from a dark sky site.  

[Droogie 2001]

You probably know this but do spend a good 10+ minutes when you have found them, ideally using adverted vision. That way you can start to pick out the stars on the outer edge of the cluster.

As someone else mentioned also try M92, this is great cluster in its own right. Often ignored for its more famous brothers.

I sometimes cover myself with a jacket to make the viewing as dark as possible.

Goodness knows what my neighbours must think sometimes...