another night of sights

[steviegall]

hey all again, last night was only my 2nd night out with my first scope(200mm dob) with my new modification of a table with adjustable legs so i woudlnt have to get my knees dirty like last week aiming high in the sky

so for the first 45 mins it was point at everything that shines, trying desperately to get a view of saturn in a 10mm barlowed eyepiece proved futile as it was too low on the horizon and i got my first taste of shimmering from the atmosphere

that plan abandoned i directed my scope toward andromeda m31 again, hoping to get a better view than last week before the moon popped up and ruined my fun like last week

it had definite shape this week but still only seemed(according to the pictures in turn left at orion) to be the size i should see in my finderscope, but ofc with my newly acquired powers of reading this morning i realised i had to look at it for longer than the 5 seconds i did to start to make out better details

back to last night i cursed it and moved on to m57, first try at aligning the scope to sulafat and sheliak failed miserably but second time while it wasnt in the middle of the 25mm eyepiece it was just off center, mission accomplished, could definitely see ring shape as it raced across the barlowed 10mm, pushing the seeing conditions though as it looked to be never quite getting into focus

then earlier than last week as said i calmed down and stopped pointing at everything that sparkles and turned to the pages of turn left at orion for inspiration

first page of the july-september section was m13, so i found it without too much trouble, took a while to get the distances between vega and arcturus and the other guide stars right but when i did WOW, it only got better as i increased to 10mm even at this mag i could see there were hundreds if not thousands of stars there, it was just wow 

next page, m92, the poor cousin of m13, still a wonderful sight watching for a few mins brought out so many more stars(i already knew i had to watch to bring out more detail, never connected it to m31 though, damn noviceness sneaking in again)

on the next target was where my point at everything that shines came into it again, i searched forward in the book to see if there was anything that i could easily recognise (guide stars wise) and i made it to m56, right between albireo and sulafat, easy enough to search for , took me a while to find it though as it was quite faint in the 25mm, ramped up to the 10mm showed quite a lot of individual stars

another one i could easily enough navigate to was m27, the dumbell, must have used all my luck on this one as when i went to the 25mm from my telrad there it was right in the centre, , all i had to do was shunt the scope right a but so that when i ramped up to the 10mm it woudl just be coming into the fov  and i woudl get the maximum viewing time with it without having to move the scope

it was getting late now and when i flipped the page of the book again i didnt have to move far for my next and final target of the night, m71, once again easy enough to find but seemed very pale in comparison to the other clusters i saw last night but the same as the rest, awe inspiring

so quite an m heavy night before the cloud rolled in at 1:30 or so, i thought the clearoutside app had fallen asleep in the job up until 22:30 or so, said it was to be clear right from 19:00 right up until 01:00 wasnt until 22:20 that someone with more money than me used their zarkhov cloud gun and all the clouds seemed to evaporate

anyway great night was had again, hope to repeat it soon

[cotterless45]

Neat report. M71 is quite resolvable at higher magnifications. The Moon will soon go as we near New Moon. This might be a help selecting targets, free monthly downloads,

http://www.skymaps.com

And of course you can't beat the handy Pocket Sky Atlas,

Nick.

[Tzitzis]

Dude! Great session! You did well. 

You are only starting now and you are doing just fine mate! A night with a scope outside is like a hundred days of studying and reading about position of stars and galaxies cause you see them with your own eyes and learn them so much easier.

Don't be frustrated, wish I had seen all these M objects you saw. Something that might help you is planning your sessions. Have the targets ready and written in the order you want in a notebook. It helps if the targets are close to each other. So after reviewing your favorites for example M31,M57,M27,M13 you could try hunting the other ones.

Last but not least, try some double stars dude. They are fun and many of them are so beautiful. Examples Albireo, Cor Caroli, Graffias(beta Scorpii). Cotterless45 knows this stuff

Keep on pal!

Cheers from Greece

Tzitzis

[laudropb]

Nice report of a very good session. As for M57, you do not need 240x to get a good view. In fact it is probably too much. I can see lots of detail at 100x magnification, but I have found that I have to use an OIII filter, or my UHC filter to get good views.

[steviegall]

thanks guys, i have the pocket sky atlas too and probably should start planning a bit, but its all new and shiny atm so its sort of fun running around the sky like a headless chicken

i meant to look at polaris after i saw albireo last week but when i pointed the scope up i had the legs adjusted too high so coudlnt look into the eyepiece, after i adjusted it i forgot to go back and check it out

an OIII filter is next on my consideration list, i just dont want to buy too much too fast

thanks for the input though

[Astro Imp]

Great report. 

Some observers make a plan before they go out some don't, I have a rough idea of what's about and try to observe the western objects first before they disappear and work my way east.

The main object is to have fun and enjoy the clear sky when you get one.

Good luck.