lunar eclipse - and what else?

[AlentejoSkies]

So, new telescope, lunar eclipse on the way, good reason to get up in the middle of the night.

What else would you take a look at if you were out there with a few friends in the wee hours of the morning? I reckon we won't want to spend the whole night with only the moon, but how bright is the red moon anyway? What is likely to be visible?

6 inch f/8 dob and low light pollution

[Dave In Vermont]

First off: Greetings and welcome to SGL! Nice to have you among us. There are some other folks here from Portugal already, the more the merrier.

There are many other things that can keep you entertained and enthrealled to see up in the night sky. It's difficult to pick and choose - there are literally millions of possibilities. Do you have any sky-charts? Or a good planetarium-program to consult on your computer? I can recommend Stellarium to you. This is a huge software-program you set for your location and it will give you an ever-changing look at a realistic map of your night-time sky. Stellarium is one of the very best one of these available. Many others would cost you quite a bit of money, but Stellarium is completely free. I'll give you the link:

It takes awhile to download due to it's size. So wait until you have a bit of free time to load it. And to set-up may take you anywhere from 10 minutes to 10 days - depending on what you wish to do! Did I mention it's big? So here's the link:

http://www.stellarium.org/

And here's a pdf. user's guide:

http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/stellarium_user_guide-new.pdf

And the revised online guide, it's under constant revision as more and more functions are added and updated, is here:

http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Stellarium_User_Guide

Regards the lunar eclipse coming up, there are a few threads that will answer any questions you may have here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/251923-total-lunar-eclipse-september-28th/

And:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/253041-lunar-eclipse-sept-27-should-be-a-dandy/

As well as more to look over in the Lunar Observing forum:

http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/30-observing-lunar/

So all this should help you find your way around!

Have fun and see you around -

Dave

[AlentejoSkies]

Thank you Dave. What I understood now from the threads you linked is that there will be enough to see with "just" the moon and I don't really need a list of other distractions for the night.

[AlentejoSkies]

Any of those other folks from Portugal listening? Would be great to find out it anyone is close by. I would love to see what other folks see through their setups.