First view of Pleiades

[Adamchiv]

Hi everyone, had a lovely clear night here and some great views.

After finally locating pleiades amongst all the light pollution I got it in the finder scope and without expecting much looked through the 25mm eyepiece. Wow! Simply stunning, 5 dimly lit stars in the shape of a lollipop turned into about 50 pin sharp stars all in the field of view. I was quite amazed as I really didnt think it would be that stunning. The different magnitudes of each of the stars makes it truly stunning considering I only had to walk outside with a telescope. 

So that was a great start!

Then the full moon creeped round the house in the west with jupiter as its buddy and that was spectacular through the same 25mm eyepiece. So much surface detail and cratery around the edge for such a wide field view of an object 200000 miles away.

Then on to Jupiter, this time with the 10mm EP and got some very sharp views of the bands again. My eyes are more trained to it and its better every time. The cheap barlow produced 1 or 2 seconds of excellence but in truth it wasnt up to much. 

Pleiades was the highlight of the evening though, such an amazing deep space target that doesnt require much in terms of good conditions. 

I tried to find the andromeda galaxy, I could see orangy Mirach very clearly again tonight, I managed (after lots of time spent adjusting my eyes) to make out a feint light next to it. I dont know if it was actually m31or one of the pointer stars? After slewing around with the 25mm EP I saw a fair few stars in the area, and couldnt really pinpoint the galaxy at all. Much harder than I anticipated. Also I got confused with orientation of the wide field image, I think if m31 was upper right from mirach with the naked eye it would be lower left in the eyepiece but I wasnt quite sure. Any help with that would be appreciated. 

Another great evening under the stars, lovely crisp cold night and well worth it! 

Adam

As I walked back inside I did a quick snap of Jupiter next to the moon. It was a nice sight seeing the 2 brightest objects in the sky tonight standing side by side. (Please ignore the massive ufo to the lower left of jupiter, pesky aliens)

[AWR]

The Pleiades are brilliant aren't they!

From my light polluted skies (I'm going to assume that your Manchester views are no darker than my London ones) I can make out the central core of Andromeda but none of the extended outer region of the galaxy but that's in my 11" scope!  I never could see it in my 5" Mak and I always found it hard to find in my dob (except when I traveled to a dark site and then it was easy).

If you can identify µ Andromeda, then M31 is about the same distance again from Mirach.

Andrew

 

[Adamchiv]

5 minutes ago, AWR said:

The Pleiades are brilliant aren't they!

From my light polluted skies (I'm going to assume that your Manchester views are no darker than my London ones) I can make out the central core of Andromeda but none of the extended outer region of the galaxy but that's in my 11" scope!  I never could see it in my 5" Mak and I always found it hard to find in my dob (except when I traveled to a dark site and then it was easy).

If you can identify µ Andromeda, then M31 is about the same distance again from Mirach.

Andrew

 

Hi Andrew, problem I had was to the naked eye, Mirach was completely alone. Only when looking in the EP could I see anything near it, but there was a fair few stars near it and ųAnd was needle in a haystack stuff for me at this point lol. Will try again soon! But as for dark sky sites, cant wait, the galaxies will be my main goal!

Adam

Ps. I did notice a bright star in the 25mm EP that didnt look all that round, I thought it was focus. May have been it? 

[AWR]

Do you have a finder scope?

When I started my Mak came with a (terrible) red-dot finder.  My skies were bright and it was of no use finding guide stars.  Among my first upgrades were a Rigel Quikfinder and a 9x50 finderscope.  The Quikfinder got me in the rough area (eg Mirach in this example) but it was the 9x50 which enabled me to find the guide stars (as shown in Turn Left at Orion).

Now I'm spoilt with GOTO.

Andrew

[Adamchiv]

9 minutes ago, AWR said:

Do you have a finder scope?

When I started my Mak came with a (terrible) red-dot finder.  My skies were bright and it was of no use finding guide stars.  Among my first upgrades were a Rigel Quikfinder and a 9x50 finderscope.  The Quikfinder got me in the rough area (eg Mirach in this example) but it was the 9x50 which enabled me to find the guide stars (as shown in Turn Left at Orion).

Now I'm spoilt with GOTO.

Andrew

Yeah that was the problem actually, I could just make out the feintest of stars next to mirach, im fairly sure it was one of the 2 guide stars. But looking through my red dot finder scope was useless as it was impossible to find this star. I dont mind the red dot finder scope for most things but in this case an upgrade is certainly going to help. Thanks for the info

Adam

[Dave In Vermont]

Not bad light-pollution here in my green-thinking town. I can make out 6 of the Pleiades naked-eye. I use my little ST80 for these, and was planning to use my new binoculars. But it was the last time I was to see them - solid clouds ever since! Except the other night. It was a toasty, warm 5°F. though.

M45 is one of my favorites, be it with just my eyes or a 12" LX90. Simply beautiful!

Enjoy!

Dave

<Get Involved>

http://darksky.org/

[Astro Imp]

You will do much better with M31 and other DSOs when the moon isn't washing out the sky.

Good luck and enjoy.

[Piero]

Nice report! The Pleiades are a stunning target! If you have a chance, have a look at the Alpha Persei Moving Cluster (the cluster around Alpha Persei (Mirphak)). Hyades in Taurus is another one worth being observed!

 Piero

[laudropb]

Very enjoyable report. The Pleiades is a wonderful sight. If you have bins try locating M31 with them. It will give you a good idea of its position relative to Mirach

[Adamchiv]

2 hours ago, Piero said:

Nice report! The Pleiades are a stunning target! If you have a chance, have a look at the Alpha Persei Moving Cluster (the cluster around Alpha Persei (Mirphak)). Hyades in Taurus is another one worth being observed!

 Piero

Thanks for the tip piero, I will make those my next targets and let you know how I get on!

Adam

[Adamchiv]

35 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Very enjoyable report. The Pleiades is a wonderful sight. If you have bins try locating M31 with them. It will give you a good idea of its position relative to Mirach

Thats great advice, I didnt think of that, I was gona take my binoculars out last night aswell but changed my mind. 

Great tip thanks

[baggywrinkle]

At this time of the year I love to see the Pleiades plus the Orion Nebula, two of my favourite targets. Never been disappointed.

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

On my return to Astronomy, after a 35+ year hiatus, in 2012,one of my first views through my then newly acquired Celestron Skymaster 15x70   Bins mounted on an ultra cheapo Photo-tripod were the Pleaides.

Needless to say,they blew me away!

A month later,I purchased my Skywatcher 130p.

[Adamchiv]

2 hours ago, MAN or ASTROMAN said:

On my return to Astronomy, after a 35+ year hiatus, in 2012,one of my first views through my then newly acquired Celestron Skymaster 15x70   Bins mounted on an ultra cheapo Photo-tripod were the Pleaides.

Needless to say,they blew me away!

A month later,I purchased my Skywatcher 130p.

Its a stunning sight isnt it, even through all the light pollution where the pleiades takes a while to even locate its quite amazing. Glad you got back into it, a very rewarding hobby and its above you every single night

[Special K]

Very nice report!M45 is quite simply stunning, and I'm thinking the 25mm you were using might give the widest field of view in your scope. Pleiades like a nice wide frame and the effect of their exceptional brightness is increased if you can frame them all against a black backgoround. No matter what scope I use I always find it most satisfying to drop the mag as low as possible.