Just done my first observing session with my new scope

[BeerMe]

Took the scope out to my light polluted back garden for a quick look while the skies were clear.  Made the schoolboy error of not aligning the RDF during the day so I could only use it to get in the general direction of targets.

Started off trying to locate Jupiter using the supplied 25mm EP but the first few times we thought we had located it, it turned out to be stars...the defocusing showed the collimation to be spot on, with lovely concentric rings which my wife thought looked wonderful!  Having no luck with Jupiter for now, we wandered over to Casseiopiea which was very pronounced with its W shape.  The wife spent a good 10 minutes wandering around the area, marvelling at what she was seeing.  She was hooked by this point already, and we hadn't seen anything special yet!

We retired to our darkened house to heat up for 10 minutes, then my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try for Jupiter again.  I set the scope in the general area again and got out the 25mm.  Made some small movements around the area until suddenly a bright light flashed across the view.  Backed up a lil and there it was....much brighter than all of the surrounding stars and slightly out of focus.  Centred it in the view then quickly changed to the supplied 10mm.  There it was, out of focus slightly and drifting towards the centre of the view. A little adjustment with the focus, and immediately 3 small points of light came in to focus around the planet...1 on the left and 2 on the right very close to each other...Jupiter's moons!!  What an amazing feeling to see it so clearly!  Concentrating a little harder, first 2 and then 4 (?) bands came in to view on the planet, although they were very difficult to see for more than a few seconds at a time.  Those glimpses though were more than enough. 

Shouted on the missus who came out for a look and she was just completely awestruck.  Immediately she said she wished she had agreed with my idea earlier in the day to go to a dark site.  I was just happy to have got her hooked so easily - she was adamant it wasn't something she could get in to haha.  My stepson, who also has little to no interest in astronomy, came out with his girlfriend for a look too and the oohs, aahs and wows told their own story.

Left on my lonesome again, I turned to the plough and pointed in the general direction of M101 as it seems to be one of the easiest to locate, however the misaligned RDF was doing me no favours at all and after 15 minutes scanning the general area with no success, I decided to retire to the warmth of the house for the night, ecstatic with my first foray in to proper stargazing.

All in all, it was a brilliant first time out with my new scope which, I'm happy to report, seems to be working perfectly and is collimated well.  Getting the wife hooked so easily was a big bonus as I want her to enjoy it as much as I do.  It will make it easier to justify future spending lol.

Priority now is to get that RDF aligned tomorrow, ready for another assault on the skies tomorrow night, clear skies permitting.

Thanks everyone for all the amazing help you've gave me since I joined.  Everything I've learned so far came together well tonight

[John]

Sounds like a great 1st session !

Just a tip - M101 can be a real so-and-so to find. It's big and it's surface brightness is pretty low making it tougher than you might think. My tip for the 1st galaxies to try and find are M81 and M82, also in Ursa Major. In a low power eyepiece you can see both galaxies at once so it's a "2 for 1" deal !.

 

[brantuk]

Great first light report - I could feel your excitement reading through. All you need to do is get the finder aligned during the day time and you'll be cooking on gas by night lol. Congrats

[BeerMe]

51 minutes ago, John said:

Sounds like a great 1st session !

Just a tip - M101 can be a real so-and-so to find. It's big and it's surface brightness is pretty low making it tougher than you might think. My tip for the 1st galaxies to try and find are M81 and M82, also in Ursa Major. In a low power eyepiece you can see both galaxies at once so it's a "2 for 1" deal !.

 

Thanks John, I'll switch attention to them next time I'm hunting galaxies

28 minutes ago, brantuk said:

Great first light report - I could feel your excitement reading through. All you need to do is get the finder aligned during the day time and you'll be cooking on gas by night lol. Congrats

Cheers brantuk, it was an amazing experience and much better than I expected for my first attempt.  With a properly aligned RDF, I know I'll have greater success at locating things.  To be honest, I could have spent hours tracking Jupiter alone...every time I got a clear view of the bands it just upped the excitement levels another notch.

My only regret is that I didn't have a 2x Barlow to try for a closeup.  65x from the 10mm was good but im sure the scope could have handled 130x no problem, although tracking would have been a real challenge.  That or maybe a good 6mm is gonna be my first investment I think

[brantuk]

Well your highest practical power is 260x so yes - 130x will be no problem - I dare say a 4mm eyepiece taking it to 162.5x would be no problem either. But at f-5 you'll need good quality glass in the eyepiece - a 4mm TV Radian would be good with a 60^o fov and long eye relief - they are discontinued unfortunately so check out the used market on UK Astro Buy/Sell website.  Or a good quality barlow might work with your current  eyepieces. If you were blown away with Jupiter - wait till you see Saturn - quite the most beautiful sight I have ever seen.

[Joe12345]

 

I never align in the day, even when it's really far out. I point my scope at a bright star, then adjust the finder onto that star. Great first light report and good to hear you were impressed!

[Linda]

Hi.

My scope is about the same aperture as yours. On Jupiter I use from a 15mm eyepiece (100x) at bad seeing, to my 8mm (187x) with good seeing.

I don't think you don't need to be in a dark place to watch planets.

I have looked for M101 at home many times, without being able to see it. In a dark place, it's easy.

Try to find M44. That is an easy and nice object and shows many stars. Last time, early morning, I saw M5. That is a very bright globular and easy to find. If objects are difficult to find, you could use binoculars first, to get the direction.

Next time you visit Cassiopeia, take a look at the double cluster between CAS and Perseus.

[ngwillym]

A great start.

 

and just wait until they all see Saturn

[laudropb]

Very nice report and a very good start. The seeing in our area was not very good last night. You will have noticed the bands of Jupiter coming and going. When the skies are steadier you will get better views. As for light polluted skies, going to a darker site is the only real solution. However, you can take a few simple steps to get some improvement. Try to cut out some of the light by wearing a hoody or better still put a towel over your head and over the eye piece. Looks silly, but it does work. A light pollution filter does help with the orange sky glow.

I am glad you have finally got started on your journey through the night sky. Patience and lots of practice will soon have you well down that path.

[Floater]

11 hours ago, BeerMe said:

...the defocusing showed the collimation to be spot on, with lovely concentric rings which my wife thought looked wonderful!

Thanks everyone for all the amazing help you've gave me since I joined.  Everything I've learned so far came together well tonight

Excellent! So glad that your first session was free of any frustration. (That will come later ?) All your worry over collimation was misplaced, as several of us suggested it might be. And by the way, that defocusing and checking the airy disc is the ultimate way to collimate your scope. You can faff around with fancy - and even fancier - tools but that airy disc will tell you no lies.

Slightly envious that your 'missus' is hooked too, and so quickly - my good lady is only slightly interested at best.

One last piece of received wisdom - do not rush into buying EPs, Barlows or any other additions until you've had a fair few sessions with the kit you already have. As Brantuk points out your scope at f5 may be hard on EPs of lesser quality (I stayed away from saying that in my reply to your earlier post 'cos you seemed to be worried enough already ...!). So take your time before making a choice/choices.

However, be warned, if you ask a question on SGL about 'which eyepiece'?', be prepared to be inundated with answers of all kinds! Just search through some of the historic threads on the site and you'll get an idea of what I mean.

As I wrote earlier - have fun. That's what it's all about for most amateur astronomers.

Clear Skies.

[Astro Imp]

WOW, what a great report, its always heartening to hear of a new comer getting so much enjoyment from their first experience with their own scope.

BTW, you missed a trick, when you had Jupiter in view you could then have aligned your finder to help with the rest of the session.

A real cool little program for indentifying the moons of Jupiter together with transit times and appearances of the Great Red Spot is Jupiter2:- http://www.astrosurf.com/rondi/jupiter/

Have fun and keep posting your experiences.

[BeerMe]

On 07/04/2016 at 11:34, Floater said:

Excellent! So glad that your first session was free of any frustration. (That will come later ?) All your worry over collimation was misplaced, as several of us suggested it might be. And by the way, that defocusing and checking the airy disc is the ultimate way to collimate your scope. You can faff around with fancy - and even fancier - tools but that airy disc will tell you no lies.

Slightly envious that your 'missus' is hooked too, and so quickly - my good lady is only slightly interested at best.

One last piece of received wisdom - do not rush into buying EPs, Barlows or any other additions until you've had a fair few sessions with the kit you already have. As Brantuk points out your scope at f5 may be hard on EPs of lesser quality (I stayed away from saying that in my reply to your earlier post 'cos you seemed to be worried enough already ...!). So take your time before making a choice/choices.

However, be warned, if you ask a question on SGL about 'which eyepiece'?', be prepared to be inundated with answers of all kinds! Just search through some of the historic threads on the site and you'll get an idea of what I mean.

As I wrote earlier - have fun. That's what it's all about for most amateur astronomers.

Clear Skies.

Thanks Floater   It will be a little while before I can invest in some more gear so I'm just spending my time looking around different sites for an idea of what is out there.  At the moment, I'm leaning more towards a good 7mm and Barlow for better planetary viewing however I'm in no doubt that may change once I get to see some DSOs  (galaxies especially) as they have always been my personal "must see".

Whatever I decide, I know where the best info is kept when the time comes

On 07/04/2016 at 15:48, Astro Imp said:

WOW, what a great report, its always heartening to hear of a new comer getting so much enjoyment from their first experience with their own scope.

BTW, you missed a trick, when you had Jupiter in view you could then have aligned your finder to help with the rest of the session.

A real cool little program for indentifying the moons of Jupiter together with transit times and appearances of the Great Red Spot is Jupiter2:- http://www.astrosurf.com/rondi/jupiter/

Have fun and keep posting your experiences.

Thanks Astro Imp, it was enjoyable writing it up and reliving it.  Re the RDF, yeah I realised that at the time but I was loathe to touch the scope while I had it in my sights and risk losing it again lol.

I managed to align it during the day yesterday, and was able to get a quick go to test it when I got home from work last night before the clouds rolled in.  Jupiter was still just visible and within 2-3 minutes of getting home, I had the scope in the garden on my makeshift stand and had Jupiter centered in the RDF.  No time to let the scope cool down or anything, I popped in the 25mm EP and peered in - Jupiter and its moons were framed perfectly!  Put in the 10mm and my son's friend,  who had been excited for a try all day after what we had seen the night before, got a good view before the thicker clouds came in to obscure the moons completely and turn the planet in to a ghostly white orb.

I just love this scope.   Now I have it all set up, I can see why people refer to is a " grab n go" - even without allowing for cooling we got a good enough view to have my son's friend as gobsmacked as we were the night before

[brantuk]

Yes - just cos a scope isn't yet cooled, doesn't mean you can't use it. It just means the longer you use it the better the view will become as it reaches ambient temperature.

[Jimtheslim]

Reading this makes me a little jealous. I was pretty blown away by the sight of Jupiter when I got my 90mm refractor last year. The wife did have a quick look (about 2 seconds) and just said 'hmm mm' before returning indoors. My father-in-law once had a look through at Jupiter and said 'so what am I looking at? It's now gone' before doing the same. My mother-in-law actually refused to look through the eyepiece once despite being stood right next to me one evening when Saturn was looking fantastic!

My own father is very interested, but lives over 300 miles away and whilst he enjoys reading books on astronomy, for some reason he's not interested in buying a scope or visiting a local club to have a look.

I now have a 10" dob and if I was impressed before I am obsessed now. If I ever get the wife to look through the eyepiece again I'll let you know.