Tonight's brief obs

[Nathan UK]

I upgraded me telescope before I'd even really used the first one,tonight I gave the kid across my street my celestron power seeker 114 eq in the hopes he would get some joy out of it (he was literally over the moon)

went back over to align his red dot finder and show him the basics on how to use it....

first observation was the moon...

Beautiful as always!!!!

then lightly lower to the right and BANG!!!!!! 

Venus and one of its moons (don't know how many it has?)

Venus was a glowing blob with a moon to its right 

which I thought was truly amazing!

venus was pea size and it's moon was the size of a silicone ball you get in a packet with new shoes 

we used a 20mm EP which gave x45 and we then used a x3 Barlow lense....

the young boy was amazed

(I think he's a astronomer for life)

and this being my first time actually viewing a planet has gave me 1000 times more enthusiasm!!!!

unfortunatly I couldn't stay out long as I need to take old toys and stuff to the loft :-(

but tomorrow armed with my new scope I shal be observing the moon and the three planets around it with more time for my eyes to adjust and more time to appreciate the amazing beauty of them

nathan 

[Stu]

Great stuff. Very generous of you to give the old scope away, seems like you have started a new astronomy career. For your neighbour

Venus doesn't have any moons though so I guess it was either a reflection or a background star?

Keep enjoying it, lovely night out there

[Nathan UK]

On 02/01/2017 at 18:45, Stu said:

Great stuff. Very generous of you to give the old scope away, seems like you have started a new astronomy career. For your neighbour

Venus doesn't have any moons though so I guess it was either a reflection or a background star?

Keep enjoying it, lovely night out there

Since reading your reply and doing a Google search I believe my so called moon was a asteroid haha it wasn't a reflection or a background star it wasn't even bright hahaha

(it looked like a asteroid!!!)

being the novice I am I guessed it was a moon haha

and I was looking to give it away (to some one I believe would use it)

i offered it out on here but my post was removed by site mods then it clicked.... The kid across the road was asking me could he have a look through the scope when he saw me aligning the finder scope in the day time 

[Stu]

10 minutes ago, Nathan UK said:

Since reading your reply and doing a Google search I believe my so called moon was a asteroid haha it wasn't a reflection or a background star it wasn't even bright hahaha

(it looked like a asteroid!!!)

being the novice I am I guessed it was a moon haha

and I was looking to give it away (to some one I believe would use it)

i offered it out on here but my post was removed by site mods then it clicked.... The kid across the road was asking me could he have a look through the scope when he saw me aligning the finder scope in the day time 

Not an asteroid either I'm afraid, non around that area bright enough. There is a mag 4.3 star within a degree which I'm sure would have been what you saw.

[niallk]

Great report Nathan - great to get a youngster enthused 

[Nathan UK]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

Not an asteroid either I'm afraid, non around that area bright enough. There is a mag 4.3 star within a degree which I'm sure would have been what you saw.

I'm confused haha it just didn't look like a star nor a reflection haha

[Nathan UK]

2 minutes ago, niallk said:

Great report Nathan - great to get a youngster enthused 

Thank you very much mate

[rockystar]

1 hour ago, Nathan UK said:

I'm confused haha it just didn't look like a star nor a reflection haha

those dim stars can look like moons - I've confused them when looking at saturn. Nice of you ti give your scope away, I hope he enjoys it

 

[Nathan UK]

8 minutes ago, rockystar said:

those dim stars can look like moons - I've confused them when looking at saturn. Nice of you ti give your scope away, I hope he enjoys it

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one confusing dim stars for moons haha

im sure he will enjoy it he was buzzing

thanks for your message mate

[alan potts]

What a nice thing to do, lets hope he sticks with astronomy as he grows, I know I did though I was a bit older.

Alan

[Nathan UK]

4 minutes ago, alan potts said:

What a nice thing to do, lets hope he sticks with astronomy as he grows, I know I did though I was a bit older.

Alan

I actually think he will mate he's knocked on my door at 8am asking is the sky going to be clear tonight haha

[alanjgreen]

Happy new year Nathan. Kindness usually comes back so now you are in credit.

 

[Nathan UK]

5 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

Happy new year Nathan. Kindness usually comes back so now you are in credit.

 

thanks mate happy new year

[Astro Imp]

What a lovely post. I hope the two of you have many enjoyable nights.

Good luck.

[Nathan UK]

13 minutes ago, Astro Imp said:

What a lovely post. I hope the two of you have many enjoyable nights.

Good luck.

Thanks for the kind words mate