Who's observing tonight???

[Nathan UK]

Hey everyone was wondering which of you fine people plan on observing tonight???

what are your intended targets?

its beautiful clear sky's in Liverpool 

i wish I could of gone out earlier to view Mars,Venus and Neptune but I'm not leaving the house till roughly around 12am

going to head up to a local field to remove a little light pollution,

give me more sky access and a little bit of quiet time.

I'm going to see if I can catch Uranus before it passes for the night

jupiter after it starts rising from around 1:30am and I want to try and get a good view of the andromeda and Orion Nebula .

hopefully I'm going to have a productive night

fingers crossed for failing in style haha 

yea I'm going to be wearing my thermals and taking my flask,

my new EP's are arriving tomorrow as well ????

with a bit of luck also my iPhone adapter for some amature iPhone Astro photography to share with you bunch.

nathan 

[wookie1965]

I would love to but a fellow SGLer is fixing my mount at the moment.

[Nathan UK]

6 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I would love to but a fellow SGLer is fixing my mount at the moment.

Unlucky buddy atleast is going to be mended for you soon ?

[Nathan UK]

7 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I would love to but a fellow SGLer is fixing my mount at the moment.

I see your from my neck of the woods also mate , good stuff! 

Mate you a member of LAS? I'm going to be going to there thing in the park on the 13th to check it out

[wookie1965]

I was a member of LAS really good club but I have had some health problems and not been able to get up there, If I get my mount back I may turn up Just bought a Marine battery and leads to use out and about.

[bejay1957]

Against expectations I can get the binocs out, the cloud is now clearing

[Nathan UK]

13 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I was a member of LAS really good club but I have had some health problems and not been able to get up there, If I get my mount back I may turn up Just bought a Marine battery and leads to use out and about.

I feel for you with the health problems....

i have a few issues myself,

mainly M.E/CFS which gives me ok months and some terrible months , 

on my terrible months can't even go the shop, ok months I can do a fair bit some days were as others I will be exhausted with minimal activity, hope you feel upto it soon mate.

what kind of scope do you have?

what kind of mount is being mended?

[Nathan UK]

7 minutes ago, bejay1957 said:

Against expectations I can get the binocs out, the cloud is now clearing

Get out there mate,

considering purchasing a good pair of binos also.

considering getting my scope out in a minute

[wookie1965]

I have some cheap bino`s not that good but I can see the moons of Jupiter with them and some clusters, get your scope out you never know when your going to get clear skies enjoy it why it is. What scope have you got.

[Woolnut]

I'm thinking about it... Doesn't seem overly clear unfortunately so i will give it a an hour or so before making the call! I hear it is going to be extremely cold tonight (-4/-5 potentially) so unless it is nice and clear i think i will give tonight a miss  

For those who are... Happy viewing!  

[Nathan UK]

2 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I have some cheap bino`s not that good but I can see the moons of Jupiter with them and some clusters, get your scope out you never know when your going to get clear skies enjoy it why it is. What scope have you got.

I'm definitely having a session tonight like at some point in the next hour or two,

my scopes nothing special compared to some but I'm rather impressed with it at the moment 

I have the sky watcher explorer 130p/650 f5 scope with a eq2 mount....

it came with a 10mm and 25mm eye pieces but I have a 32mm and a 4mm being delivered tomorrow and also a iPhone holder/adapter on route to take a few snaps

[wookie1965]

3 minutes ago, Woolnut said:

I'm thinking about it... Doesn't seem overly clear unfortunately so i will give it a an hour or so before making the call! I hear it is going to be extremely cold tonight (-4/-5 potentially) so unless it is nice and clear i think i will give tonight a miss  

For those who are... Happy viewing!  

Have you put sand in the legs of the mount I did when I had it makes it a lot more stable (play sand) its finer and tap the legs as you do it to compact it better.

[Nathan UK]

5 minutes ago, Woolnut said:

I'm thinking about it... Doesn't seem overly clear unfortunately so i will give it a an hour or so before making the call! I hear it is going to be extremely cold tonight (-4/-5 potentially) so unless it is nice and clear i think i will give tonight a miss  

For those who are... Happy viewing!  

Hope it clears up for you mate

[wookie1965]

Just now, Nathan UK said:

I'm definitely having a session tonight like at some point in the next hour or two,

my scopes nothing special compared to some but I'm rather impressed with it at the moment 

I have the sky watcher explorer 130p/650 f5 scope with a eq2 mount....

it came with a 10mm and 25mm eye pieces but I have a 32mm and a 4mm being delivered tomorrow and also a iPhone holder/adapter on route to take a few snaps

The 4mm might be a bit to much high power its a decent scope If you can hang a weight from the middle of the mount get more stability, I have 6 BST Starguiders  they are great eyepieces for the price 15mm is excellent.

[Nathan UK]

Just now, wookie1965 said:

The 4mm might be a bit to much high power its a decent scope If you can hang a weight from the middle of the mount get more stability, I have 6 BST Starguiders  they are great eyepieces for the price 15mm is excellent.

The scope should be ok with the 4mm in ideal conditions I was hoping....

that gives me x162.5 and its apperture is 130 (I only want the high mag for the just incase I need it type thing)

surprisingly my mount is solid!!

ive heard someone say there's was flimsy I don't know if they have upgraded it or not???

but on saying that I haven't really used it in strong wind so I may put a dumbbell weight on the accessories tray to see if that helps 

[wookie1965]

I have a 5mm giving me x200 but I rarely use it maybe for splitting tight doubles or Planetary have a read of this good information will help If you want more eyepieces

  https://www.astronomics.com/eyepiece-highest-useful-magnification_t.aspx

[Nathan UK]

3 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

I have a 5mm giving me x200 but I rarely use it maybe for splitting tight doubles or Planetary have a read of this good information will help If you want more eyepieces

  https://www.astronomics.com/eyepiece-highest-useful-magnification_t.aspx

Yeah that's basically all i want it for (planetary under right conditions and the moon)

ive read about people with my scope pushing x180 to x200 under good conditions and getting pleasant views but I wouldn't want to swap mag for detail that's why I chose the 4mm over getting a 6mm and a x2 Barlow.

being a short focal length it's harder to get the higher mag but I chose the scope because you can push it a little and a wide fov is good for nebula ect. 

I will have a read of that later mate although I ain't buying more EP's now I'm going to keep the 4 I have and my iPhone adapter until I grow out of the scope and go for something along the 10-12inch dob  sort of thing so I'm putting a spending cap on the 130p

and will also let you know how I get on with my obs 

nathan 

[wookie1965]

2 minutes ago, Nathan UK said:

Yeah that's basically all i want it for (planetary under right conditions and the moon)

ive read about people with my scope pushing x180 to x200 under good conditions and getting pleasant views but I wouldn't want to swap mag for detail that's why I chose the 4mm over getting a 6mm and a x2 Barlow.

being a short focal length it's harder to get the higher mag but I chose the scope because you can push it a little and a wide fov is good for nebula ect. 

I will have a read of that later mate although I ain't buying more EP's now I'm going to keep the 4 I have and my iPhone adapter until I grow out of the scope and go for something along the 10-12inch dob  sort of thing so I'm putting a spending cap on the 130p

and will also let you know how I get on with my obs 

nathan 

Brilliant those BST'S and Celestron X-Cels are very good in fast scopes I had the Skywatcher 150p (f5) and now got the 200p(f5). Yes let me know how you get on I always like to read other people's viewing reports. 

[Nathan UK]

Will do mate catch you later with my report✌️

[Gary170782]

Hi Nathan

 

I've just spotted the andromeda galaxy for the first time -  well I think it was that,very murky grey and blurry but was in the right neighbourhood.

 

Only had a few visits out and I'm very new to this so it's amazing just going in the garden and scrolling across the sky to whatever I fancy . next stop Neptune if it's still about.

 

Gary

[Nathan UK]

36 minutes ago, Gary170782 said:

Hi Nathan

 

I've just spotted the andromeda galaxy for the first time -  well I think it was that,very murky grey and blurry but was in the right neighbourhood.

 

Only had a few visits out and I'm very new to this so it's amazing just going in the garden and scrolling across the sky to whatever I fancy . next stop Neptune if it's still about.

 

Gary

Good stuff ga....yeah the andromeda is just a blur in most scopes , I wasn't even sure I had seen it when I viewed it for the first time the other day until someone told me that's how I would see it,

ive just viewed Venus with my scope out the bed room window before it passes for the night

very bright it is...

im just getting ready now to go out observing and I'm new to astronomy also , have fun mate

[Nathan UK]

Chuffed to let you know I've added the Orion Nebula to my list

straight off the bat I spotted the constellation Orion with my naked eye...

aimed my red dot finder at the central star on Orion's Belt then down a touch and there she was !

In my scope she was one bright central glow with a couple of pin pricks around her and a kind of fuzzy misty glow....

I'm well buzzing!!!

cant wait to start taking pictures in the next few days when my iPhone adapter comes....

next observing Jupiter in the early hours 

Nathan 

[johnfosteruk]

Good work Nathan, O-Neb is a beauty, next time try making a sketch, you'll be surprised at the extra detail you'll see.

No observing for me tonight thanks to clouds, but did get a 10 minute smash and grab imaging the moon just now, images processing as we speak. That'll do

 

[Nathan UK]

13 minutes ago, johnfosteruk said:

Good work Nathan, O-Neb is a beauty, next time try making a sketch, you'll be surprised at the extra detail you'll see.

No observing for me tonight thanks to clouds, but did get a 10 minute smash and grab imaging the moon just now, images processing as we speak. That'll do

 

Thanks John , your right mate she is a beauty!!! The sky in Liverpool is amazing tonight, you will get your turn buddy!! When I stack a few images with the iPhone app will that bring out some colour???

i couldn't help thinking I could of added more mag to the Orion Nebula , 

I was at  X 26 firstly then x 65 

im using a f5 scope with 58degree EP's

[johnfosteruk]

I don't think you'd want to increase magnification with the 4mm/F5. That would give you 163x which as you can see from the green circle in the attached FOV doesn't give you a view of the whole object, although the running man next door would almost fit in the view.

However increasing to 90x with your 10mm in the 114 would give you the main area of interest, however the reduced aperture would mean less detail resolved.

I say stick with 26x and try to take in the full majesty of our nearest massive star forming region.