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First proper session finally in although short


jjosefsen

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Two weeks since I got my scope - apart from brief glimpses of the moon which really impressed, the weather had been against me - wind, rain, hail and wall to wall cloudcover.

So last night while making supper I spotted Venus and Mars out the window, slightly above and to the right of the really annoying, bright streetlight in my front yard.

Quickly threw it in the oven, pleaded the mrs. to watch our son, and dragged the scope outside for a quick peek. The wind was gusting pretty good and that damn streetlamp was shining almost straight down the scope, and it was blinding me. Not good conditions!

I put my 25mm UWA EP and ligned Venus in the finder, the milky white disc was clearly visible, so I upped the magnification to 150x and looked at the slightly larger disc, I was looking at another planet!! :D I switched to Mars, same procedure - Startede small and went up to 150x, it was so small and the wind was shaking the scope a lot, so couldn't really see much, still it was cool though!

I decided to leave the scope out, as there were some big clear patches of sky inbetween all the thick clouds.

 

After dinner I went out and checked the sky, huge clear patch of skies overhead and towards the south and west, time to finally get a good viewing of something other than the Moon!

My bag was already packed (it has been for a week and a half now!) so I grabbed some warm clothes and the scope and walked the 7-10 minutes from my house to the nearby hill I had selected as my closest decent site (on the outksirts of town). Instead of going all the way to the top, i stopped 3/4 of the way up. where there was a clearing in the trees, a small bench and I could hide from the Moon behind some trees. I could clearly see the milkyway across the sky, so beautiful..!

The target was Orion, more specifically The Great Orion Nebubla. I got a pretty good polar alignment I think, in the first go and i started by finding the nebula on the finder scope, was very easy as I could see the light fuzz naked eyed. 25mm UWA again, and could instantly see a dark, greenish cloud around a bright core. I was to say the least excited!

I screwed in my SW UHC filter and *POP* suddenly I could see more structure, although it was harder to see the green hue, and i swear there were sort of darkish tentacles (for lack of a better word) reaching out from the center of the nebula. I tried the 2x barlow in front of the filter and the 25mm EP and I could see more detail in the nebula, what a wow moment!

After having gazed at that for a good while, and playing with the magnification (I only have 2 EP's and a barlow) and seeing the trapezium, I think I saw 6 stars, does that sound right? I switched to Sigma Orionis and could split the double or tripple or what ever that system is, it was a lot of fun! Aaaand thats when the clouds rolled in..

I stayed out for another half hour drinking hot chocolate and hoping for another hole in the clouds, but it would not come. Still a very good first session I think, and tonight im going out again, not a cloud in sight and the wind has died down. Im super excited about the site im going to tonight, its about a 10-15 minute drive, followed by another 5 - 10 minute walk. It's a very small hilltop (dune really) with a wooden observation deck, bench and table and I don't think there is a man made light in sight! Its pretty much directly in between the two main towns on this little island.

 

//Clear skies from a very excited newbie!

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Firstly hello.
An ethusiastic newbie turns into an enthusiastic oldie soon enough, just keep that enthusiasm going.

A good first session with a new scope is always good, the first ever session, however short is always a great memory.
Sounds as if you had a lucky break in the weather.

The move to a darker site was most sensible, street light or other lights can ruin observing, something I know well from my garden.

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8 minutes ago, rockystar said:

Excellent, sounds good. Good work on getting 6 stars of the Trap, best I've managed is 5.

You should be able to get 4 stars of Sigma Orionis - pretty much in a line - and there is also another triple system in the same FOV :)

 

Yeah I'm not 100% sure if it really was what I got,  but it looked like it from the drawing in "Turn left at orion". Also think I got the 4 in Sigma Orionis. So much uncertainty right now. :)

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One of my scopes is the Orion Astroview 6, analogous to the Skywatcher Explorer 150P. I love it! Feels like I'm spacewalking, especially with my Orion Expanse eyepiece kit. It has 6/9/15/20mm EPs with a generous 60 degree field of view. I also have a fabulous Meade Series 4000 8-24mm zoom EP that needs little refocusing. 

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I enjoyed reading your first light report, exciting isn't it.

Here is graphic of the Trapezium courtesy of John of this parish.

TRAPDIAG2.gif.d30921f8cafa55a4a92e582743427ba5.gif

HTH

Clear skies and keep having fun.

BTW until recently I had the same set up as you, you will see some amazing sites.

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On 15/01/2017 at 15:22, jjosefsen said:

Skywatcher Explorer 150p on Eq3-2,  sadly only the supplied EPs and Barlow. For now!! :D

That`s what I started with brilliant scope, put play sand in the mounts legs will help with stability keep tapping the legs as you pour it in to get it at compacted as possible.

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Nice report there. Not much chance of me getting out due to masses of snow, it is still falling and that is around 3 feet we have had so far this year. I have seen all 6 stars in the trapizium but there are more but they may be beyond even my 18 inch scope, but I will try again after the melt.

Alan

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