Happy ED80 evening

[MahlerMoonMan]

Although I've had my ED80 for a good few years, I rarely get out with it, very much to my great shame!  Over the years the chunky cumbersome equatorial mount has been a struggle for me to handle, and I've really lacked confidence with the whole set-up .... Which is a right shame as I've invested in a wide range of quality eye pieces and I've realised from numerous other reports just what a capable wee scope an ED80 actually is!! 

Well, tonight I went some way towards conquering some of my equatorial demons and had a wonderful couple of hours under the late summer night sky .... As I have the week off work this week I was able to organise and take stock of my gear, and have a bit of a practice setting up and handling the mount in daylight .... It was still a bit of a challenge in the dark, under the pressure of trying to navigate my way about the sky .... But I nevertheless managed to find my targets, mostly .... 

Firstly I simply wished to make sure that my finder and my ED80 were fairly well aligned, so I chose Vega to centre in both fields of view. That done I went on the hunt for M13, and glory be I found it!!! I didn't push the mag too high, but at x60 it filled more of the field of view than I expected .... Maybe I'll be more adventurous with magnification next time! I then viewed the double cluster in Perseus at low to moderate power and loved how both clusters glittered like diamonds!! I then moved on to The Andromeda galaxy .... Again I was amazed at how much it filled a moderate field of view .... I didn't spot the satellite galaxy but I think that I need to train my eye a bit more to register faint detail.  I tried to view Albiero and the ring nebula but had to admit defeat. I might have seen Albiero possibly, I did centre a striking colour contrast blue and orange pair of jewels but I'm sceptical, I didn't think that the pair were bright enough. 

Looking forward with a lot more confidence now to my next evening with my ED80!! 

Clear skies ?

[Alan White]

Good for you, glad you have worked you way through with your mount.

The ED scopes are rather nice, I had an ED100 and it was a most enjoyable view.

Now just for clear skies and the winter wonders and away you go.

 

[rockystar]

both components of Albireo are pretty bright - I've seen it in some small scopes under poor conditions - so you probably did have it

nice work.

[Astro Imp]

Well done you for getting out there and enjoying yourself.

What equatorial mount are you using? Maybe the good folk here can give you some pointers to ease your pain.

There is a very good guide to to star hopping by @Moonshane in the stickies at the top of this observing section. Shane uses his method for locating M57 as an example. Here's a link:- https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/197640-collimation-and-star-hopping/ 

HTH and good luck, keep us informed of your progress.