Do you ever end up wishing you hadn't made the effort?

[Pete Presland]

There can not be many astronomers who don't get a night to forget once in a while. I stopped deep sky imaging after a dreadful night trying to get the mount to track, that was a couple of years ago and I tried since. I will give it another o though this winter. I find the best way to get the most out of the clear skies we do get is like some others have said, mix up the session.

Sunday I was planning to image Uranus, I had ended with some unmemorable data of the planet by 12:30am. But I also had some pretty nice views of M57, M71, M27, M15 and of course M31. Plus quite a bit of "browsing" with the Binoculars and many satellites and aeroplanes 

 

[JOC]

7 hours ago, Mognet said:

Auriga is rising in the north east at the moment, clearing the horizon around 8pm, and directly above Gemini at midnight. It looks like a distorted pentagon, and is easy enough to find. There is a very bright star at the top of it too, which is Capella. You might find that using Capella combined with Vega is better for alignment than Altair

A distorted pentagon - got it, I'll certainly have a look.  I'd like to be happy with Capella - its a well known star and was one of the locations in Anne McCaffreys Talent series,.  In a way a description like that is easier to understand than the zodiac descriptions.  A description of what the stars themselves look like rather than it looks like a crab or a pair of scales if you stretch the imagination and draw vastly around the edges.  Triangles, pentagons, big rectangles, lines of so many, zigzags and W's those are all far easier to comprehend imo.

It would be great to rely on Vega, but she shifts very quickly towards my tree line barrier.  I'd be OK if I took everything over and set-up in the field, but snugged in on the edge of our car parking area the trees are very high to the N behind me and extend for some distance each side.

[Chefgage]

9 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

 I also came up with a strategy of always starting and finishing with something easy that I knew I could find. Once you’ve got one target under your belt there’s less pressure on the next and always good to finish a session with an old favourite.

Thats good advice that . I am going to start doing that.

[JOC]

13 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

always good to finish a session with an old favourite.

I was doing this, but the other night I couldn't think of any favourites that were up at that time. :-(

[Littleguy80]

58 minutes ago, JOC said:

I was doing this, but the other night I couldn't think of any favourites that were up at that time. :-(

There’s always M45. So bright that you easily justt manually point the scope at it. You can count stars in the cluster or try and pick out the different colour stars. There’s something some nice orange/red stars in there. It always surprises me that you can find something new in targets you’ve several times before

[Chefgage]

2 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

There’s always M45. So bright that you easily justt manually point the scope at it. You can count stars in the cluster or try and pick out the different colour stars. There’s something some nice orange/red stars in there. It always surprises me that you can find something new in targets you’ve several times before

Thats a good idea about m45. It should be an easy target. I was out picking lettuce at 6:15 this morning (picking lettuce in the dark ) I could see M45 with a slight averted vision. Also there was a loverly earthshine on the moon as well.

[JOC]

M45 - looked it up - Pleiades - ah!  It's easy to forget that not all Messiers are FGF's (faint grey fuzzies).  I took at look at Stellarium - they are currently in the NE/East in the evening.  They are probably behind the garage at about 19:00, but at around 21:00 they should be high enough for me and in my good direction.  I didn't even consider them the other night, yet would have recognised them as I've found them on several occasions previously.  I think the last time they were in the South and SW (life would be so much easier if we didn't move!!). 

I begin to wonder if I shouldn't re-appraise where I view from.  I stick near the house for the comfort and ease of it.  However, if I relocated 150m to the middle of the field I'd have less light pollution and less trees interfering, I would still have hard standing and a power source, I could even boil a kettle for coffee. 

However, I think if I moved though I'd want all the gear constantly over there.  It's expensive kit though and I don't want it damaged.  At the moment I keep it all indoors (the OTA in the porch where it's cooler, but still essentially inside).  I think the central heating helps to keep it all dry and mould free.  I just lob it all outside several hours before I use it.  I do have secure, dry sheds on the field that I could keep it in, but they are not heated and are more subject to atmospheric conditions (and 8 legged monstrosities) than inside a house is.   Would EP's, mirrors, finderscopes, electronics (it's a goto) be OK kept in such conditions? 

[Stu]

31 minutes ago, JOC said:

Would EP's, mirrors, finderscopes, electronics (it's a goto) be OK kept in such conditions? 

Keep them in decent cases with dessicant packs in, plus put a dehumidifier in the shed and you should be fine. Better to have the kit at the right temperature for when you need it, plus in the right place!

[Chefgage]

42 minutes ago, JOC said:

 However, if I relocated 150m to the middle of the field 

How i wish i had a big enough property to be able to do that. At the monent i have restricated viewing due to the close proximety of my house. 150m away? That would put me somewhere in the pub carpark

[JOC]

26 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

How i wish i had a big enough property to be able to do that

I am lucky enough to have about 10 acres of rough grazing to play on and yet can't entice anyone to come and help/teach me to star watch.

[domstar]

A restricted view (as long as you can see the ecliptic) is not always such a bad thing. Ok, it's worse than an unrestricted view, but it does help me count the seasons as they drift across. In December, Orion comes into view after 10 and in March it's gone. Late January is an exciting time. I spent time on what's around. At the moment it's still warm enough to take a short walk and stay outside but if the moon is out I might as well stay on the balcony. On the other hand, there's so much to the north that's still a mystery. Cepheus, Draco and most of Perseus are all strange lands to me.

[JOC]

1 hour ago, Chefgage said:

150m away? That would put me somewhere in the pub

FIFY LOL

[Astro Imp]

4 hours ago, JOC said:

A distorted pentagon - got it, I'll certainly have a look.  I'd like to be happy with Capella - its a well known star and was one of the locations in Anne McCaffreys Talent series,.  In a way a description like that is easier to understand than the zodiac descriptions.  A description of what the stars themselves look like rather than it looks like a crab or a pair of scales if you stretch the imagination and draw vastly around the edges.  Triangles, pentagons, big rectangles, lines of so many, zigzags and W's those are all far easier to comprehend imo.

Have you downloaded Stellarium? I use this on the laptop, to see the constellation lines hit C and the main shapes come to life.

[Chefgage]

25 minutes ago, JOC said:

FIFY LOL

Thats better. I will just look through the pub window now

[JOC]

1 hour ago, Astro Imp said:

Have you downloaded Stellarium? I use this on the laptop, to see the constellation lines hit C and the main shapes come to life.

That's a good point I often forget to fiddle with settings - yes, just checked my mobile phone version does the same.  It does make things easier to see.  In fact having a play I've just spotted that Gemini is appearing later in the evening, but the rotten thing is on its side!  Wouldn't life be so much easier if they all kept the same way up?  It's bad enough that we rotate and they all apparently move around, but it doesn't help at all that they can't even be predicted to be the right way up!  I remember getting very cross with the plough earlier in the year when that stood up on its 'ploughshare'.  Someone needs to have words with the constellations and let them know that they don't help the newbies with this constant dancing!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Whenever i have observed Mars, i always feel dejected. Mind you, its easy enough to find when it is visible, so not much time wasted.