First outing as a family

[Zauriel]

This was my second outing with the hired dob ( still have another week of hire ) but the first where the wife has joined us thanks to my sons unrelenting nagging, as many of you know by now from previous post I've made my wife has had a few reservations I believe after last nights session they have changed. We went to a nature reserve and set up in the car park no man made light so made for a perfect choice once the dob was set up and had a good image of the moon in the eye piece my son took over the dob and spent a good 15 minutes looking in amazement at the moon only calling occasionally to re align the eye piece once the moon had moved across the eye piece, several attempts of asking my wife if she wanted to look she finally caved in and took a look I think she was more impressed by the beauty of it than she could've ever imagined whilst wrapping my son up in another coat I turned round and she has her phone out taking pics through the eye piece see pics below. My son was asking then to see some stars and this was the only issue I faced all evening I thought I'd start at polaris given it never really moves across the sky, still can't find it  starting to annoy me lol but i'll get there eventually, we found a few random stars just put a smile on my sons face that didn't work he said they're to small and not bright colours. As I've said in previous posts that maybe the dob we have hired isn't suitable after last night I think that's changed my son had no issues at the eye piece and my wife seems to enjoy it and even started to re align the dob so she could keep on the moon. FLO feel free to take the wallet from my pocket as I have a feeling a purchase is just round the corner.

Z 

[domstar]

That's great. It seems like the hire really paid off for you.

[Stu]

Nice outing Zauriel, great to get everyone involved!

Stars, as I'm sure you know, will never show as anything other than points of light, but seeing them in lovely open clusters and globulars should catch your son's interest. Don't forget to try some binoculars too, he could sit in a chair and just scan the skies perhaps?

[rockystar]

Nice session, and good to get the family involved

Some coloured stars to keep your son happy: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/colored-double-stars-real-and-imagined/

 

[skywatcher58gb]

Once said to my wife a few years back come and see Saturn, this was in my LX90 and the seeing was good and the view really crisp. She said 'is that it' - never to be invited out again. She can stay indoors watching Strictly or the Bake Off as far I am concerned.

[Luna-tic]

Polaris would have been a good one to find, as it is a double star that can be easily split at low power, but not visually seen as a double. Those are the ones to look for, (double stars) they will hold more interest than a single point of light that really doesn't look any different through a telescope. Mizar/Alcor is another one, they're the second stars in the Big Dipper's handle. Good eyes can detect the pair, but low power in a telescope makes it much easier for older eyes.

Try to find Albireo, The "eye" of Cygnus, the Swan.  It is a different-color pair, one star is smaller and bluish-green, the other is larger and orange.  Castor and Pollux (Gemini) are both double stars, although Pollux needs a LOT of magnification to split, Castor is fairly easily split at 90-100X.

Other easily found objects to look at would be the Pleiades in Taurus, and M42, the Orion Nebula, which easily shows up with binoculars and at about 60-80X you can split the 4-star cluster at its center, called the Trapezium.

[alhiggs]

On 12/12/2017 at 22:36, skywatcher58gb said:

Once said to my wife a few years back come and see Saturn, this was in my LX90 and the seeing was good and the view really crisp. She said 'is that it' - never to be invited out again. She can stay indoors watching Strictly or the Bake Off as far I am concerned.

 

On 12/12/2017 at 22:36, skywatcher58gb said:

Once said to my wife a few years back come and see Saturn, this was in my LX90 and the seeing was good and the view really crisp. She said 'is that it' - never to be invited out again. She can stay indoors watching Strictly or the Bake Off as far I am concerned.

next time she ask you to watch bake off just ask is that it rofl

[carastro]

The most I have got my husband to look at is The Moon, Jupiter and Saturn and that was after visitors had had a look and "wowed" to he felt obliged to take a look too.

Still can't grumble, he's very tolerant of my hobby and just lets me get on with it, never questions how much things cost (though I think he'd have a fit if he actually knew as I run the household accounts) and looks after himself when I go off to frequent astro camps.

Carole 

[wookie1965]

Get a good star atlas and learn the sky finding stars then will be a breeze. To find polaris use ursa major. 

[JOC]

Am I the only one that finds it astonishing that whatever way up The Plough is or where it is relative to Polaris the ploughshare still points towards it.  The Constellation must just rotate around the North Star.

[triton1]

I too have tried to get her indoors interested Jupiter turned out to be a “damp squib” but I did get a “wow” with Saturn so that’s basically it.The transit of Mercury was somthing I tried to show both my grandson and missus and got a “oh yeah” and “can I go back to my PS4”.This can be a very lonely hobby.

[triton1]

13 minutes ago, JOC said:

Am I the only one that finds it astonishing that whatever way up The Plough is or where it is relative to Polaris the ploughshare still points towards it.  The Constellation must just rotate around the North Star.

Yes it does,I believe Patrick Moore showed how to make a simple clock based around it.

[Astro Imp]

1 hour ago, JOC said:

Am I the only one that finds it astonishing that whatever way up The Plough is or where it is relative to Polaris the ploughshare still points towards it.  The Constellation must just rotate around the North Star.

Actually it's the earth's rotation on it's axis which points to the celestial pole, this is why when using an equatorial mount the mount needs to point due north.

[cletrac1922]

Recently did a school presentation for grade one kids

After 80+ kids had been through looking at Saturn, and couple of other club members were on Jupiter and quarter moon, then teachers and parents came through, and got a lot of Umm's and Ahh's

Afterwards had a lady came up to me, and said she was 83 years of age, and the first time she had ever seen rings of Saturn through a telescope, and that we gave that experience to her great granddaughter

Then another guy came up, with a iPad, and a image of Saturn on it

He commented see better on this

I reminded him, he looking at an image taken by someone through a scope

He could not understand that

Different response from different people

As a club, we do 4 or 5 public viewing nights per year, and my wife comes along as well to help out

We share together our hobby

At Star Stuff 2017, she manned our PST, while I was using our ED80 with a solar filter

John

 

 

[RobertI]

On 25 November 2017 at 15:23, rockystar said:

Some coloured stars to keep your son happy: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/colored-double-stars-real-and-imagined/

Very useful article, I have book marked that one, thanks.