Starting to enjoy observing at last

[Stub Mandrel]

Grotty mirror nothwithstanding, I'm starting to enjoy looking at things now I have a dob!

I've now got a proper  finderscope fitted and I was able to >gasp< find a few things.

First off, I was surprised how much I could see with a 50mm x 183mm finder when used with a 'proper' plossl 25mm eyepiece. In my light-polluted skies everything I saw through the 10" dob was visible with the finder, just smaller (suppose that isn't a big revelation given the finder is f3.5 and the dob is about f6.5, but it suprised me), except M57 which would have been really tiny in the finder.

I was imaging at the same time and my skies aren't hugely dark, so I didn't have super adapted vision and I couldn't see the North America Nebula, for example. Some things I did see:

M57 - wowser, I could actually see texture in the ring, especially with averted vision, at 160x.

M27 - it's huge! At 165x it just filled the eyepiece, better at x70 when the 'propeller' shape is really obvious.

M13 - again, it's huge!  With averted vision it resolved into zillions of stars, but was just a cloud when I looked straight at it.

Gamma Cass - seems to be sitting in nebulosity, but hard to tell because of LP.

M32, M33 - in the LP so only the core of  M32 to be seen but both visible in my finder(!) Big in the dob, but crying out for dark skies or at least for when its higher in the sky.

Brochi's Cluster - I could only see the coathanger bit in the dob! Looked great in the finder.

Saturn - Low in thr soup cassini division really clear, plus three moons, Titan and probably Rhea and (just) Tethys

I din't really find much more than that, I was a bit disappointed by a lack of nebulosity!

Replacing the little az pads with teflon furniture gliders has helped a lot, but the finder is the big improvement. Next an eyepiece rack to hang on the base!

This has whetted my appetite for finishing my ED 66 project, as I want some bright, widefield views next!

[groberts]

This is encouraging.  Shortly after taking up astronomy a few years ago I got the astrophotography bug and still suffer from it but there are times, when everything is working when the image capture and tracking software takes over, that I realise that I'm missing observing and have been thinking of a Dob too whilst the lengthy imaging process is taking place.  As satisfying as AP is it can take the fun out of astronomy looking at computer screens etc.  = back to basics still has an important role.  Very interested in your experience Neil, long may it last.  ?

[Stub Mandrel]

21 minutes ago, groberts said:

  Very interested in your experience Neil, long may it last.  ?

Thanks, I don't think they are mutually exclusive. Observing is more social - my nephew came to see what I was doing for twenty minutes, we saw a sub with lots of nebulosity appear on the camera, but he also saw Saturn and M33 and M32 galaxies.