First Session This Winter

[Ed in UK]

Well it's been a while since I last managed to get the scope out and have a poke around the heavens, but the other night I managed to do just that.

I have spent some time over that past couple of months standing outside, when I can, with my binoculars trying to remind myself of where everything is.

Bonus is that I can now find the Andromeda Galaxy with my bins alone....... no great feat I know.

Got the scope out and discovered I'm pretty much still as cr*p at this as I was earlier in the year, at least I'm up for the challenge.

I tried for nearly two hours to get onto Andromeda and failed. Main problem being translating what I see through the eye piece in relation to the star charts. I'm using the Wil Tirion Cambridge Star Atlas and the French sounding free online mapping to print out charts. Need to sort out how to orientate myself and "Star Hop" to my selected targets.

Last night I spent some time on Stellarium  working out how to achieve this. Stellarium seemed to offer a view of what was more realistic to what I could see in the eye piece so I think I'll use Stellarium next to guide me. I'll let you know how I get on.

Toying with the idea of investing in Sky Safari 6 (Pro?) as I would prefer to have my phone outside rather than my computer.

Not all was lost, I did try having a wander around Cygnus and bumped into M29 the "Cooling Stack" which was great to see. Towards the end of my session I noticed Orion rising in the sky so I had to have a look at the Great Orion Nebula M42. Great to see again and still really pleased with my investment in the BST eye pieces, the Trapizium really jumped out nice and clear with the 12mm. 

If anyone has any suggestions and advice i'm all ears.

Have a great day.

[Demonperformer]

1 hour ago, Ed in UK said:

I did try having a wander around Cygnus and bumped into M29

I've always found "bumping into" objects to be very inspiring. It's good when these objects are ones that you know. But when they are objects you don't know, those are very special moments.

[Ed in UK]

At least I knew it was there ?, otherwise I think I may have completely passed it by.

At least my research beforehand prepared me more that I thought.

Ed

[Demonperformer]

Yes, M29 is not the most obvious of clusters if you don't know it's there.

The first time I stumbled upon something completely unknown it turned out to be Stephenson 1 in Lyra.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report. Regarding the difficulties of star-hopping: just keep at it, and you will get better. For finding M31 with the scope, I always start from Mirach (centre star of the three that form the main stars of Andromeda) and move roughly north from there. Getting a good finder helps tremendously (preferably a right-angle, correct image type (RACI)). At some star parties people sometimes wonder how I find objects quickly, and the simple answer is: almost 40 years of practice. I was 17 when I bagged M13 with my parent's fairly cheap 8x40 binoculars, my first non-naked eye DSO. It can be frustrating at times, but it is so rewarding when you get the hang of it.

[Littleguy80]

SkySafari is a big help. You can set up your equipment to show the true field of view for each of your eyepieces. You can also flip the image to account for the mirror reversed image through the eyepiece. I have the pro version now but used the cheaper plus version for this purpose very happily.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Stellarium can also show true FOVs, including different mirror images due to the use of diagonals, etc. However, I don't think the mobile version can do that

[Ed in UK]

Thanks, Demonperformer, Michael and Neil,

Yeah got Stellarium EP's set up and the telescope, image flipped and inverted although I only just discovered those settings.

I'm hoping for a clearer spell a little later on tonight or tomorrow night, if all goes well will probably make the investment in Sky Safari.

Turn Left At Orion on Santa's list so I'm hoping that will help me get going with some easier targets.

Other than that, it's lots and lots of lovely practise.

Regards

Ed

[domstar]

Hi, nice report. I find it much more difficult to find stuff and especially star hop when I'm pointing right up to the zenith. Partly that's maybe because I have a refractor, probably something to do with my straight through finder but also because up, down, left and right are difficult for me at that angle.