My first successful use of my C6 - NGT (I think)

[BenBroad]

I think I finally managed to use my new C6 properly last night, but not sure. First I got the tripod out by itself and leveled it and made sure it was pointing north, next with the mount itself I got that aligned to Polaris. The 2 star alignment seemed to go ok, the first star was Deneb, and while I didnt know much about it I went for the brightest I could see in my 25mm eyepiece. I cant recall what the 2nd star was but I also did calibration star or 2 and one of was Rigel I think...

So with alignment seemed to be done, I went straight to the Andromeda galaxy, but didnt see much the 25mm showed something fuzzy that I never saw well and a higher magnification didnt show anything.

The next target was the orion nebula, that I saw better to me it just appeared as a dark band that was shaped like a upside down letter L, and within the top right portion I could see 3 stars and in the lower left I saw maybe 4 stars grouped together. The alignment seemed ok as I knew where the orion nebula was and it took me straight to it, and any doubt was erased when it showed the moon did in the centre of my 25mm.

I saw the Pleides next and just a dense pattern of stars. But everything else I tried didnt give me anything I could see, and then later going back to Orion's Nebula didnt reveal much, but it was rather cold and that could have effected my main mirror or the 25mm I was mostly using.

I would say one thing, its certainly given me hope that my telescope can work, I just find it somewhat frustrating to buy it 2 months ago, take it out a few times and get nowhere, but last night gave me hope.

Any suggestions would be much apprecited.

[geoff_k]

Ben

Sounds encoueaging so keep at it.

We haven't been blessed with the greatest skies over the past few months (longer than that, actually) so you need to be patient.

I was out viewing last night and despite the clear skies and freezing cold weather the 'seeing' wasn't that fantastic and the Moon was fairly bright which is not always good news for viewing some of the fainter fuzzies.

Looks like you have managed to track down some of the usual suspects. Andromeda for example, looks like a smudge in most scopes. Try again on a moonless night if you can and you may see more. Do bear in mind that the darker the sky the better.

Seems like you are going in the right direction. Onwards and upwards!

Geoff

[Tiny]

Is your scope collimated? Was there mist or ice cristles about. These can ruin the seeing. Here it was misty in places at 5pm and it got worse until it was cloud.

[geoff_k]

Ben

Tiny is right, I should have mentioned collimation which can make a difference.

Also bear in mind that aperture has a part to play as well and may restrict what you can see to some extent.

Geoff

[lunator]

Ben

It sounds like the scope is working ok. It may need collimating and there are guides on the site to show you how.

Where were you observing from? There was a lot of high cloud around and this made the transparency very poor.

The Seeing was quite good from London.

Last night was a typical example of good seeing/poor transparency. This would make any faint objects 'disappear' from view.

Cheers

Ian

[mdstuart]

Try the double star at the bottom of cygnus, looks lovely if you use a high power eyepieice

http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/astropics/deepsky/stars/albireo-crop.jpg

Then look at Venus, low in the SW after sunset, looks like a half moon at the moment.

Mark

[BenBroad]

Thanks for all the replies, there wasnt any mist but a lot of frost on the grass lawn where I was.

I will check if its well collimated, as its not something I have done on this one yet.

I was observing from Dronfield, just a bit south from Sheffield, not too much light pollution, but a few obstructions.

Hmm I'll try to check Cygnus tomorrow night with my Baader Hyperion 5mm

Cheers for all the advice