Good weather

[Sam101]

Hi guys! I’m new just brought a new telescope and now the bloody weather was just been rubbish all week! Fingers crossed it’s better at weekend, anyone got any tips of easy things I should start to look at?? 
 

Thanks 

 

sam 

[CloudMagnet]

Yep, you bought at the wrong time

The lack of darkness right now will limit your options. So I would just become familiar with setting up your equipment/practice on balancing/polar alignment. The main targets to go for right now will be the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the south- they rise around 1am. The moon should also be easy as well. the great star cluster M13 might be possible as well.

It will really only be into August when the dark night come back that you will have a bigger choice.

[Kyle Allen]

Hi Sam. Congratulations on your new telescope! The moon is a great target to start with - you will be amazed at how much detail there is to be seen! However, it is currently close to Last Quarter phase meaning it rises after midnight. If you are willing to stay up that late, you can catch Jupiter and Saturn very low in the South East.  Unfortunately for us in the Northern Hemisphere, they are currently very far south of the ecliptic so we don’t have the best view of them as we are looking through lots of turbulent air.

I’d recommend taking a look at some globular clusters because they can stand out against a bright sky background quite well (it never gets truly dark here now). M13 is quite easy to find if you can identify the Hercules Keystone asterism. At low power it may look like a fuzzy ball of light but increasing the magnification will begin to resolve it into individual stars. It’s a stunning sight to see!

Do you have a means of finding objects such as a book, app, or star atlas? You can use this time to get familiar with some of the constellations and research different targets to look at 😀

[HollyHound]

Hi Sam,

I’ve only been doing this since Christmas, but I remember the first targets I went for were the moon, the Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, Pleiades and Venus. Of those unfortunately only the moon is visible right now, but it is an excellent first target and one I keep returning to again and again. I’ve even bought a bunch of books about it and some maps. 

However, what are visible a bit after midnight (1am) ish, in the South South West, are Jupiter and Saturn, which are awesome. Last Saturday I woke to see Jupiter shining so brightly and even a quick peek through 8x32 binoculars showed me the four moons 😊

My current object of interest is the Double Double near Vega (Quite high now and East ish, visible from twilight onwards). See if you can split it into the four stars, really cool when you do. Also, just down from these is another little double star, worth a look when you’re there.

I haven’t hunted down any DSOs since March, but hoping to have a look when the weather improves too.

Have fun 

Gary 

Edited June 12, 2020 by HollyHound

[Red Top Miguel]

Hi Sam, 

The weather has been fairly poor here too, however I have just checked the clear skies app and can see I’ve got a clear window from midnight till about 3am so I guess it’s gonna be a late one for me! I’m excited with what is mentioned above as the window means I should be able to check out the moon, Jupiter and Saturn! 
Enjoy Mick 

[HollyHound]

1 hour ago, Red Top Miguel said:

Hi Sam, 

The weather has been fairly poor here too, however I have just checked the clear skies app and can see I’ve got a clear window from midnight till about 3am so I guess it’s gonna be a late one for me! I’m excited with what is mentioned above as the window means I should be able to check out the moon, Jupiter and Saturn! 
Enjoy Mick 

Hi Mick,

Looking on the SkySafari app, Jupiter and Saturn should be up at a reasonable altitude within that time window, but the moon unfortunately doesn’t rise until 2am and is possibly still a little low until past 3am.

Hopefully the clouds will stay away 🤞

I’ll try and stay up too, but do have a very early start tomorrow.

Enjoy Gary

[HollyHound]

Well I stayed up and was rewarded with a (mostly) clear sky from 01:30 until 03:00.

Jupiter, Saturn, Albireo all achieved with the new refractor 😊

Bed now... it’s an early start still 😬

[Red Top Miguel]

Good Morning, 

So I stayed up and managed to get an impressive look at the moon for about 5 minutes before the clouds came over! Jupiter and Saturn were fantastic as always and if I’m not mistaken I found Mars just above the moon (please correct me if I’m wrong as it was hard with quite a lot of cloud on the horizon). 
Good night everyone off to bed as doubt my two very young children will let me sleep in! 

Mick! 

Edited June 13, 2020 by Red Top Miguel

[Demonperformer]

Yes, that would be Mars. Neptune was also just above the Mars (by about half the moon-mars distance). Mars may still provide a useful 'signpost' if you get another chance in the next few days.

[Shaun VS]

May was a spectacular month for clear skies, 21 in total. Despite the light nights I managed nearly 800 variable star estimates. This month, June has been cloudier but still logged 6 sessions. Saturday night was crystal clear after a thunder storm, seeing stars below 10.5 with my 20x80mm bins.

When people are able to meet up again properly, try and get an observing session with someone, you would quickly learn.