Learning to use a telescope

[savcom]

19 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Cheating ?... depending on light pollution it was probably a necessary evil , shall we say . But finding the targets oneself does give satisfaction 

Well - they were harder targets.  I'd have rather found the DSOs myself, though, by star-hopping, but the moonlight was pretty bright.

As a beginner, I'm also getting my head around how the heavens move around us as the seasons change. 

[Stu1smartcookie]

11 minutes ago, savcom said:

As a beginner, I'm also getting my head around how the heavens move around us as the seasons change.

And for me , Spring is the best time ... dark around 7 ish so time to set up the gear in the light , an hopefully not so flipping cold lol 

[SaberJeff]

This is Uranus, which I photographed on January 22, which is shown in gray instead of light blue.

[John]

4 hours ago, Spile said:

...Last night without using my straight-through finder* I was delighted to locate Bode's (M81) and the Cigar (M82). This was despite the best efforts of the moon to spoil the party.

* Given the lack of brighter stars in this region, I am not sure it would have helped.

This star hop route to M81 and M82 works very well with an optical finder:

[Capt Slog]

22 hours ago, savcom said:

I tried binocular observing while my scope and mount were being used for photographing M42.  I managed Mars and Uranus and Andromeda, but gthey were all close to the moon and suffering from moon-glow.  The Pleaides were even worse!

I therefore turned round and looked east and found it was easier to find targets there, where the moon glow was less.  I managed M35 in Gemini and M44 in Cancer.

After the photographs were done I used the GoTo on my EQ5 to find some other fainter items but those were 'cheating' as the mount did all the work.

NGC2264 - Christmas tree cluster

NGC2301 - Hagrid's Dragon / Great Bird / Copeland's Golden Worm

 

It's not easy starting off and you do need to be both patient and methodical in your movements to minimise shake etc.  Well worth persevering though.

 

 

 

 Cheating?  Not at all.

You have an engine in your car, do you get out and push it everywhere?