First night out in a week

[Barry W]

After last week's trip to the hospital, I finally felt good enough to haul out the telescope for an hour. It was a nice mild night, no winds and clear stable sky. I set the scope up at 2000 and let it sit for an hour. I went out and inserted my 36mm wide angle EP. I was determined to find M31, but it still alludes me. My yard was nice and dark, with very few lights from the house or my neighbors, but I think the skies were still bright in advance of moonrise.Polaris and Cassiopia were nice and bright but I couldn't trace a line to pick up a reference star in Andromeda - those stars just weren't bright enough. As I continued to compare the sky to my chart, Perseus jumped right out of the sky to me - I'll check that one off in my recognition list. Enough progress to the west. I switched my views back to the south and Taurus. There were some very nice views of the Pleaides and the Hyades. I moved up to Aldebaran and switched between that and Betelgeuse to compare the two. I tried in vain to look up Taurus' horn to find M1. You could really notice the sky brighten with every minute. I finished the night with my standard look at the Orion Nebula. The Moon rose over my shoulder and washed out all but the brightest stars so I packed it in for the night. It was definitely nice to sit out there for an hour though.

Cheers,

Barry

[kniclander]

nice report Barry - once you find M31 once, it's easy to do again but it can be hard the first time. In my experience M1 is pretty hard to find and I would guess impossible with a moon, LP'd skies and no filter

the clusters are still nice under any skies - m35, 36, 37, 38 and of course the double. Also, there's lost of double stars that are easy to find and look good under any skies

if you are using a dob, what finder do you have? i found I got on best with a right way up right angled finder - I couldnt get on with the standard straight through upside down one at all.

enjoy

Dan

[Barry W]

Thanks Dan,Internet went down for a day, so I'm catching up.I've got the standard 9x50 finder and a telrad. I tend to use the telrad most of the time, coupled with my Messier finder charts. I like looking with both eyes and lining up the radicules with the whole sky visible.Thanks for the tips on the clusters. I'll keep up my searching.

Cheers,

Barry