A laugh at my expense! :)

[Scoobyroo]

I thought you all might appreciate a laugh at my expense...

As a newbie to the astronomy world (it's my 1 week anniversary today! 🤩), I've been lucky enough to enjoy some pretty clear skies this week.  One of my favourite targets already with my 6" Newt is Jupiter.  I typically start on it, end on it and spend quite a bit of time on it in between lol.

I was looking for a phone App to help me navigate around the night sky (at least until I get to grips with this hobby a little more) and @Astro_Dad recommended a few, including Stellarium (thanks Astro!).  First can I just say, what a great App!  Now have the free version on my Mac and also paid for the premium version on my phone, as it allows me to control my GoTo mount directly (rather than relying on the 'ok' SynScan software).

I've spent hours with the software already, setting it up exactly as I like it and have especially enjoyed the ability to zoom in on any DSO / planet to get a feel for what I should be seeing (especially useful for when you're trying to ID a faint DSO smudge in your EP... is that it, or not?!?!).  For planetary, especially Jupiter, it's great to be able to see where its moons are positioned relative to their mother and also to be able to spin backwards / forwards in time to track their orbits, when I should be seeing their shadows on Jupiter's surface and at what tiem I might be able to catch a glimpse of the GRS.

Excitement quickly turned to frustration however when I pulled Jupiter into my EP view only to find that what I saw was nothing like what the App said I should be seeing.  Sure, I could make out three moons (perhaps a forth), but they most certainly weren't where I expected them to be 🙁  I then proceeded to fall down a 2 hour rabbit hole of browsing forums, reading manuals, uninstalling and reinstalling software, manually entering GPS co-ordinates and adding the time / date manually to try and fix the issue... all to no avail.

Frustrated and quickly running out of clear skies, I decided to take a look at the Seven Sisters (I'd heard it was a great target and it had just reached high enough in the sky over the house (roof) for me to get a good view of it).  Again, imagine my frustration when it looked nothing like in the App.  I mean, it was there for sure, but the view just wasn't matching what the App (and many images online) were showing me.

It was at that point I had my 'ahhhhh haaaaa' moment, quickly followed by a 'groan - slap head' moment.  School boy error Rick!.... yup... of course, everything is flipped in your scope Rick.  Astronomy 101! 🥸

Within seconds, I'd found the view flip/reverse buttons in Stellarium and what do you know!...  everything was back in its rightful place and the order of the Universe was restored! 

I just got chance to retrain my EP on Jupiter to see IO, Europa and Callisto all where they should be, had a bit of a meltdown that I actually now knew which of the moons I was looking at (OMG!).... and.... then a big cloud came along and sat right on top of them for the rest of the night 😆

Moral of the story... don't be a Rick! 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Scoobyroo

[Swoop1]

Been there, done that, got the slap mark on the forehead.....

[Xilman]

Been there, done that.  Still do it occasionally, most recently last week, and I have been observing the sky since the early 70's.

The cause of the last occasion was re-configuring MaximDL slightly.  You know the old saying: if it aint broke, fix it until it is.

Thinking about it: I should post a request for assistance in another thread.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Xilman
Add last sentence.