27th April

[G4YVM]

What a clear night! Mind you, here in Salisbury it was freezing, but I managed to stay out there till 0100 local time.

My skywatcher 102 refractor and synscan mount managed a reasonable job, but the more I do, the more I learn. And I am learning that the mount wobbles like a good 'un and that every man and woman should have an observatory to keep the chill off!

Anyway, I managed saturn, which i always seem to come back to, then I searched for M98 but wasnt sure from Stellarium whether I'd see it or not (I know where it was, but not whether it was visible to the scope I have ). The other issue I have is that because I have limited radius of vison here (I can see all of the sky, but not from the same position, so I can see the sout from the south of the house, the north from the north etc) I cannot yet accurately align the scope: I can get to within a tenth of the field of view, but no closer. this is fine for obvious objects, but for invisible ones, hopeless! Still its a learning curve. Anyway, this means that I aam not sure whether I found The Pinwheel or not. I THINK I found it, but not sure, using averted vision.

To add to my woes the eyepieces kept steaming up from my face heat!

I really need help, so the Salisbury starparty should be fun.

My wish list: A scope that doesnt wobble. A laptop with stellarium. A rooftop observatory. Erm, thats it!

Oh yeah, and to add insult to my injured pride, the last thing that happened was that the scope totally lost allignment and decided that M98 was actually off to the east! Time for bed!!

david

[Talitha]

If you're reasonably sure you're on target, try tapping the OTA and using averted vision to detect it. Tapping the OTA will make things dance a bit, and a moving target is easier to spot than a stationary one. If you think you see something, make a rough sketch of the surrounding starfield, mark the spot, and check Stellarium or an atlas for verification.

I've heard that placing some weight on the tripod's centering bars helps cut down the wobbles... a zip-lock bag filled with sand might do well. Regarding the steamy eyepiece, there are DC astro de-foggers which plug into a battery, but if you're near the house you could run an extension cord and use a hair dryer (lowest heat setting).