Observations with Edge HD8

[JonHigh]

Hi all. Just short story.  I don’t do much, if any observation with my Edge 800 as I mainly use it for imaging however, I went out with my daughter the other week as she convinced me to see some objects with my own eyes for a change. We hopped from doubles to clusters to general star gazing for about 2 hours using my Hyperion eyepieces (24, 17 & 10mm) and what an absolute pleasure it was especially sharing the experience with my enthusiastic 14 year old daughter. Astrophotography is a fantastic hobby but not as easily shared! 
To enjoy it a bit more, especially to the younger generation I hooked my rig up to the computer and used CDC to show her how a planetarium and plate solving worked using a guidescope. I think she is hooked that much more! I think I’m bit more too! 

[RobertI]

It’s wonderful to someone social observing - something I really miss. I hope you can do some more visual, but you can always meet in the middle and do some EEVA together. 

[JonHigh]

That’s actually a very good idea! Thank you for the suggestion. Also we can be indoors so we aren’t freezing 😂

[bosun21]

Yes I also recommend EAA. It's very good for youngsters as they watch each frame arriving and being stacked onto the image. They can watch the image forming in real time which I've found stops the boredom factor taking root with them.

[JonHigh]

Not done EAA for a long while. It think next time out I will boot up SharpCap - live stacking. That might be just the ticket as you can definitely see way more of the object as it builds up the image. 
Next she will be asking me for a SeeStar for her 15th!!! Thanks guys!!! The ‘help me’ fund will start soon!!! 😂 
 

Edited Tuesday at 13:36 by JonHigh