A clear night in Shropshire

[iamjulian]

Not first light, but my first proper outing with the telescope. Friday night and nothing to get up early for in the morning so I packed the scope carefully into the back of the car and drove out to a place up the road with a nice uncluttered horizon. Got there at ten thirty and quickly set up with a very rough polar alignment for a view of the very bright moon. The atmosphere was boilling much more than it had been the on my first night, but it wasn't terrible. Five out of ten perhaps. What really stood out was the roughness of the limb with all the craters sticking out. It really made it look 3D rather than the flat 2D images I am used to seeing. I had only been set up for ten minutes and I was already happy. There were a bunch of rowdy teens just across the road but there was a hedge between us and they had no idea I was there. They weren't bothering me, but it was nice when the moved off and the sound track to my night's viewing became my own thoughts rather than the patheic swearing of group of young un's who don't know how daft they sound

I had brought with me a red light torch, my barlow and two EPs, my camera and a ball head tripod, a couple of star maps which I downloaded and laminated, and a jumper for when the temperature dropped. All of this was strewn across the bonnet of my car. The plan was to stay within the realm of the summer triangle asterism, but that plan quickly went to pieces as I swung the scope all over the sky like a child in a sweet shop. After the moon I spotted Arcturus and decided to have a look after a few recommendations. Impressive and definitely a nice contrast with the blue of Vega. By now it was 11pm and the sky was getting dark enough to recognise a few constellations. I could see the plough quite clearly but decided to leave that for another day. Instead I spun around for a look at Albireo. Even the lowest powered EP split it nicely. By upping the magnification a bit I was able to clearly see the colour difference in the two stars. I can see why people recommend this as a nice double.

One thing that did strike me is how much more difficult it is to find things. I know enough of the more popular constellations to be able to hop around a little bit, but I can see it being quite difficult to find a lot of the faint fuzzies. Even with the mild magnification of the finderscope shows up far more stars and makes it tricky to know where you are. I can understand why GoTo scopes are popular, though finding things is a big part of the fun for me. It was also quite tricky viewing anything near the zenith. At one point I was knelt on the floor to look through the finder scope. Back to the sky, I noticed Cassiopeia was on her back (so to speak) so I had a quick scan below her to see if I could spot the Andromeda galaxy, but it was too low in my polluted northern sky so I quickly gave up. I understand it is more of a winter object. If I am honest, by 11.30pm I was mostly killing time for the main event, the appearance of Jupiter in the East South East. It was at this point that some kids came walking down the track I was packed next to and started hurling bottles. It was dark, they couldn't see me, but I had visions of a bottle coming over the hedge and going through my windscreen. Made a mental note to park further away from the track next time!

I spotted Jupiter at exactly midnight, just climbing above some trees. It took me a couple of goes at getting the planet in view, perhaps because of the slightly awkward angle. But when it came into focus with the 2x Barlow and 25mm EP I was amazed. Nice pale orange disc with the four Gallilean moons clearly strung out in a line. Wonderful, wonderful. I have seen Saturn before but never Jupiter. I'm still smiling more than twelve hours later. I quickly switched to the 10mm EP to make it 150x magnification, but it was too much. I couldn't get it in focus, or not as clear. Slightly disappointing but the view with the 25mm was more than good enough so I went back to that. I know that now is as good a chance as I'm likely to get for an easy view of Neptune with it being so close to Jupiter so I wrapped my brain around the left is right and down is up and headed to the row of stars I had memorised that would take me down (up) to Neptune. Took me just a few seconds, beginners luck, and there it was. Not resolved as a disc, but a lovely blue 'star'. I decided to call it a night and headed back to bed really really happy with my first proper night under the star. I am officially hooked

EDIT: Forgot to metion seeing a nice fireball at about 11.30pm. East moving north east. And I also had a satellite go through the EP which made me jump, ha ha.

[Doc]

A very nice and detailed report.

Alberio is a fantastic sight, the colour difference is amazing. I agree it's frustrating at first to find your way around the sky. I find the best way to approach a fruitless nights searching is to make detailed lists of what you are going to observe and when.

Glad you saw Jupiter, did you notice Neptune just 1 degree away from Jupiter.

[Talitha]

"like a child in a sweet shop"

Perfect!!!

Wonderful report, and congratulations on your first view of Jupiter! The satellites have always reminded me of moths hovering around a street light.

Btw, have you ever considered purchasing a non-magnifying red dot finder? When properly aligned with the eyepiece, they're amazingly accurate.

[Beulah]

Great detailed report, Julian! I really enjoyed reading that.

Sorry to read about the kids, it's a shame that spending their hard earned wages on booze is pretty much all they're interested in round here. LOL, the satellites do take you by surprise, don't they? It's not a "UFO" moment for me, it's more of a disorientating experience...

[Vega]

Great report Julian, Glad to hear you came unscathed by the teenagers, I often find you can go un-noticed in these situations and as you say, next time you'll find an even better spot. Im still yet to see Jupiter this year and am looking forward to it. I reckon we'll be back in to pre-midnight DSO hunting times by the next new moon :-)

Matt