Pleasing couple of hours.

[gman]

Hi all,

I noticed that it was really clear last night sometime after 11 so it was a case of grab the telescope quick and have a look. Not the best way to start, especially as I forgot the rdf.

Jupiter was the obvious target and starting from around midnight it was a cracking sight through the little ZS 70. Instantly obvious were the Galilean moons, with two to each side. There was also a hint of banding through the 15mm eyepiece. After swapping it for the 9mm, two dark bands, one above and one below the equator obvious. After a while I tried for a bit more magnification and the 9mm eyepiece with a tal 3x barlow produced an even better view. No extra detail but a bit easier on the eye.

As it happened, I didn't really bother looking for much else. I spent ages just gawping at the milky way as it was absolutely stunning overhead. Probably the best skies I've seen since I got the telescope.

I was just getting ready to try and find Andromeda when it started clouding over. After about 10 minutes it was quite solid. I hung around a little while but no joy, so that was the end of that.

I also took a few widefields with the dslr, so hopefully I'll have something for the imaging boards sometime.

Gareth

[ashenlight]

Lovely report Gareth sometimes my 'observing sessions' end up being just like yours ended up - standing open mouthed at the zenith amazed at the sheer number of stars. I find using a barlow with Jupiter helpful, not just for enhancing detail, but it spreads the light out a bit more, making it less like looking at a little Sun! it's so bright. Hope you manage to find M31 soon... I'm going to give it a couple of months til it is better placed for me.

Great report, looking forward to those widefields

[gman]

Hi Amanda,

I picked up M31 a couple of weeks back although it was low in the sky then. Last night would have probably given me a good view. If I'd had the RDF, finding things would have been a touch easier.

I might have a look around for a few filters, I've got an IR cut filter for use with my webcam which I tried out but I felt that I could have picked up more with a dimmer image. I was going to have a go with the webcam, but after adding a barlow, jupiter went awol on me. Maybe another night.

[ashenlight]

I don't know what I'd do without my RDF I saw m31 with my binoculars last Autumn, I can't wait to get the scope on it. How was it through your scope?

[Doc]

I love reading reports and I liked yours so keep posting

[gman]

Amanda,

Andromeda was just a fuzzy disk for me. Shape wise, it was not perfectly round, more like what you'd see if you held a coin at arms length and tilted it until you can just see the top. My brains telling me it looked 5mm or so across, but it may be telling porkies.

It definitely looked quite a bit bigger than all of the other galaxies I've looked at.

Certainly a good view and was worth the wait for me. It was one of my top priorities for a while, the others being the Pleiades (m45) and the Orion Nebula (m42). THose two will have to wait a while yet.

Doc, I'm also a fan of observing reports, which is my principal reason for posting them. Its good to share.

[ashenlight]

Thanks for the description, I had to use alot of averted vision through the binos so can't wait for the scope's view. M45 and M42... classics won't be long now, we'll have the long dark nights then too.

[Talitha]

Glad you got some time in, Gareth. Hope the clouds stay away next time.