2 new Messiers in the bag - 28/8/2009

[ashenlight]

Hi Steph I've been following your threads with interest, I'm so pleased you've found your way into astronomy a 12" lightbridge... wow, you lucky girl! I am hoping to aim for a 10" - I think that would be as much as I can manage. Hoping to telescope-proof the garden shed too, just to make cooling the huge mirror down easier, lol!

Don't be put off by all the knowledge you need to soak up, take your time and just ask away on SGL whenever you need too - the only silly question is the one you don't ask The reason I love DSO hunting is that you can usually use a low power mag so you get a big FOV - making those objects fairly easy (she says, lol) to spot and the widefield views are so stunning, the stars just go on forever. How about give M52 a go? I imagine it'd be amazing through the 12" - it was quite hard to find for me, it is more like a patch of nebulosity but I'm sure with the light gathering power of the dob, you'll be amazed

Good luck to you too, if you ever need any advice with your messier hunting I'd love to help via PM, just drop me a message if you need girly advice

Clear skies! and keep going

[dobserver]

My scope only came with one eyepiece, the 26mm wide angle, so I have nothing to compare it to. But I love the amount I can see in there - M31 was amazing, and I could see another galaxy in the FOV. I may have mistaken this for M110 when I now think it was M32, so that's where I'm going next clear night....to sort out which it was and to find the other one.

I'll check out M52 after I have got the other thing sorted....

Steph

[iamjulian]

I like your desciption of M57 Amanda. I haven't seen that one yet, mainly because it is so high at the moment, it means sitting on the floor to look through the finder. I think you should be able to rotate the sky to bring things into view at a nice comfortable angle