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BEST SIGHTING THIS YEAR ?

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John

John

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Posted

1. A magnitude 13.5 supernova in a faint galaxy in Ursa Major. Spotted with a 12" Skywatcher dobsonian and my Ethos 13mm eyepiece at the SGL4 star party in Herefordshire in April.

2. Same place / time / equipment - seeing with my own eyes galactic spiral arms in M51 - the whirlpool galaxy, also in Ursa Major.

It was a rather special night :D

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pvaz

pvaz

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1) 1st day with the scope. Sow Jupiter, Moon, M57, M31 and M13. Had never used a scope before.

2) A dawn with crystal clear skies. Both Mars and Saturn showed all the detail it's fair to expect. It was my 1st time on Saturn and 1st GOOD view on Mars (I tried it a couple of times before without much luck).

3) A great night where I sow Spiral arms in M51 and gathered 29 Messiers in a row. Ended it enjoying a warm cup of tea while watching Saturn.

4) Feston on Jupiter while testing my new Orthos.

5) 1st sighting of M42.

6) M31, 32 and 110 framed on the same FOV with a dust lane on 31 visible with averted vision.

And pretty much everything else. It's been a fantastic 3 1/2 months. :D

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tinvek

tinvek

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two spring to mind,

one was neptune a few days ago, for some reason it had never occured to me to look for it but after realising where it was in relation to jupiter i had a go. it was a challenge as i was facing a race between the skies getting dark and clouds that were approaching and had given up when no more than 15 secs before the clouds covered it i spotted neptune :) just uranus and mercury to go now for the full set of 8 (earth's a doddle btw ) though i admit mercury scares the carp out of me being so close to the sun.

the other was seeing my son's first sighting of saturn through his first scope :D:hello2:

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John

John

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two spring to mind,

one was neptune a few days ago, for some reason it had never occured to me to look for it but after realising where it was in relation to jupiter i had a go. it was a challenge as i was facing a race between the skies getting dark and clouds that were approaching and had given up when no more than 15 secs before the clouds covered it i spotted neptune :) just uranus and mercury to go now for the full set of 8 (earth's a doddle btw ) though i admit mercury scares the carp out of me being so close to the sun.

the other was seeing my son's first sighting of saturn through his first scope :D:hello2:

Mercury is fine if you catch it during one of it's periods of maxmum elongation from the Sun - there seem to be 6 of these due in 2010 - here is a useful web page to calculate when and where to look:

Mercury Chaser's Calculator

Mercury looks like a mini version of Venus to me :D

John

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Mark at Beaufort

Mark at Beaufort

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This year was the 150th anniversary of the book by the Rev Thomas William Webb titled 'celestrial objects for the common telescope'. I was asked to bring a scope to Hardwicke Church, Herefordshire where the Rev Webb was the vicar in Victorian times when/where he produced this book.

I took a 6" SCT and a friend had a newt and a frac and you will not believe the quality/transparency of the sky at Hardwicke that night. No light pollution and the milky way was just perfect.

I gave a laser display of the major astro sites and then showed the 20/25 visitors some major objects through the various scopes - Jupiter, M13, M31 etc etc.

It was a magical night. Herefordshire can be very dark as John (Jahmanson) mentioned in his thread. I hope many of you can come to SGL5 and enjoy some clear Herefordshire skies next April.

Mark

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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Seeing my new scope arrive before Christmas :hello2:

Sorry....

I'm kinda annoyed with myself that i opened mine before Christmas. But i am also glad i did so i didnt spend the whole of Christmas day collimating it.

Not that it takes a whole day to collimate. Less then an hour on a good day with a final tweak at night while actually pointing the scope at a star or something else.

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Ptolemaeus

Ptolemaeus

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I'm kinda annoyed with myself that i opened mine before Christmas. But i am also glad i did so i didnt spend the whole of Christmas day collimating it.

I'm not going to rush into colllimation, I looked through it for the first time today it looked ok to me. If it has anything near that quality looking at the sky thatl'll do me nicely.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Most amazing site of the year was naked eye - the famous rocket fuel dump. We had no idea what it was but, holy moly, it was a sight! Huge nebula brighter than the Milky Way (which is bright here) surrounded by a halo some 50 degrees across and moving, preceeded by a point of light and some small nebulosity. It was truly alarming. (What did the dinosaurs see??)

The same night had another first for me, the zodiacal light. I had simply never tried to see it before but had the world's leading authority on the subject staying with us. Now retired, Rene Dumont was the perfect guide and commentator and a delightful man. The light is very easy indeed to see at a dark site and is worth the effort.

And lastly - sorry - a tremendous fireball in July. It flashed blazing red and blue as it burned up. Rob Hodgkinson may well have seen the same one from the other side of the mediterranean, near Beirut I think he said.

Olly

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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I'm not going to rush into colllimation, I looked through it for the first time today it looked ok to me. If it has anything near that quality looking at the sky thatl'll do me nicely.

Don't rush into it until you are sure you really understand it and know how to do it. It really isnt difficult. All you are doing is aligning the mirrors perfectly. The mirrors in the scope are already aligned when it arrived although probably not 100%..........but GOOD ENOUGH.

The only reason i collimated on the day my scope arrived was to get over the fear of doing it. "Collimation" is a blumming scarey word/concept to people who have never owned a scope before or those of use who have only ever owned a refractor which doesn't need collimating.

Dont rush into it if you are not comfortable with the concept. Try the scope out as is. Uncollimated scope shouldnt cause too much lose of quality.

I tested my scope right out of the box on a house quite far away and the image was crystal clear and very sharp. I cold read the telephone number on the alarm box on the apex of the house (just using the 10mm EP supplied). I could also see the pebble dash on the exterior of the house in great detail.

Leave collimation for a rainy day. Your views without it will be GREAT.It really is just a case of it fine tuning the optics..........but works fine without.

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LukeSkywatcher

LukeSkywatcher

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For me has to be seeing the Orion nebula with the new 10 inch dob for the first time. So intricate and complex and slightly green!

Mark

Good thing i aint trying to keep up with the Jones'. My new 5" will do me very nicely. I didnt see green..............i saw redish/pink, which made a nice change from the B&W that my 3.5" refractor only ever showed.

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Talitha

Talitha

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Couldn't pick just one. :hello2:

1) Seeing the new impact spot on Jupiter (4 Aug).

2) Watching Jupiter go 'moonless' (2 Sep) and also seeing Europa and Ganymede travel across the face of the planet.

3) Ten clear nights in a row, 30 Aug through 8 Sep (all-time record).

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twotter

twotter

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As a very recent scope owner, I'd have to say my most magical moment was seeing Jupiter this year, complete with banding and surrounded by the four Galilean Moons...

I'm also pretty new to all this so another vote for Jupiter. It was the first target for my new scope and it was brilliant!

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superjody

superjody

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im new too so id say pretty much everything ive seen up there :hello2:

seen alot of jupiter, the moon and orions nebular which i see as a slightly blue haze...is that right??

saw saturn once when i got up out of bed very early, could see the rings so i was happy :)

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