Great night tonight

[Leegsi]

Just come in from my first serious observing session with my SW150.

I started off by trying to find my first Galaxy. We had friends round so put the scope outside to cool down and kept popping outside to the garden to try and find M31 with my binoculars so I had an idea where I was going to look (Thanks for the help in the other thread).

So a few drinks later and our guests seemed interested in why I kept popping outside (I was setting the scope up onto M31 ). Invited them outside to have a look at M31. I pointed them in the right direction in the sky and could 'just' make out a faint patch by eye. Showed them the view in the scope and although they could see it they thought it would look defined. It wasn't till I told them how far away it was then they were impressed

Next swung it onto M42 to show them the Orion nebula which was great. Nice and clear and one of the best views I have seen of it for a while.

Onto Mars (Which they hadn't realised what was shining so bright in the sky) and we could see the red and white of the planet.

Then last but not least onto the moon. Started off with the 25mm EP so we could see most of the moon in the EP. It was nice and clear and could see some great shadows on the craters. Changed to the 10mm for a closer look and it was very bright. I then screwed on the moon filter and it gave a much better contrast. For a laugh I thought I would put in my 6mm EP in and WOW it was still so clear. The moon's surface looked so smooth in the craters and the shadows in the craters themselves were great.

Or guest returned into the warm and I came in about 10 minutes later after looking round the moon with the 6mm and filter still in place.

What a great night. Tonight is what this hobby is all about

[BrownClaw]

Sounds like you had a top night. You're right, Orion for some reason looked a lot clearer tonight.

My evening started around 5:30pm when I realised we had a clear night ahead here in Banbury. Started with viewing Jupiter through the 10mm...and discovered my cheap Barlow had sheared off the tightening screw and wouldn't accept any EP's so decided to move the scope to the far end of the garden for alignment and concentrate on a couple of DSO's.

Pleiades always amazes me so I spent a bit of time there through the new 32mm EP I got for Xmas, before marvelling at the orangey yellow of Betelguese (never fails to astound me how colourful it can be).

Then once M31 had moved into slew limits, spent a short while on that before checking out M42 - as you say, MUCH clearer tonight and I could make out a definite shape that seemed to grow larger the longer I looked. Even through a bottom-end 10mm the nebulosity was still very bright.

Finished off the evening with a 40 second sequence of the Moon and uploaded the processed image to the Lunar forum.

I was so inspired by M42 though that I immediately came into the warm and ordered a Meade series 5000 SP 5.5mm lens and UHC filter from FLO. Bang goes the Xmas money!

[barkis]

It's just wonderful when you can introduce friends to some of the sky's night time wonders. M31 is not a wow object I feel, although telling people they are looking at light that left there 2.4 Million years ago will grab them. M42 on a good night will Inspire, and certainly the moon is a super destination, and will impress first time viewers.

It does give you a good feeling when people are thrilled by what you've shown them, and you can be sure they will talk about it to others. That's the good thing about it.

Well done mate.

Ron.