1st and 2nd night

[pr0xibus]

Well i am a complete newbie, i bought my telescope skywatcher explorer 150pl EQ3-2 150mm just a mere 2 days ago. This thread will most likely be my own personal diary so i will try to add to it when ever possible. Most of what i will see or say will be of no use to most of you but it will keep me righ.

With this telescope i recieved

2x Barlow Lens 1.25"

Super 10mm Lens

Super 25 Wide Angle Long Eye Relief Lens

This has been the first time looking through a telescope since i was 9, im now 25.

last night i left the telescope out for half an hour @ 2130 to cool down. Looking up Stellarium the only planet i could see that was clearly visible was Saturn, "Im not very good with star names etc etc so never bothered looking at them much "

Starting off with the Super 25 I pointed at saturn and was surprised with the level of detail even with such a low magnification. i could see the planet clearly and the thin band of rings. i then respectivly moved up the magnification For my first time picking up a scope i had the biggest smile ever. Their is something different seeing something in near real time than pictures on the internet its so much better. A few minutes after ten i saw a satellite. I was curious to what it was to start with but in a recent thread someone else had seen it and had been confirmed. I have never seen a satellite in my life, although i never had a look at it through the telescope, it was going far too fast i could see it streak along the sky, "Bingo another smile on my face".

TBH i spent about an hour last night tracking saturn and what a sight it is. About 2315 i started to pack up, i thought first night and i have seen saturn very clearly.

Overall very happy with the telescope and looking forward to many more nights outside.

Now tonight i set up the telescope about 2000 and left it out side for 2 hours till 2200. First thing tonight again was saturn, for some reason it looked even better than yesterday, although i could only see one moon this time, it was the brightest object to the left of saturn, it looked like it was leading saturn around in orbit lol.

Anyway i tracked saturn for about half an hour then i gave my poor wee eyes a rest. I stood their just looking at the sky, all of a sudden a small white light came from west to east (ish). i thought it was a plane to start with but no noise what so ever it was too small and looked to be at some height. Now all my life i have had short sight and just recently i got new glasses. this is the first time being able to see a satellie without the telescope or aid of binoculars, i was plesently surprised and quite happy with what i saw. 30 or 40 seconds later another light flew from south (ish) to North (ish)

Not more than 10 minutes later i was absolutly possitive i saw a shooting star. A streak of light quite faint shot past from east to west (either that i was seeing things).

Anyway in the past 2 days ive seen more than i have in the past 17 years. Its the best £250 i have ever spent and look forward to many more clear nights

Thanks

[Doc]

I find making reports off everything I see a good way to log what you have viewed and work your way through different catalogues of objects.

It also makes you observe your desired object better, making detailed observations.

Anyway I look forward to reading yours.

[pr0xibus]

Well another wonderful evening very clear up here in montrose(scotland).

It is still a wee bit light out side. but from 21:50 onwards i could see saturn very clear using the barlow x2 + Super 10mm. Could only spot one moon but from 22:29 i could spot 2. One day im going to learn the names saves me from just putting a number too it.

At 2222 the GPS-BIIRM-5 Satellite "Im out in the cold armed with stellarium" was just passing saturn, i can see this without the aid of a telescope, i didnt bother with the telescope as being my 3rd day of gazin at the stars their is no wasy i could have kept ttrack of something moving so fast.

Right now its 4.0C outside i left the telescope out side from 2100 and damn its cold to touch. Before i was thinking could something happen to the telescope when me moving it from a warm house to freezing temperatures but well luck has it nothing.

2235 managed to have a quick glimpse at XO-53 satellite and GPS-BIIR-09 very faint but could see them non the less with out the aid of a telescope. Before i got into all this i thought their would be a 1 in a million chance in seeing a satellite unaided, but turns out, if out long enough you could probably see 20 in 2 hours and they are very noticable, so noobies just like me leave the scope alone for a few minutes and just look lol.

According to stellarium Iridium 39 is just above horizon pity i have lots of trees at the bottom of the garden would love to have seen it.

Now nothing to do with planets or stars but tonight i done something naughty. Although not the best alignment and completely wrong, from the back of my house where the telescope is i cannot see polaris "its blocked by my house" so for a very very rough alignment i pointed it due south. Waited until quarter to 10 when saturn was due south. after this intead of 0 degrees mine would have been 180 degrees on the dials if you see my drift, caused alot of confusion and most definitly wrong ,after some weird maths in my head i managed to co ordinate my way to spica with the dials "yuppie for me" didnt use the finderscope for it. i only managed to find spica as im assuming since saturn is much closer than err polaris wouldnt have had the altitude right either. Now here is a question. "How can i align if i cannot see polaris, nor anything NORTH".

Hopefully some one can help.

Well its now 2246 and their is a slight ripple of clouds coming over nothing too bad i have learned the stars acturus. spica. regulus and pollux i could spot them all from 2150 onwards and was curious to names "Stellarium the godsend" handed me them on a silver platter. Hopefully tomorrow i still remeber them i will test myself.

Anyway im away to do more gazin if i see anything interesting i will sure and post em up

Cheers

[brianb]

"How can i align if i cannot see polaris, nor anything NORTH".

How do people in the souther hemisphere manage?

Basically you don't have to be that accurate for visual work. Level the tripod. Set the angle of the polar axis to your latitude. Find north with a magnetic compass. Rotate the whole mount until the polar axis is sloping up in the direction of north. That's near enough to get started ... if you want to get the alignment better you can "drift align", there are instructions on how to do that in many places.