Finally found my first messier!

[Holliday]

Finally 2 weeks or so after getting my 8" dob and after 3 clear nights I found my first Messier object! (and an unknown moving light)

M92 Globular Cluster, who knew a fuzzy patch of light could be so awesome!

Not having modded my Dob base yet I had to rely on a good ol' compass to guesstimate my current azimuth, nor have I got an angle gauge yet so it was just guess work. With the help from my iPod skywatching app I figured the easiest object would be one almost directly above me.

Armed with my 25mm I finally fell upon a patch of fuzziness, got all excited and switched to my 6mm, trying to move it back into the center of my scope, dob stiction got the better of me and shot it out of view, I then lost sight of it, even when switching back to the 25mm. Gutted!

Panning around I was going to give up but decided to give it another go, got it back into sight and switched to my 6mm again and managed to focus it into view! was awesome.

Also the 'unkown' object, I saw this at about 12:55, roughly 160-180 degrees azimuth and 70 degrees elevation. Basically it was just a fast moving point of light, no tail visible, i've checked the ISS and I don't think it was passing the UK at that time so not a clue!

Sorry for rambling but hoorah!

[MikeP]

Hi Holliday,

Well done, quite satisfying isn't it?

I find looking for things directly above me quite difficult because it is quite awkward to move the dob when it is pointing near the zenith, so I'm not surprised that you struggled a bit.

Next time you are out, have a look for M13, it isn't "far" from M92. Look for Pegasus - there are 4 stars that mark out a "flower pot" shape where the pot is lying on its side. Draw an imaginary line from the top left star to the top right star and look about one third of the way along that line from the left star and you'll find M13. It too is a globular cluster but brighter and more impressive than M92.

You'll find the star hopping technique quite useful even if you have a way of pointing to the correct alt-az coordinates.

Enjoy the sky

Mike

[Doc]

Congratz for finding your first Messier, they can be pretty elusive. As Mike said if you gound M92 it's only a short hop to an even bigger globular that being the mighty M13.

[richbyers]

good stuff, you can start ticking them off now

rich

[yeti monster]

Well done, fuzzies are what telescopes are made for!

[Holliday]

Cheers guys clear skies predicted for tonight also, so I'll have a look for m13

Any idea what the moving light was? Some satellite maybe? It seemed to move pretty much horizontal.

[yeti monster]

Probably a satellite, being so high they do appear to travel in a straight line.

I'm off to a Land Rover event over the weekend, hoping for clear skies as I'll be introducing astonomology to the great unwashed.

[Talitha]

Congratulations on bagging your first Messier!

The unknown object was probably a satellite, check Heavens-Above to see if you can identify it.

[kniclander]

Next time you are out, have a look for M13, it isn't "far" from M92. Look for Pegasus - there are 4 stars that mark out a "flower pot" shape where the pot is lying on its side. Enjoy the sky

Hercules not pegasus?

[MikeP]

Whoops. Well spotted, thank you.

Mike

[Llamanaut]

Holliday, before you spend anything on your electronic altaz thingymajig have you heard of the geometric method of messier hunting? Its what i use, the first clear night i used it i managed to bag 56 messier objects... basically all you need is a telrad or other kind of finder, and a good sky atlas... you locate the constellation then line up the messier in question with stars using angles and lines... for instance the ring nebula is directly between the straight line joining the two southerly stars of lyra, a quarter of the way between the two line your finder up on that and the messier will be directly smack bang in your field of view, i thought it was a fluke the first time until it happened again and again and again, you do need your finder and your main sciope to be very well aligned however... works for me, maybe it could work for you?

[Holliday]

Llamafarmer - Sounds great, am thinking of getting a Telrad soon, and a right angle for my finderscope, my neck can only bend so much!

Amazing night tonight!

Had the night off work today so at about 10:30 the skies were pretty clear and the moon was out, not having looked at the moon yet with my scope I had my 25mm which came with my Dob and peered through it and it was beautiful! Switching to my 6mm TMB Planetary, well I was gobsmacked, the detail was immense!

I'm not sure how much the lighting and atmosphere were helping me but the conditions seemed perfect, the sky wasn't really dark, just a deep blue, the moon wasn't too dazzling, nor were there pretty much any observable thermal waves I could see. Incredible, looking along the terminator line the craters just seemed to pop out, I could have stayed there for hours (sadly the girlfriend was getting cold!) I just wish I'd have had a 2x barlow.

Taking advantage of the weather I saw a single twinkle in the sky, looking at my ipod app I figured it must be Venus, and indeed it was. It looked brilliant.

On a roll, later on another little twinkle appeared in the sky, Saturn! I rushed outside with my scope with my scope, again switching to my 6mm, wow, just wow! There it was floating in nothingness, it's rings almost side on, and 2 or 3 moons visible.

I know i've overused the exclamation marks in this post but tonight was amazing!

[Llamanaut]

it just keeps getting mate, thats why i love astronomy so much