Goodnight

[Andrew*]

Well, just come in from a good night's observing (and a bad night's imaging! - see Imaging Help)

First took out the scope just outside my house to see the :moon: It looked very nice in my new 15mm Plossl with stunning detail on the terminator. The girlfriend was very impressed. She liked the little lump with the bite out of it that I tried to image a number of times. Anyone know what that's called?

This is the point at which made my first imaging attempts.

Seeing was good, so I took the scope to a glass house, because I didn't like the cold wind (I'm not cut out to be a proper astronomer, am I? Didn't really work, although I saw M42. Additionally, I think that conservatory is haunted, because I was constantly getting uncomfortable fears, and the scope was blocking the exit. Not to mention there was a very mysterious squeaking noise coming from somewhere.

So I promptly moved outside again to see :saturn: , but again, could not get to see the rings or even get it very big at all. Not sure exactly what mag to use. At 100x, it was so small, I couldn't have made out the rings anyway. Before that will come, I guess I'll need to use a much better Barlow.

Found and named a number of stars. Always useful for getting to learn the skies. I couldn't get a great focus on tehm, so I think my scope's still not properly collimated, although I spent a while the other day painstakingly following a set of instrucitons on collimating. I'm not sure what's wrong, because the mirror supports are all visible, meaning the secondary mirror is correct, and the reflection of it in the primary mirror is dead central, meaning the primary mirror is also correct. Am I missing something here?

As usual, I finished off with a look at M45, which always makes my favourite view,

All in all it was a satisfying evening.

Now I'm dropping off to sleep as I type, having been awake since 6am! <yawn>

Goodnight,

Andrew

[GordonCopestake]

I glasshouse? I do hope you wernt trying to use your telescope from inside a green house!? Thats a big no-no. You spend loads on optically perfect kit then look through a pain of dirty mass produced plate? A conservatory is even worse as the "glass" is double glazed and full of imperfections, not to mention the problems with heat currents.

For planetary observing I like to use between 200x and 300x assuming the seeing can take it, if it was a windy night then that might explain why you had difficulty imaging as the wind makes everything vibrate and the atmosphere unstable. Try again when it's clear and dead, winter is great for those sorts of nights. You should be able to see the rings of saturn even at low magnification though, are you sure it was saturn you were looking at? At this time of year you are better getting up early than staying up late. Try and get up about 5am and you should see the ringed giant in the south east, it will be the brightest star in that area. It's between leo and cancer which should make it easy to find.

Sounds like a good evening though, and it's all experience! I look forward to more reports!

[Andrew*]

oops. Sorry! It wasn't double glazed The problem was more with reflections, and inability to concentrate because of distractions and wind.

I think saturn may have been too low (it was only 12*) and it was in the east, where there's always more LP. I think your idea is good. I'll wake up an hour or so before work and try and see saturn when it's further south. However, there's never a guarantee that the sky will be cloudless when I wake up. What do you do when that happens, and how do you avoid it?

[daz]

However, there's never a guarantee that the sky will be cloudless when I wake up. What do you do when that happens, and how do you avoid it?

There is no avoiding it!! You just have to 'hit and hope' !!! I make tea, eat toast, read Astro mags, logon here or, if I have enough time, go back to bed!!

And check the forecast just before you hit the hay. If there's a chance of clear sky, I'll go for it. Play the percentage game

[jonnyboy]

try using your gear with longer leads, power cables etc, then you can sit in the warmth and deal with it all from the computer. well thats what i am working on at the moment just waiting for an electric focuser. due to health problems i need to keep warm, i have already pushed it.

can't tell you what the crater is though.

jb