Probably the wrong section (newbie)- but I finally found M31!

[Altair40]

What a day with all of the rain in the NE. After a two and a half hour trip back from work I looked outside after tea and went "what are those things - Stars?!"

Scope went out and me with it with bino's after M31. Easily found it with the bino's, then it was a case of look then guess with the red dot finder and pan around with the scope (130mm newt). I got throttled by the bino's that I wore with the strap around my neck but the bins down my back so as to not clonck the scope with them. It was worth it.

Eventually, I found M31!!!!!!!

Not once but twice.

About what I expected through this scope but if I looked very carefully I could see it extended rather more than the central blur. Not bad at all. Most of the good feeling came from finding something that I could not see by eye or through the red dot finder...

Bino's for a sight, then: Point and guess!

Looked east or south east and found what I thought was the double cluster - it's pretty wonderful through the newt.

Then on to Jupiter, only three moons showing this time and the seeing was degrading but I had a chance to check my red dot alingment and play about with the barlow. Maybe better off without it for now. I think I over magnified myself. The 20x ep on it's own gave me the best 'look around'.

There are an awful lot of binary systems out there

I didn't expect to get out for a look at all.

So I grabbed and went!

[Rob wright]

Well done I not long ago found M31 after nights of searching and was well impressed with myself, my first dso, so I know how you feel.

I now look forward to finding many and I'm sure you do too

you were lucky to get any clear sky tonight as its just cloud here

[Altair40]

Thanks for that , Rob.

I thought it might be one of those x views, no response posts. I think, when I see those - I'll answer.

It's clear here, after rain all day. I've just been out with bino's looking for the whirlpool galaxy. Might have spotted it but not sure with 10 by 50's...

I need more practice manouvering the GEM mount about the sky - it's my first. Still feels odd compared to an alt/az mount.

As for rain and clouds, I was getting so fed up earlier I decided to ask the wife if I could rip the satellite dish off of the wall and turn it into a basic radio scope. It's not being used.

No idle joke - I'm working as a technician in a well known uni that involves various physical sciences and engineering areas.

Electronics, not really. I have the basics in RF and circuit design but no more.

Too much of a challenge to resist. It's understanding how radio works in general that I need to look at. PC interfaces and number crunching I do understand.

I found the excellent links in the radio section here...

[Altair40]

A month ago, I didn't know what was within reach at very little cost given knowledge gained here...

[Rob wright]

A month ago, I didn't know what was within reach at very little cost given knowledge gained here...

That is something I can realy agree with, I wish I had the info available now 30 years ago.

I always thought the most basic equipment to see anything was way out of reach

[Capricorn]

You must have a fair amount of light pollution. I can just make out M31 from my back garden by eye and live in a small town with a fair few lights.

M31 is a good one to be able to find, nice to be able to point out to people.

[Altair40]

I have a feeling, judging by what I could see of the milky way by eye in the past four years that if we had really really good seeing here, it would be a naked eye object! If you sort of squinted sideways - I'm sure I saw it that way a couple of weeks ago, just before I got the newt.

We're sort of up a hill but in a dip and the town lights are covered by loads of trees. If I observe in certain directions, it's pretty good.

A dark site would probably get me quite excited, though! I've some very tough teenagers to act as scope guards if I wanted to try that quickly. Probably wait for a local star party, though...

I wouldn't care if my kit was pretty basic, just being around a load of other loonies would be enough!

:-)

[Altair40]

I've just got back in from outside and I was literally jumping up and down. Found M57, the ring nebula!!!

Umm, I didn't really know where most of Lyra was, just Vega and were it was in relation to Cygnus. So used bino's and the red dot and a sky map found here.

Found Lyra, properly and then trawled around until I found the right spot - 'that's not a star' on 45x. Looking off I could see the hole in the middle of the smoke ring. Then went to the 10mm and had sort of a decent look. To be honest, it were better thorugh the 20mm.

M57 in seeing so bad I lost the star at the pointy end of Cygnus in haze (Deneb?).

And the whole lot was setting over my house so heat etc.

My first object that was not visible by bino's, just by star crawling....

Cold out there, but do I care?

No!

[Altair40]

Oh, earlier.

Did anyone spot a boldie meteor going over roughly north to south at about 7:20pm tonight?

It was trailing fire and a smoke trail? Edit: maybe roughly NE to SW from the NE of England?

Someone tell me I'm not imagining things....

That's the trouble with events that only last literally one second or maybe two.

[Altair40]

Out again, found the Pleiades and the Orion Neb...

Pretty chuffed with tonight. These objects were all nowhere near the zenith in not that good seeing and me with just a 130mm newt.

What if it were darker - would that make me up to a 150mm in a more light polluted area?! Up to a point, I suspect...

I can sit here and think for a while during the coming bad weather...

Or of I spent more than five mins outside without coming inside. Sure that's half of my 'light pollution'!

Council is turning our lights down after midnight soon, apparently. Get in, Campaign for Dark Skies'!

;-)

[matteboy]

Found M57 tonight for the first time aswell, awesome sight, and that feeling does make you wanna jump up and down, love it, that image will be in your head when you go to bed tonight!

Had another first, had a shooting star go accross the FOV, cool as!

[Altair40]

Good for you!

I've seen one good meteor each time I've been outside, recently. An added bonus. There's a bloke here who's never seen a 'shooting star'...

M57 is pretty cool, I've been on a high since last night. Good thing is - it's pretty un mistakable. You really do know it when you see it.