Things that make you go *WOW*

[Celeste]

What is the best object that's made you go WOW when you saw it? Being new to all this having only really seen the moon properly....I got it all to come

[Bizibilder]

Just about anything that I havn't seen before and a few old favourites!

[starstalker]

Saturn, for the first time was my biggest wow, so far but that was thru a cheap 80, refractor cant wait to see her again thru my skywatcher 200

[mdstuart]

Any galaxy the first time I find it!

[Worzsel]

Andromeda.

Blows my mind thinking about what it is, how far away it is and what it might contain.

[callisto]

Saturn deffo, and the first time I seen the GRS on Jupiter

[pritc]

Saturn and M42 the Orion Nebula are still my 'WOW' objects

:eek:

[rawhead]

First time Saturn for me.

For some reason I decided to try and find it with my birding scope.

That started me off

Cheers

[Breakintheclouds]

The two objects which I distinctly remember making me say "Wow!" (and then something a little ruder) were Jupiter and Saturn. Saturn in particular - the first time I saw it, it just looked TOO perfect and TOO crisp, as though somebody had drawn it onto a piece of paper and held it over the front of the scope.

[andrew63]

An interesting poll, for me saturn and i'll think it will be no1!!

[Rusty Strings]

The moon, saturn, jupiter, any hard to find fuzzy.

[Astro_Baby]

Saturn and Jupiter I think as near objects.

Deep space I would go for M13 and the double cluster - I never get tired of observing them.

One of my favourites though is to turn the GoTo off, put a wide field eyepiece in and then up the slew rate a bit on the scope so I can 'drive around the universe' and just pan around the sky - seeing the huge size of it and how much stardust there is scattered out there just blows me away everytime.

I sometimes think a very small scope that you can run by hand easily like a 130 is the best for that kind of thing - its more immediate in many ways.

[brantuk]

Saturn was my first look through my first scope and deffo the biggest wow moment ever - Can't wait to see it with the rings a bit more open over the next few weeks.

[dlp]

The first object I focussed my first scope on - Saturn. I even said 'wow!' to myself. This was closely followed by the Orion nebulae, and I found those truly jaw dropping. 'That was up there all that time and I hadn't seen it'.

[starman345]

The Orion nebula was the first thing I saw through my binoculars that really "knocked my socks off", its even more impressive through my new dob scope, Saturn is pretty awe inspiring too.

[Celeste]

Looks like Saturn is winning so far

[perrin6]

Saturn (of course!) through a 40mm scope.

A close double star while testing a mirror (uncoated) which I had corrected myself.

every close double star of around 0.5 arcsecond, especially if they are composed of 2 stars of equal brightness.

Seeing details on Mars when it was only 6 arcseconds across.

(It seems I'm impressed by details which are very small rather than bright obvious objects - gives me the sense I'm peering at things 'up close & personal', deep into space)

Bode's nebula (the galaxy M82) through a 12 inch, seeing knots of detail.

The moon in my 13.2 inch at 300X, seeing so much fine material scattered about like litter in a typical Croydon street !

Alan

[Doc]

The Veil Nebula through a 16" and a O111 filter.

[John Beale]

Saturn with her rings are my #1 and then Jupiter with her dancing moons are a close #2. Thinking about them now as I type makes me say WOW!

[tinvek]

saturn, jupiter, the moon, the orion nebula and the pleiades always give me a wow moment when i look at them, anything new has the same effect but those 5 always and everytime but especially the moon.

we tend to take it for granted (and moan about it being too bright) but it is so stunning and as you up the magnification there's just more and more detail and there's something about the black and white and shades of grey nature of it that adds to that stand out clarity.

[Ags]

Years ago:

Alpha Centauri through a toy refractor in the southern hemisphere.

Mars through a 26.5" refractor at 2000m altitude! You've got to say wow under such circumstances.

More recently:

The great red spot on Jupiter and a Jupiter shadow transit.

Jupiter and Uranus in the same field of view.

M57, M27 and M13.

The Perseids.

Almach.

The Double Cluster.

The Andromeda Galaxy through 16x50 binoculars against a dark sky.

[Peter Drew]

The last time I said WOW to myself was a view of M42 in a C8 in Tenerife. It was by no means the best I've seen it and it was under urban conditions. The exclamation was caused by the view vastly exceeding my expectations, I think the WOW factor largely depends on this. (On the other hand, a recent solar view through a large modded PST left me speechless!)

[SwadBaggie]

Jupiter, to see another world with your own eyes for the first time simply leaves you speechless.

[mijijim]

Hi,

I can't wait until December comes and Orion fills the sky above my

backyard, I feel really happy it's like seeing an old friend again.

mijijim

[twotter]

Jupiter was the first thing I looked at through my telescope and was a definite WOW!

Since then the list is pretty long but has to include:

Saturn

Mars back in January

Uranus a few weeks ago

Ring Nebula

Veil Nebula

Alberio