1st night out with my dob

[gary1968]

Well the weather has been **** recently and I was involved in a major diy project in the hose so having had me 10" Skyliner for about 3 weeks I was desparate to get out.

The clouds parted for a wee while on friday night so we, me and a few like minded mates, went to another mates house for a wee session.

We arrived about 8:30 and it was lovely and clear, he lives in the country and the sky from his place is amazing considering it is so close to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Anyway, I had my dob and some telrad charts that I had prepared earlier so of I set to find M81/82. I have looked at these 2 on many occasions but always used my goto to find them, this was the 1st attempt at finding them for myself. After about 5 or so mins I found them, what a feeling of achievement I got when I actually found them for myself and not rely on a computer. It was a very nice sight in the 10" with a SW 32mm Panaview EP.

I then moved onto the Ring Nebula and then to Jupiter..... the Ring was nice in the Panaview but not so much Jupiter, I switched to my 15mm plossil for that. I have had a look at Jupiter a few times with the Panaview and now think it is not so good for planets, there seems to be wierd reflections going on due I think to the planets brightness.

At that point the clouds started to roll in so we retired to the warmroom, had a blether and coffe and then set off home, it was a good 1st outing for me and the dob.

Anyway, I am now hooked on the dob, and star hopping with the telrad.......

[Talitha]

Well done! Glad you were able to get out, sounds like it was quite a night.

[dogfish]

Well done Gary. Is this you coming back to the 'light' side?

Martin

[umadog]

That's a lovely pair of galaxies, is it not?

Good stuff.