First real observation night

[quantum64]

I'll try to keep this short, but I wanted to report on my first real observation night. I know I'm going against some recommendations by going observing without even a star map; however, I'm moving across the country in less than a week and I see no real point in ordering one, just to have it forwarded to me later. None the less, I was able to get some good viewing in with the GoTo last night.

I have a Orion SkyView pro 8" Newtonian with GoTo. With the scope, came a 25mm and 10mm eyepiece.

Prior to polar aligning my scope, I targeted Jupiter because it was quickly falling to the horizon. With the 10mm eyepiece I could see 3 bands and 3 moons. It was a great site. It was considerably bright and clear. I really think I could still get a clear picture with a higher power eyepiece or barlow.

Next I tried to polar align the scope. This is harder then I thought it would be, primarily because the finder scope is easily misaligned when even slightly bumped. I find this incredibly frustrating, because it seems to never stay on target. Finally I get Polaris in the field of view, and started the alignment. I can recognize a few Stars in the sky, however due to cloud cover, no star map, and little options in stars to pick from on the GoTo system, I had to settle with the 1-star alignment.

After that, I tested the GoTo by first trying the Orion Nebula. It slewed over to that direction and put the nebula within the field of view, but right on the edge. I figured this wasn't that bad for only doing a 1 star alignment. Was this error due to only completing a 1-star alignment or because my polar alignment was of? Overall, the nebula was the most spectacular view of the night. Really enjoyed it!

I went through a long tour with the GoTo. It showed objects like M82 and M81, which showed up great! I could see both galaxies within the same field of view. However, many items I could not find at all. The GoTo system slewed to Andromeda, but I could never find it. Perhaps it was the alignment of my scope or just too faint. Is this generally a faint object?

Overall, I'm very impressed with the scope. Then again, I have nothing to compare it to. Will be in Arizona in 1 week and hoping for clear skies!

[perrin6]

Hi Kyle,

Arizona ! That's a great place to do astronomy from what I hear, good clear transparent desert skies unlike my cloud-infested home-town of London. Just be careful not to bump into a cactus in the dark !

RE: the finderscope- are the adjustment screws tight against the finder tube, if not then I slight bump could move it.

M31 the Andromeda galaxy will be obvious when you see it, although structure needs a good dark sky. You should see it's 2 main companion galaxies too, especially M32.

[quantum64]

I have the adjustment screws set so that the finder scope is aligned with they main scope. I'm not sure if I can get them any tighter without messing up the adjustment. Perhaps a red-dot finder scope would be better?

Thanks perrin6!

[brantuk]

Andromeda can be seen naked eye believe it or not. It's the only galaxy that can but it needs to be really good seeing and very dark. It's dead easy to pick out in binocs too even under average seeing.

But in a scope it's easy to miss if you aren't right on it. Use a wide angle ep and double check your goto alignment to make sure. I like it best in 33mm or 40mm 2" ep's.

In a 10mm ep you might have missed some objects simply cos they weren't in the ep fov - space is big lol. Best to search with lower powers first and then swop in the magnification when centered on it perfectly.

Hope that helps

[umadog]

Enjoy Arizona! I'm sure you'll love the observing from there:

The World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness