Light No. 8... Balcony

[Debostar]

I managed after a few days to figure out how to install google sky map in my phone, so armed with the info, I went M-object hunting and managed to observe the following in fantastic clarity given also the presence of 1-2 thousand sodium vapour street lamps that turn night into day...I must get me a LP filter...

M35, a little dim

M36, clear

M37, no chance

M38, nothing

Sirius, marvelled at its brilliance! It is the brightest star isn't it??

M41, visible

M93, dim but visible

M44, late at night, 0100 this is beautiful....

NGC 2264, very dim

NGC 2232, nothing

M67, no chance

no planets...

I am learning to observe and consult my book at the same time, and do alignment with one known star only...

The android app is very handy, because it is easy to look at your handy while observing instead of going back to see stellarium...However, the app is not very detailed and has no NGC object display....but it is okay for a newbie...

[Ad Astra]

Hello George,

I sympathize about looking out from a balcony - lots of light about to go deep sky hunting! With your 130mm you should be able to do quite a bit better if you can get to a darker location.

One thing you CAN do, is try out your luck on some double stars. They are much less likely to be interfered with by light pollution than faint fuzzies in the M-catalog.

Dan

[Debostar]

Yes...but I don't know much about the double stars....I must study more and go to a dark location....Trouble is, in this place there are lots of dark locaions, but you need to go over rough rocky roads and I am a bit reluctant to tranposrt my scope lest the optics get damaged due to car shake...