First week with a new scope.

[jwr]

I recently acquired my first proper telescope and luckily had 3 good clear nights this past week (doesn't that contravene one of the rules of buying new gear?).

The first night was spent learning the scope and the alignment procedures. After a few tries I was successfully hitting most targets on the nose.

The second night was a true bounty of great sights. I started with M42 and was blown away! To my eye there was a lovely blue-ish tinge to the nebulous region and I could discern a fair number of quite dim stars within the area. After that great start I tracked over to Andromeda and managed to get a good few minutes of viewing before a stray cloud decided to park in front of my scope.

The cherry on the top of the evening was Saturn rising above the trees. I tracked over and there it was. Shimmering and distorted but with clearly visible rings. I experimented with a few eyepieces but atmospheric distortion meant that I couldn't really push the magnification. I spent a good 30 minutes just watching Saturn track higher in the sky. Just as I was about to call it a night the local farmer came past in his Land Rover. He stopped and was curious about what I was looking at. I let him take a look and to say his jaw dropped would be an understatement. It goes to show that you don't need to be an astronomy nerd to be stunned by seeing an image of a planet over a billion kilometres away.

-J

[rawhead]

Sounds like you had a great session

Glad the weather gods were with you....

Have you copped for the snow?

Cheers

[swamp thing]

Hi J

Nice report. Looks like you might have infected someone else with the astro virus.

Also good to hear the Blue-ish tinge you saw in M42 I have seen a turquoise colour around the trapezium many times.

Regards Steve

[jwr]

Luckily no snow here. It usually doesn't get this close to the coast. Plenty about 10 miles inland though. Looks like I'm clouded in for the next week though

It might be my imagination, but the more I looked at M42 the more colours I could pick out. Seemed to be a mix of lilacs, blues and turquoises - very pretty.

James.

[Nexus 6]

Luckily no snow here. It usually doesn't get this close to the coast. Plenty about 10 miles inland though. Looks like I'm clouded in for the next week though

It might be my imagination, but the more I looked at M42 the more colours I could pick out. Seemed to be a mix of lilacs, blues and turquoises - very pretty.

James.

Hi James, you must be pleased to have had some clear skies to test out your new scope, very nice btw, interesting to see your account of M42 and the hues you are able to observe within it, I have also on occasions observed some similair tones, I have put it down to nights of good seeing and the fact I use Televue ep's mostly

Hope the cloud breaks you get out again soon

[Merlin66]

Looking at your Sig - you have a very nice collection of gear there!!

I'm sure the farmer will be back with the rest of his tribe.....

[nick w]

im jelous been out vertualy every night for the last 2 weeks and nothing near that just good moon views and limited m42 well done

[jwr]

@Merlin66 - cheers! Very pleased with my new setup. I have a background in astronomical imaging but I've always used the equipment belonging to universities etc. It's nice (but a little fraught) to finally start to build my own system.

James.

[Ursa Major]

Thats one lucky farmer. I to was observing saturn on that date. this atmosphere wasnt the best.