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I found Loveljoy last night. It was fairly low on the horizon for me (I blame the roof of my house) but was pretty pleased when I saw it. It was a bright blur similar to the cluster in LMC with a bright glow in the middle of it. The amazement of finding something for the first time gives me a bit of a buzz and sense of achievement. Weird? I didn’t watch it for long. I needed to pack up as I had work today and couldn’t stay out forever, as much as I’d have liked to.
At this stage, I am just trying to familiarise myself with objects and their names as well as their locations. I’ll keep doing this until I am happy and can do it on my own. Once I’ve done that I’ll start looking at things for longer and studying in more detail, learning about their characteristics and so on.
This morning I started a diary of what I saw and where I saw it in the sky and stapled it into a book along with the Skymap printout highlighting the things I looked at. I feel this is a great way for me to keep track (no pun intended).
I’m using a 10” collapsible dob with no Goto or Argo Navis. I’m deciding which way to go on that and pending what my budget says I can get. In saying that, going manually is a good way to learn.
My next few targets are 47 Tucanae, Jewel Box, Coalsack Nebula, Eta Carinae. Any other suggestions to look out for with Nebula or star objects?
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