[boomstix (Pat)]

These past two nights I have seen more objects through my telescope than in the 6 months I have had it. I came across the BAM600 the other day and decided I would try my luck with this months object. I think having a list like this is really a great idea as in the past I have just scanned around without any real aim and mostly not finding much. Well that has all changed for me now and I feel like I am a man on a mission!

Tuesday night I wasnt looking for anything inparticular on the list. The parents in law are staying with us at the moment and have never looked through a telescope so I thought I would show them a couple of things I knew I could find. We started the night off looking at saturn and mars with faint detail being able to be seen on saturn. My partners mum was actually quite freaked out by this. It can be such a daunting feeling knowing that you are looking at something that far away from your back yard. Really puts things into percpective for you...

After some jaw dropping moments on the planets I showed them the multiple stars at alpha/beta centauri as well as acrux. We then finished the night by looking at the jewel box which they were quite amazed by as well.

Seeing the excitement in their faces inspired me to get out again last night and see if I could find a couple of items on that list. Omega centauri, NGC5128 and NGC5286 is what I was looking for.

Was quite tricky to find these items as I am only a little south of Brisbane so there is light pollution as well as the lights from the living room flooding out into the back yard. I persisted in my endeavour though and was greatly rewarded for my patience. I must say the first time Omega Centauri floats into view was one of those OMG moments for me. It really is an awesome site and reminded me of those whispy spiders nests/eggs you see on the ground some times.

After being amazed for quite some time I tried to find NGC 5286 which was quite tricky. I did manage to find it though by swapping out my eyepiece to a 25mm one and then changing back to my 13mm Nagler once located. Definately not as spectacular as Omega Centauri but was still quite excited about it seeing as how long it took me to find it.

Last on the list for the night was NGC5128 which was the most elusive thing to find. It was really hard as the light pollution really drowned out most of the stars I was trying to use as guides to find it. After about half an hour of scanning the general area it was in a faint smudge moved across my view. I centred in on it with my nagler and after a good 10 minutes of looking at it with averted vision I 'think' I managed to see the lane running between it. This was really hard to see and im 90% certain I wasnt just imagining it but could be mistaken hehe.

Anyway I am quite happy with my efforts of the past 2 nights and have now knocked off 5 of the 30 odd objects to be seen in May. Going to take a drive out to some darker skys on the weekend and see if I can find a few more objects from the list.

Edit: I am using a 12" dobsonian and for the most part was using my 13mm Nagler eyepiece.