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Old 24-01-2010, 02:07 PM
barx1963's Avatar
barx1963 (Malcolm)
Bright the hawk's flight

barx1963 is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Mt Duneed Vic
Posts: 3,978
The 8" is an excellent instrument for viewing DSO's, there are hundreds within reach of your scope. Use the 26mm eyepiece first, and I would suggest you get a medium power eyepice say 15mm or their abouts, if you can offord it get a wide field one rather than a plossl.

Mars is not easy at the moment, very low, you have to wait for moments of good seeing to pick up much detail, but you should be able to see the polar cap.

Good objects in the Southern part of the sky are

Eta Carina Nebula
NGC 3532 which is close to Eta Car
47 Tucanae, NGC 104
NGC 362 close to 47 Tuc
Tarantula Nebula
The Jewell Box NGC4755
Omega Centauri (it rises late best after 1am)

All these will look great in an 8" and several (Omega Cent, Eta Car, NGC 3532) are naked eye and all are locatable in a finder

In the northern sky you can try for

M67 Open cluster in Cancer
M43 just near M42
Rigels companion star

Anyway thats just some starters of the top of my head, see how you go.
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