Do you have a favourite view? what scope, what location, when?

[davidpretorius]

Due to lack of decent weather and time to pull the scope out, I have been remembering my favourite views of an object. In no particuliar order:

1. jupiter, through the 10" dob 5mm vixen at 250x, JNR spot visible, earlier this year
2. saturn, though my scope again, but in melbourne, the night after snake valley, CD was razor sharp
3. saturn again, but through the TAK's of stu and peter at snake valley
4. nebula, orion through a 24mm panoptic in paul haese's c9.25 at snake valley, awesome detail
5. sombrero galaxy thru ken's 12" dob at snake valley, sooooo much more detail than my 10" dob
6. naked eye orion in dark dark skies, no lights to the horizon, hard to make out orion itself ue to stars, xmas last year, east coast of tassie.

12 months in this wonderful hobby and already some great memories!

oh yes and making friends like you rat bags:lol:

[Lee]

Naked eye - Milky Way from Dorrigo, when it isn't foggy! Compared to my place in Newcastle its stunningly dark.....
My favourite view of a galaxy (ie only one so far) was on Sunday in my yard here of Centaurus A - that faint smudgy, fuzzy star will stay with me for a long time! I need some dark skies, and some more aperture!

[danny]

I have to say the first time I saw Saturn when at school, hooked for life. Now have countless others, but M42 stops me at the ep! Well done Lee :thumbsup: Bet you can't wait for dark skies to study this baby. Have you pick out the Sombrero for Newy?

[Lee]

No Sombrero yet - although moonless skies for the next couple of weeks coming up.... It's on my hitlist.....

[ving]

gawd davo!!! the whole lot of it!!!

its so have to pin point any one part!

hi mag moonage is great
the emu froma dark sight

[Davelrkn]

Hi Al
The object that sticks in my mind was from a few years back through Pete R's scope(Robbos30) back then he had the Obsession 20'' was of NGC2359 Thors Helmet with O3 filter under dark skies there the bubble looked 3D and still cannot get the view out of my mind.Looking forward to the view again but this time in his 30''

Dave

[mickoking]

Taranula neb, OIII filter 300mm Dob
Eta carinae neb, OIII filter 300mm Dob
M104 (sombrero) 13mm Nagler 300mm Dob
Milky way, Naked eye, Everest base campPlus many many others ;)

[cahullian]

One of my fav's is Omega Century through a 8-24mm zoom. It looks like your flying through the stars. Spotting Jupiter's red spot for the first time was a highlight I will never forget. But the biggets buzz so far is hunting down Neptune and Uranus, it took me ages to find them and when I did I got both within an hour of each other. I was dancing a jig for hours after that(not a pretty sight). Good thing I was on my own and in the dark.

Gazz

[Lee]

You mean you didn't hump the 12" up to base camp - you must be getting soft! :P ;) :lol:

[astro_south]

a couple that stick out in my mind.....

- 47 Tuc through my 12.5" dob using the 31mm Nagler ~ 60x and 1.34 degree field framed the glob perfectly filling the field and still well resolved at the core (remember this dhumpie?) at Cambroon last year
- The Grus Quartet through my 12.5" dob and the 31mm Nagler from Leyburn ... love those contemplation moments while gazing at a multiple galaxy field
- M104 through an excellent 22" F5.7 Galaxy mirror at Leyburn at the start of the year (think it was a 20mm Nagler eyepiece)
- Thor's helmet through a 30" (Robbos30) - the power of 30" in bringing out the structure in the nebula at Leyburn (same night as the obs above)
- The Veil nebula through my 12.5" dob at Duckadang last month using a 19mm Pan and an OIII filter
- Seeing spiral arms in NGC1365 in my 12.5" for the first time ... very chuffed that is was actually possible.
- and of course the Milkyway from horizon to horizon naked eye at Leyburn

[IanW]

A couple of highlights ..

Comet Hyakutake - April 1996 Tal-1 4.5" Newtonian. Perched atop the septic tank out back of the Warrumbungles Motel Coonabarabaran. A stunning view of the then newly discovered comet. Found it by accident while sweeping the sky around Spica. What sticks out in my mind was the discussion my observing partner Steve Massey and I had that night about WTF we were observing. The other highlight that night was resolving the outer regions clearly of Ω Cent, a testament to how good the optics were in the TAL and the seeing conditions. Lowpoint of the night, the stench that rose from the tanks from time to time.


Ω Centauri - 1974 James Cook Astronomers Society (now SASI) Green Point Observatory. 41cm Newtonian. The first time I'd seen Ω Cent. through a telescope larger than 4.5" and fully resolved the core, a heart stopping moment.

Transit of Venus - June 8 2004. 10" Meade f.10 Baader solar filter.