New Member!

[Jacko]

Hey Guys,

Just thought i'd say g'day. I've lurked the forums for a little while deciding what to buy... and yesterday i picked up a 8" Bintel Dob.

The weather in Sydney is obviously horrible at the moment, and until i get to take it outside the city i know i'm missing a lot. But last night even in the clouds i managed to find Jupiter (and its moons!) and was utterly amazed. I really wasn't expecting the detail of the atmospheric bands etc.

Saturn is my next target prior to heading out on some weekend adventures once the weather improves!

Jack

[La_Displuke]

Welcome mate. I was set up for saturn tonight but these clouds are a killer.

[Allan_L]

Hi Jack,
Welcome to IceInSpace :welcome:

Great scope you have there, and Bintel are a good bunch of knowledgeable blokes there.

Enjoy your new scope and feel free to pick our collective minds with your questions (we all had to learn from scratch too)

[Akwestland]

Jack,

Welcome. I got out tonight and did some viewing it was good. I am still trying to find my way around here.

You cant go far wrong with a Dob. The people here are a great source of info.

Good luck

Cheers,
Andrew

[Renato1]

Congratulations on your purchase.

Yes, you do miss out a lot being in the city. But there are still plenty of open clusters, globular clusters, bright nebula and double stars that you can see reasonably well in the city, and the practice you get hunting them down will serve you in good stead for when you do go out into the country.
Regards,
Renato

[pepsimax]

Congrats!

[Rod771]

Well done Jack! :thumbsup:

Saturn will blow your mind :eyepop: if you haven't seen it through a scope before.

[Jacko]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Probably a stupid question.. but is there a catalog or something of the brightness of objects (clusters.. nebula etc)? If there's any chance of me finding anything before i venture out one night i should probably pick the brightest thing i can right? :P

And yes very much looking forward to Saturn.. when is the best time for viewing at the moment? Very early morning?

Jack

[PSALM19.1]

Welcome Jack! Lot's of fun ahead for you! I have the same scope as you, so if you ever need any help with specifics, please ask! (I'm no seasoned pro, but have been looking at the night sky for a few years now!). If you have an android phone or tablet, download an App called Mobile Observatory...it has details of objects you can see (magnitude, size etc) and also detailed and accurate sky maps as well as live viewing. The book, Astronomy Australia, is also a great source of info and of course you can email the telescope shop. But mate, this forum is FULL of info from very experienced astronomers...ask away!

Saturn would be best at about 4:30 - 5:00 am; in fact, it is quite good at the moment and easy to spot right in the head of Scorpio (which is a good sight in itself!)

Enjoy your new toy and keep looking up! :)

[Renato1]

I find Tirion's Bright Star Atlas handy for highlighting the 600 or so brightest objects, nearly all of which you could make out from a backyard in the suburbs (though the views of galaxies would be very poor). That said, Bright Star`Atlas isn't much good for locating the objects with your dob because it doesn't have enough stars plotted, since it's only meant for binoculars and small telescopes. So I use it in conjunction with bigger atlases.

There are plenty of downloadable atlases, but people tend to pack many of them with more objects than Bright Star Atlas, so that they aren't as good a filter for brighter DSOs. That said, I haven't checked them all out.

Saturn rises just after midnight, but doesn't really get to a nice elevation for good viewing till towards 4am where I live. But if you live somewhere with a clear horizon and steady atmosphere, you can check it out much earlier.
Regards,
Renato

[Starlite]

Welcome:thumbsup: Good onya Jack, no mucking around, straight in with an 8'' dob , worry about the other types and sizes later. Clear skies J.:)

[yoda776]

Hi Jack,

Welcome to the forums. I only joined backed in Oct / Nov last year and find there a quite a few really helpful people to answer pretty much any question you have.

An 8 inch scope is a great start and certainly will show you plenty in the night sky once it clears up.

I found if I used Star Chart on the iPad I can literally point it at the sky to show me the names of stars. Stellarium is great on PC / laptop to show what is up in the sky. both need your location info to be reasonably accurate.

Also try http://www.deepskywatch.com/ which has some downloadable maps which can be printed (A3 paper).

Good luck and hopefully clear skies for you soon mate.:welcome:

Cheers,
Matt

[Jacko]

Thanks very much for all the kind words everyone!

yoda i got a hold of stellarium... love it already!

I managed to get a hold of Saturn the other night.. low in the sky but i was still amazed! Managed to track down NGC2632, NGC2664, NGC1976 and
NGC4755 tonight too. I'm still in the light polluted cbd and so i'm eagerly awaiting my chance to see them all again (and more) once i get away from that soon.

J

[cd_design]

Saturn really has that instant wow factor!