back out after a long break.

[Chippy3476]

Hi all,
I am finnally getting back out under the night sky after almost a years break, I am pretty excited. So I will be getting out with my 8 inch dob and was just posting here to see if anyone could tell me of anything in particular that would be viewable for me at the moment from my Brisbane based backyard. Of course I will be using my star chart app to try and track down some objects but maybe someone could give me some ideas.

Thanks
Dan

[AlexN]

Welcome back mate.

At the moment, as soon as your scope cools down you've got the sagittarius arm of the milky way over head. This gives you heaps of viewing options. M8, M20, M16 and m17 are first to mind. M4 globular cluster..Saturn is in there at the moment too, a little later in the night you will have ngc104 globular cluster. While that will be veiled in light pollution from Brisbane cbd it's still plenty bright enough for viewing.

By this time (9:30~10pm) ngc253 should be about 30 degrees up and the helix nebula would nearly be directly over head. Both should be easily visible from Caboolture in an 8" scope.

If you want more of a challenge, ngc55 is quite nice and ngc300 should be detectable.

Neptune is tucked away in this area also.

Depending on your dedication, 12am brings the m45 into view and 1am you get orion coming up. Thats always a favourite...

[sil]

you could hunt down Comet Catalina low in the SW evening skies. has tail, not quite naked eye brightness yet.

[deanm]

You could install some(free!) software on your computer - CdC is good:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/skychart/

As is Stellarium:

http://www.stellarium.org/

And there are dozens of apps (usually a few $s) for your mobile, whatever flavour yours is.

All good for planning for tonight, next week or next year!

Dean