Best night so far...

[elusiver]

Well, since getting the dob been only able to get a few solid ob sessions in, due to weather and time. Got one in tonight though, and boy was it awesome. Set up my little corner of the backyard, tarp, chair, table, laptop, case, coffee and dob(which i'll here forth refer to as 'Love') was all ready. Love was left out to cool before hand and she was ready to go. Finally.. am getting the hang of this 'star hopping' thing i hear so much about :P And am now moving love with intention.. the up=down left=right thing had be off for a while. But, got a few things good globs and open clusters. Still no galaxies or nebulas, was very, very close to getting lagoon nebula i think though. Saw it slightly in the finderscope, changed eyepieces, then Mrs El wanders down the yard to wish me goodnight, and set off the sensor lights in the process. :( :( Ahh well.. next time.

All in all a top night.
el :)

[asimov]

That's great EL, glad you enjoyed yourself! Next time, perhaps you should disable the sensor light? :D

[ballaratdragons]

Ellex,

If you want to find some fairly easy galaxies look around slowly in Virgo. It's chockers in there!!!

Start with a long FL (20mm - 30mm) to spot the little faint fuzzies then once you find one bump up your mag (15, 12, 9, etc) Then just slowly hop from one galaxy to the other in high mag. Even in moderate light pollution you should easily find a dozen or so.

When you get used to what they look like at low mag and high mag you should then be able to find 20-30 of them in Virgo alone!!!!

[ballaratdragons]

If you want to see 2 very easy Nebulas try for:

1. Orion Nebula. BIG and easy. Orion comes up about 5am at the moment.

2. Tarantula Nebula. It's in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

That should get you started! :thumbsup:

[elusiver]

Thanks BD for the tips. Clouds come in now.. so I doubt I'll be able to get out for a couple of days :(

But the nebulas.. orion at 5am.. doubt it.. i work 7 days a week so waking up at 5am is not gonna happen :P I tried to get LMC and SMC yesterday but ended up heading outside too late so couldn't see past the back fence :(

asi.. the mrs knows now that she's not to come into the backyard when i'm out. :D :D

el :)

[janoskiss]

Ferntree Gully might be still too close to the city to see galaxies. Bright nebulas are not a problem though. Lagoon neb is easiest to find with binos, then point the scope in the general direction with your widest FOV EP and you won't be far off. Have fun! :thumbsup: