taxman
17-06-2008, 08:15 PM
Took my brand new 8" dob to a friend's house on Saturday. needed a little collimation which I am still finding a pain - probably need some bigger knobs which I'lll try to get from a friend who is a fitter & turner.
My friend lives in a marginally less light polluted area than I (next to a golf course), so I though it would be a good location to see what I could see.
Found Jupiter no problem (of course) first. Seeing was a bit ordinary - the edges were 'boiling', but four cloud bands could be seen, no spot though. Fascinating though, everyone had a look, with the 6 year old most impressed even claiming she could see colours.
Moved on to Saturn - same problem with boiling edges, but the ring showed up brilliantly, and the line in the middle of the planet (cassini division?) was very clear as a thin black line.
My friend's wife did a 'Bart Simpson' slewing it to a random spot in the south south east sky, looked in the eyepiece and said 'what's this cloud thingy?'. I think it was the butterfly cluster according to Stellarium.
We left it for a few hours to cool down, and then tried to find something else. I am very inexperienced, so according to Stellarium, it seemed I would find something if I put Jupiter in the far left of the eyepiece and began scanning upwards to the zenith. I found a very faint cluster, which I initially though was M24, but as it had no bright stars in the centre, now believe it to be M7. Very cool.
Called it night at this stage, as it was about 1ish and very cold (all I wore was shorts and a tshirt.) Spent a lot of time kneeling on wet grass - so I think the next purchase has to be an adjustable observing chair, closely followed by a Baader 8-24 zoom (is it really as good as people are saying it is?), with 50 degrees AFOV at 24mm and 68 nearly everywhere else.
I am glad I went with the 8" dob, as I find the wide field of view much better than my 90mm skywatcher refractor, and the mount much more stable than the eq2 mount. I did get some dew on the mirror unfortunately, so I probably should clean this also. The 6mm GSO was pretty much useless, maybe a burgess 5mm would work better (any advice there?)
All in all, a very satisfying night, glad I spent the money on this. Mainly though, I would like people's thoughts on good observing chair (or plans for one - I am an ex-boilermaker and could probably make one :thumbsup:), the baader 8-24 zoom and the burgess 5mm planetary, if anyone has the time.
Thanks for the help I have gotten on my previous posts - I really am glad I followed the advice people here have provided!
My friend lives in a marginally less light polluted area than I (next to a golf course), so I though it would be a good location to see what I could see.
Found Jupiter no problem (of course) first. Seeing was a bit ordinary - the edges were 'boiling', but four cloud bands could be seen, no spot though. Fascinating though, everyone had a look, with the 6 year old most impressed even claiming she could see colours.
Moved on to Saturn - same problem with boiling edges, but the ring showed up brilliantly, and the line in the middle of the planet (cassini division?) was very clear as a thin black line.
My friend's wife did a 'Bart Simpson' slewing it to a random spot in the south south east sky, looked in the eyepiece and said 'what's this cloud thingy?'. I think it was the butterfly cluster according to Stellarium.
We left it for a few hours to cool down, and then tried to find something else. I am very inexperienced, so according to Stellarium, it seemed I would find something if I put Jupiter in the far left of the eyepiece and began scanning upwards to the zenith. I found a very faint cluster, which I initially though was M24, but as it had no bright stars in the centre, now believe it to be M7. Very cool.
Called it night at this stage, as it was about 1ish and very cold (all I wore was shorts and a tshirt.) Spent a lot of time kneeling on wet grass - so I think the next purchase has to be an adjustable observing chair, closely followed by a Baader 8-24 zoom (is it really as good as people are saying it is?), with 50 degrees AFOV at 24mm and 68 nearly everywhere else.
I am glad I went with the 8" dob, as I find the wide field of view much better than my 90mm skywatcher refractor, and the mount much more stable than the eq2 mount. I did get some dew on the mirror unfortunately, so I probably should clean this also. The 6mm GSO was pretty much useless, maybe a burgess 5mm would work better (any advice there?)
All in all, a very satisfying night, glad I spent the money on this. Mainly though, I would like people's thoughts on good observing chair (or plans for one - I am an ex-boilermaker and could probably make one :thumbsup:), the baader 8-24 zoom and the burgess 5mm planetary, if anyone has the time.
Thanks for the help I have gotten on my previous posts - I really am glad I followed the advice people here have provided!