What can i expect?

[sas]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to take my 12" DOB out to Wallan (~52km north of Melbourne) in the next week or so, where the skies are much darker than the inner suburbs. I'm used to getting the scope out in my driveway to take a peek at Jupiter, Venus and the Moon which is great, however this will be the first time im looking through the DOB in a darker setting, which i know only as being 'a lot better seeing'.

Can i expect to see anything of a deep sky nature?
Planets come out a lot clearer?
Now'ish would be ideal given a new moon?

Cheers,
- Michael :)

PS: Yay - first post!

[h0ughy]

the darker it gets the more stars you see.... and more nebulae..... and comets.......and satellites

[§AB]

wallan is still pretty close to Melbourne isn't it? There would be a mass of light pollution floodingthe southern sky. Not an ideal location IMO. Try further north, towards Kilmore or Beveridge.

[leon]

Although what was said in the last post is true, the point is the further you go out side the city the better, at 50 ks it will be good, but at 100 ks it will be better.

The unfortunate part of this is, that unless we go into some really dark site, say 300 -400 ks out we will always get some light pollution.

Leon

[erick]

Welcome Michael!

Head for Wallan - brilliant idea!

I have observed from Romsey and East/North/West are quite reasonable skies. To the south will be ginormous Melbourne skyglow, but you can still observe that direction - not impossible.

Obviously try to get away from local lights as much as you can and let your eyes dark adapt well.

Lots of targets. Earlier in the evening, after you've had a good look at Jupiter, turn to Scorpius and Sagittarius. The swing to the north and see if you can catch the globular M13 in Hercules before it sets too far. Then look at the lovely double star Alberio in Cygnus, and try to pick up the planetary nebula, the Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra. Then tour your northern sky later in the night - globular M15 in Pegasus, galaxy M31 (even though it's low to the horizon) in Andromeda, galaxy M33 in Triangulum to name a few easy targets. Also the Pleiades star cluster (M45) in Taurus, then the Orion Nebula (M42) on the Sword of Orion.

You'll have a great time. :thumbsup:

[erick]

And if you want to see more, Snake Valley (20 min SW of Ballarat) has its monthly Astro Club night next Friday and is much darker that Wallan could hope to be. I plan to go with my 12".

[iceman]

Hi Michael, :welcome: to IceInSpace!

You'll love your 12" dob! It's a great scope.

btw, Michael (sas) used to be my online gaming clan, Clan Oxygen O2 for RtCW and ET. :)

Are you still playing any games?

[§AB]

Yup the extra 15-30mins behind the wheel wont hurt.



Halfway between Mildura and Broken hill or between Mildura and Renmark would be sick!

[sas]

Thanks for the super fast responses guys.

Some great suggestions and food for thought. I'm really looking forward to going out now, and maybe a little further than originally planned :)

G'day Mike. Not playing games competitively anymore and haven't done so since the great O2 days. Casually playing every so often on ETQW pubs though... but it aint like vanilla wolfies (nothing will be?).

[leon]

but it aint like vanilla wolfies (nothing will be?). http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/../vbiis/images/buttons/quote.gif (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=367125)

Must be some special code, :shrug: anyway, enjoy the scope, and learn, although it may take a little time, you will be blessed with the wonders of the deep, and the darker you can get it the better. ;)

Leon :thumbsup:

[Craig.a.c]

12", you will love it.
The first thing I noticed was the amount of stars that I could see.

Some colour will come through in the orion nebula. I was looking at it last night and noticed that it showed an almost aqua blue/green around the trapezium.

Globular clusters will blow you away. Make sure to check out 47tuc.