New 8" Dob arrived!

[ManintheMoon]

Yesterday was the best day of my life because my new SW680 8” Dob arrived! :D :D :party:

It took more than a week for it to come up from Sydney and when Dad brought it home it was time for tea but after that I put it together myself and we stargazed until 10pm!

Last night I looked at Jupiter and its moons! :eyepop: Then I found this weird cloud thing inside the Big Dipper’s handle. It looked like 1 star with the binoculars but when I used the telescope I it was more like 10! I was wondering what it was. :shrug:

It was awesome what you could see with the Dob. :astron:

Thanks for any answers on what the cloud thing in the Big Dipper might be!
:thanx:

Maninthemoon

[Benno85]

Congrats mate, another one has been hooked!

I'm going to suggest that the cloud was M42, or the Orion Nebula, only because I'm not familiar with "The Big Dipper"!!! I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[DavidU]

Congratulations !
Here is M42 in Orion that you saw.

[mental4astro]

WooooHooooo! :party2:

Here are a couple of links to a planisphere and a good beginners star atlas I've taken from one of the stickies in the beginners forum. The Planisphere is a great starting tool to find your way around, I still use mine after 25 years to plan sessions. This one is a great DIY project:

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/planisphere/planisphere.htm

This star atlas is a great beginners one. Shows an aweful lot to keep you busy for a long time:

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zs3t-tk/atlas/atlas.htm

That is one big telescope, fella! So too is the smile!

Enjoy!

Mental.

PS: 'cloud things' are called nebulae, this is where new stars are being born.

[jjjnettie]

Yep, it was M42 alright!!
Congratulations on your discovery.
You should explore the constellation of Carina next.
The Eta Carina Nebula is soooo beautiful.

[mental4astro]

Here is a little list of objects you might like to chase down that are nice and bright:

* 47 Tucanae in the constellation Tucana- a globular cluster, a giant ball of stars that orbits the Milky Way as one of its satellites. It also lies very close to the Small Magellanic cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way!

* Tarantula Nebula in Dorado- a giant nebula that resembles a giant spider. It actually lies in another galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, that also orbits the Milky Way. Scan around the 'spider'. It is surrounded by plenty of clusters and nebulousity, all outside of our home galaxy.

Binoculars will show these two galaxies somewhat better than a telescope!

* NGC 253 in Sculptor- a distant galaxy seen nearly edge on. This one will challenge you to find! It looks like a faintish oval smear/cloud. Be patient to spot it. It is there and you new scope won't have any trouble showing it to you.

[jjjnettie]

NGC 253, if you're under dark skies, you'll see it easily in your finder scope.
M31, The Andromeda Galaxy, is another to find. Again, under dark skies, you can see it naked eye. It's so big you won't fit it all in the eyepiece. You'll have to move the scope around to see it all.
Enjoy your new Dob.

[erick]

You're the Man! Well done for putting it together yourself!

[barx1963]

Awesome! Thats a great scope, make sure it gets plenty of use. Keep us posted on what you see, looking forward to hearing plenty.