New scope curse

[GraemeT]

G'day everyone from a newbie. I picked up my new (first) scope today, and found out tonight that it must have been packed with moistions. the curse was well and truly on me. I raced home as quickly as I could from a dinner engagement to try out my 8" dob, looking skyward all the way and drooling over the wonderful sights in store. After manhandling the thing outside, working out again all the things I thought I had "memorised" during my daylight play, I turned it toward the heavens in time to see the cloud about to cover the last remaining stars!
Well, I guess there will be many more nights. At least it was practice in finding how to manipulate everything in the dark.
Cheers,
Graeme

[RB]

It never fails Graeme.
I know the feeling, I was looking forward to a full night of imaging and sure enough high cloud is playing havoc with my exposures.

Congratulations on your new scope, there'll be many more opportunities to enjoy !

And welcome to IIS.

:)

[Spanrz]

Ahhh, that's why it's cloudy in Melbourne too....:hi:

[floyd_2]

Graeme,
it's clear again now. I just got back in from a 90 minute fling around the sky with my 80mm guide scope. I was chased around by the clouds a little at the beginning, but they didn't last. Take another look out there - you might catch a look at Saturn, the Carina Neb. the Sombrero, Omega Cent. and more.

Welcome aboard!

Dean

[Wavytone]

Well, open it up and let the pesky moistions escape so we'll all have clear skies tomorrow !

[Suzy]

Congratulations on your new purchase Graeme! :welcome:aboard. This hobby has taught me levels of patience and tolerance I had no idea I had! You will learn to go with it too. But it is so frustrating isn't it when you get a new scope and you can't use it! I had to wait a whole week before I could use mine.

[MrWombles]

Understand your frustration - I also have got my new scope and have had only two sessions with clear sky in the last two weeks !! But then again, it is coming into the colder rainy season...
Hopefully it will clear for the weekend.:thumbsup:

[Liz]

Welcome Graeme :welcome:
Yep, we have all been there ..... some time the clouds will hang arpound for a night, few nights, weeks. :eyepop:
Skippysky doesnt look too bad for you, so good luck tonight.

http://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/ (http://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/)

[GraemeT]

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, tonight's another night!
Cheers
Graeme

[big_dav_2001]

:welcome:

Welcome Graham....

Here are a few little certainties ive picked up over time:

If you want a train/bus to run on time, light a cigarette at the time its due to arrive, guarantee it will arive before you get halfway through...
If you want to end the drought, get all car owners to drive to drought affected areas and wash threir cars, guaranteed rain..
And finally, if you want the clouds to clear up, start dissassembling your gear, guarantee the sky will be clear within 10 mins of packing up...(but dont bother going back to set up again, thats just asking for trouble)....hehehe:lol:
Hopefully youve got many more great nights to come...:thumbsup:

Dav
:cheers:

[GraemeT]

Well the moistions must have dissipated during the day. What an introduction - my first view of Saturn's rings, my first binary (alpha Centaurus) and my first red Giant, Antares. Now, I need to persuade my neighbours to turn out their pesky outside lights and get a shorter eyepiece plus a Barlow.
Cheers
Graeme

[Suzy]

:rofl::rofl::rofl:Good one Davin, funny and so true! :lol:

[Liz]

Great to hear you saw a few goodies Graeme!! :thumbsup:
We had our group viewing last night, though pretty cloudy, but we did get a gorg view of Saturn, Alpha Centauri, Eta Carinae, Leo galaxies, Beehive Cluster, Omega Centauri and more.
Antares is a double star, did you manage to split it? We saw it last night too, and I thought I could split it. Conditions wernt great, so I probably shouldnt have?? The stars are mag 1.0, and 5.4, with 2.5" sep. It is know to be tricky, but supposedly a bit easier than splitting Sirius. :)

[Suzy]

I'd like to have a go at splitting Antares.. how do I go about doing it?

[Liz]

It can be challenging, but doable, but you may need to be patient. Antares A is 370 x brighter than Antares B. Yikes!!

You will need - very good seeing
at least a 6" scope
wait until its higher in the sky
good EP

Give Sirius a go to, and Rigel, which is easier!!