Family night on the Gold Coast

[Striker]

HI,

I am taking my scope down to my sisters place on the Gold Coast saturday night...she is in the hinterland so the viewing should be ok...

I need some help at what to look at.....remembering they know nothing of the sky either do I.........what I have planned is as follows.

1) Saturn
2) Moon
3) Jupiter
4) Tuc47 NGC 104
5) Omega Cent (NGC 5139 I think)
6) Orion M42

If you don't mind list some messier numbers or NGC would be much appreciated....a bit of information would also be appreciated.....maybe list your favourites......I want to look like a real pro infront of my family and can do this with your help.....lol

[ving]

messier...
:P
after charles messier...

go to seds and loof at the catalogue :)
http://seds.org/messier/
some pretties there

[Starkler]

Check out RTGUI (http://www.rtgui.com) .
You'll never have to ask this question again.

Doesnt the magical meade have a built in tour mode?

[iceman]

Don't forget some galaxies Tony.. M104 (sombrero) and Centaurus A are pretty good, and depending on the time of night it gets dark, NGC253 (sculptor) might still be up.

Also M46 is a nice open cluster, and of course M45 (the pleaides), and basically anywhere else in the carinae/vela/puppis area.

For some other nebula, you can't go past eta carinae, not sure what time it rises in QLD though.

Don't forget you'll need to choose which eyepieces are best to view these in - most of them will start out quite nice in your SV30mm, and for a more magnified view, chuck your 17 nagler in and they'll be blown away. Just don't let them put their grotty mitts on the lens :)

Good luck!

Oh and you'll wish you had a green laser pointer..

[Striker]

Thanks Mike.......

I have added yours and have been going through RTGUI program going bezerk with NGC numbers......lol....

[janoskiss]

Don't forget the tarantula nebula (ngc2070). What a sight!

[Striker]

added.......thanks Steve

[iceman]

Can you program the controller of those fandangled meades with a list of objects that you want to view in that night?

Then just hit next->next->next to go through them?

[Striker]

I hope your not asking Me Mike...I only own one....doesn't mean I know how to use it......lol

My answer is probably.........but its not that difficult just to type what want and push goto....hehehe

[seeker372011]

just did...Wow!

what a great program.
Many thanks

[rmcpb]

Bit late now Striker but if you do it again the list in the Beginners Session I posted a couple of weeks ago is a good start this time of year for mid evening.

Cheers

[iceman]

How did it go Tony?
Were the family suitably impressed, or did you look and sound like a noob? :P

[Striker]

I was a complete Proffesional...the night was great....very cloudy but we had all night so we just waited the clouds out...they were very impressed with the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Orion M42, Tuc47 and browsing the High rise Buildings in Surfers Paradise upside down...hehehe.

We spent most of the night talkng about the scale of what we were looking at...eg...tuc 47 is 16,000 Light Years away. and how Jupiter is 300x the size of the earth....these conversation went on longer then actualy viewing...it was great.

The clouds did inhibit some views plus the trees next door gave the south east to be a bit of a problem...so no Omega Cent.

They wern't to fussed about double stars and Planetries but that could have been my Fault as I am not educated properly on these as yet.

This is what I want to learn.....not just what to look at but what I am looking at.....so Paul (1Ponders) get your teaching skills out this weekend and get ready as my hand is going to be up asking questions.

[astro_south]

Oh great!!

Weren't you listening when I gave you a run down of planetary nebula when I showed you the Eskimo, Eight Burst and Ghost of Jupiter the other week?

Paul - make sure Tony's not drooling over his 17mm Nagler while you are explaining something to him

:-)

[Striker]

I was listening.....they just wern't that excited over Planetries....I need the full rundown....how it was formed......whats it made of...how old is it.....how far away....do green men live their....those things.....

Paul...I promise I will be the best student......trust me.