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Old 24-01-2006, 03:59 PM
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matt
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Launceston, Australia
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As soon as you get a nice clear night try a 15 or 20mm eyepiece on Tuc 47 or Omega Centauri.

Both spectacular globular clusters and your scope will show them beautifully. You'll also be blown away by the Orion Nebula.

You'll need to be up around 2am (or later, if you can ) for Omega Centauri to be nice and high but if you've never seen it before it's worth the extra height in the sky. Then hop over to the jewel Box (NGC 4755) in the Southern Cross, sweep over to Eta Carinae ... and keep going to the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) between the constellations Mensa and Dorado and that should be a very enjoyable hour or two... taking in a small slice of the southern sky, before you swing round to the East where Jupiter should be burning bright close to 20 degrees abover the horizon.

For Jupiter, try to have an eyepiece in the 6mm to 10mm range, which will give you about 160x to 100x magnification. That should be plenty to bring out at least the 2 major equatorial bands and certainly the 4 main moons, if all are visible?

Do you know anyone who can lend you an eyepiece in that range with acceptable eye relief? By that, I mean an eyepiece where you don't have to push your eyeball right up against the glass to take in the view?

Good luck
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