New Scope

[RichardK (Richard)]

My new scope arrived 2 weeks ago! 8" DOB.

First night tracked down Saturn, the jewel box and a nice star cluster (somewhere in the sky ).

Afew questions;

1. I say two bright irradescent green shooting stars (not in scope) - any ideas what they might be. They were very bright and the unusaul colour. I am used to seeing bright 'white' shooting stars of much less intensity and further up in the atmosphere.

2. Also can anyone suggest say 3 - 4 very easy things to search for as I am a bit rusty on what is about this time of year.

3. Also I am having good success with the 25mm Posl but once I got saturn in view I couldn't see anything with the 9mm. Is there not enough light coming into the EP, should I reserve it for the moon or .........

Once again thanks in advance and its nice to be out in the cool of the evening looking at the sky again.

Richard
Feluga via Tully

[The_bluester (Paul)]

How about.

Tarantula Nebula (Large Magellanic cloud)
M104 (Sombrero galaxy) which is currently in the same general area as Saturn.
If you are at it early enough, M42 (Orion nebula) may still be worth a shot before it sets.

As for not seeing Saturn with the 9mm, maybe just a case of not being centered on it well enough to get it in the field of view of the higher power eyepiece. With a dob, perhaps play around a bit to see which way it drifts through your field of view and then when you work that out, place Saturn offset in a spot where it will drift through the centre of the FOV so you have a bit of time to change eyepieces while it should be drifting into view with the 9mm not out of it.

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Originally Posted by RichardK

My new scope arrived 2 weeks ago! 8" DOB.

First night tracked down Saturn, the jewel box and a nice star cluster (somewhere in the sky ).

Afew questions;

1. I say two bright irradescent green shooting stars (not in scope) - any ideas what they might be. They were very bright and the unusaul colour. I am used to seeing bright 'white' shooting stars of much less intensity and further up in the atmosphere.

2. Also can anyone suggest say 3 - 4 very easy things to search for as I am a bit rusty on what is about this time of year.

3. Also I am having good success with the 25mm Posl but once I got saturn in view I couldn't see anything with the 9mm. Is there not enough light coming into the EP, should I reserve it for the moon or .........

Once again thanks in advance and its nice to be out in the cool of the evening looking at the sky again.

Richard
Feluga via Tully

Eta Carina is a wonderful (and large) spectacle with low magnification, maybe 5 degrees west of crux, high in the southern sky.

M5 and M6 just near the sting in the tail of Scorpius in the eastern sky.

Try downloading Stellarium (free) for whats on show and when.

25 to 9mm is a fairly big shift, requiring a lot of refocussing, and a much tighter field of view, perhaps as bluestar says it has drifted out of field of view by time refocussed. It moves pretty quick at that high magnification.

Or maybe just the seeing was not good enough to be able to support that much magnification on the night.

Keep going.

[RichardK (Richard)]

Thanks to both of you. I now have some things to chase. Also if Im home early enough I hope to get a look at the moon which is presenting a very small illumination but is esetting around 7:00 (going behind mountains).

Thanks

Richard

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Did not even think of the Eta Carina region although I was looking at it last night.

The advantage of Eta Carina, Tarantula, Orion nebula is that they are all large targets (Sombrero less so) so you would be able to get a good view at low power with less bumping of the scope to contend with.

[smitty (Sean)]

Two places to consider.

Suzy is running the Monthly Observing Challenge

Have a look at http://skymaps.com/downloads.html

I use it as a starting point with my binoculars, so I am sure the 8" Dob should give you plenty of "WOW" factor.

Sean

[RichardK (Richard)]

Thanks for all your help, now I just have to wait for the clouds to depart.

Richard

[Gem (Grant)]

If you have a book (or software or online info), anything mag 6 or less is fair game for a start. As you get better at find objects around mag 6 or less, then you can slowly work up to mag 7 then mag 8, etc, etc..
Enjoy!