Saying hi

[Mliss (Mel)]

Suzy

Hi Brent... and Liz don't forget Liz. (I totally love how you've named your scope) And i'm sure there's more of us hiding somewhere

Suzy i'll send you a pm for fb

It's really interesting to read what people are using. I get to the point where i'm settled on a scope and then i notice something else... i've got to keep telling myself 10" dob and that's final. There are too many options!

Everyone has been so amazing I just can't wait to seriously get started. And in the mean time, trying hard to get all this info in my head.

Maybe I'm missing something but with the smaller scopes, aside from the moon, Jupiter and Saturn it's all degrees of dots....

[Suzy]

Mel, what is your level of experience? Do you know any of the constellations yet, and what objects have you viewed through your SW Heritage? What book guides, sky programmes have you got etc. Let me know where your level is so we can get you started better in readiness for that 10" or even optimising the viewing experience through your current scope.
Trust me, once you learn more and get familiar with the sky, they won't look like dots anymore, you'll greet them like old friends.

Just make sure that 10" will fit in your car before you buy it. Usually the base goes on the back seat (too bulky for a boot unless you've got a hatchback perhaps) and the tube in the boot. A 10" definitely will not disappoint. I used to have a 6" and that in itself was just amazing.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Mel, plenty to see up there, dots ain't all it is. Might have to be patient sometimes till they come round again next year but there are galaxies you can see if you know where and how to look, nebulae, try Orions Sword next summer, big Globular Clusters that will amaze you and more.

Get Stellarium (Free) up and going on your PC, update the star catalogs and start to learn from there.

And you will see plenty of seasonal lists published here and loads of people to tell you what to look for and where. Don't get too overawed by some of the really clever stuff they do but work your way up through the easier objects like we all do at first ( I still am .. !! ) and enjoy the viewing ... if those dang cloiuds would just go away .

[Mliss (Mel)]

"you'll greet them like old friends" haha i do that with the a couple of them already. I think i've even said that to them

it's been difficult to settle on one paticular 'area' to learn/research. i go from telescopes to constellations with lots of doco's in between. Not happy last week saw the last episode of Stephen Hawking's 'Into the Universe', (downloading as we speak).

I've decided now that i've picked out a scope, to start getting serious with learning my way around the night sky. I've used Stellarium a lot and even if i haven't idenified something in the sly, i'll end up googling it and looking at pics

Once I've got my scope, and after getting a little closer to Jupiter and Saturn, next on my hit list will be Orion.

I would LOVE to know if there is anything i can do with this baby scope in the meantime. I've only got two lenses, the ones that came with the scope. I have thought about this before but had no idea it was worth looking at getting extra eye pieces.

Star catalogs ? in Stellarium ? the prog is playing up on me at the moment and i keep having to zoom forward until night time. doesn't matter too much, but will get around to looking at that later.

SO Suzy, getting back to your original question, my level would be not much above basic!! I know i keep saying this but everyone has been so lovely and as long as i'm not pulling the class average down i think i've found my new home

HAHA @ "dang clouds" previously, i never thought i'd feel that way...

[oosh (Jason)]

Mel - in stellarium try looking in the options menu to check which city/area is set as default, I know mine default to Paris last time I installed it, so you may want to check it out

[Mliss (Mel)]

thanks Jason, i've gone through all the settings. I've even uninstalled it and reinstalled it but the time is out. :S i'm currently looking for a solution in other forums and i'm happy to find i'm not alone. It's sounding like it may be related to the update 0.10.61 might peek in here to see if there's another thread going.

btw really liked reading your obs report.

[oosh (Jason)]

Cheers Mel Hopefully have some clear skies saturday night to find some new stuff! Good luck with the stellarium issue, certainly sounds odd.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Orion, you may be a little late for that this year, it's already down in the west at dusk but take a look up by the Southern Cross and then go clockwise around the SCP axis a bit to Eta Carina, 15 degrees maybe. Also anticlockwise from there will get you into Trifid, Eagle, Butterfly, Lagoon ....heaps. Plus plenty of cute globs in there as well.
And then when you run out of those there is 47 Tuc and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Full of targets !! I could spend about 10 nights just on thsoe two easily.

Just received my new little refractor, can't wait to try it out on these and try for some pics.

Have a loook at Paddies amazing charts for SMC and LMC
http://www.cloudsofmagellan.net.au/
I have them printed out on A3 and when LMC and SMC get higher in the sky again tey are going t get another hammering.