There are various weather sites around. There is the BOM http://http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml or 7timer, just click on your location to place a pin, hover over the pin then select astro. I also use an app, Astro Panel, on my phone. Any plenty more. Its not looking good for this weekend.
Where abouts in Kinglake do you go? Nice darks skys up here.
Regards
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elyse_kuz
thanks for that!! very helpful, I was told the orion nebula was the middle star of the sheath. But thats really handy!! I can get a star in focus, so I think its correlated or whatever the word is haha. Just when I tried looking for the nebula out camping on a cloudless sky it still looked like a star with a 25mm eye piece. The moon was full crescent so maybe that had something to do with it? I assumed I'd still be able to see it though.
Also, was going to ask where's a good place to look up weather? I want to go down to kinglake next weekend, any idea if it will be ok weather wise?
Last night we tried again and this time we located Orions Nebula, with the 10mm it looked like a star with alot of white clouds around it. If that makes any sense? We didn't see any colour. There was abit of light pollution, but there wasn't any clouds and the moon wasn't out. Perfect weather
We also found saturn. In the 25mm it was all white with a white ring. With the 10mm it was still white, but you could just barely observe the stripes of the gas giant. Does it sound like we are doing things right??
Thanks heaps for your help and time everyone. Feels good finally being able to see a few things
Elyse
All sounds about right. M42 (the Orion Nebula) will very rarely show colour in a big scope. I have a couple of times seen faint pink shadings with my 12". In your scope ( a 6" right?) it would be very unusual to see any colour.
We are all abit spoiled by seeing all the astro images showing gorgeous colours but the colour recptors in your eye are just not very sensitive, so dim objects appear as white or grey.
As an exercise, there should be bright patch of starlight in M42 that with a bit of power (the 10mm EP should do it easy) you can seperate into 4 stars. That is the Trapezium and is the group of stars that have recently benn born in the nebula. There are many more stars there they are just obscued but dust and gas.
Saturn is hard to pick out many surface features, maybe a few hints of banding, wait until Jupiter comes out next year and you will get some nice colours and bands then.
Ok, so the reason people can see all this colour is because they capture it with decent camera's?? That are more receptive to those colours? I suppose that makes sense. And yes I was very spoilt lol, looking at all the images in the photography part of the forum. Was expecting to see it alittle like that. Is this the same for distant galaxies? Will everything be shades of white/grey in the 6"?
Elyse have a look at this thread http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=73111 it will give you an idea of what to expect when looking through different eyepieces and telescopes.
In my 6" and 10" dob i can see a hint of green in the orion Nebula in light polluted skies.
I was more going by this review of the same type of scope I have. Do you need a decent camera to get any colour? Looking at that thread now
There ad's and there to sell there scopes, on the 10" the images i have done of mars arn't as great as theres lol. To get the sort of color on Orion you need a dslr or a very good compact with a t-ring at a minimum, the planets can be done with a webcam. Planets are easy to start on and cheap because you can mod a cheap webcam or even get a phillips tucam, and you should get Jupiter nicley on a 6".
This was a slight disappointment to me too. Those fantastic photos really build up a beginner's expectations. So I'm trying to learn both - astronomical viewing and astrophotography. I think I've bit off a lot more than I can chew. Very daunting, but I'm stubborn
Unfortunately the pics often shown on vendors sites and ads can be very misleading. Elyse the site you were looking at is a bit of an odd one.
In answer to your question regarding galaxies, they will mostly be very faint andhard to see. Nevertheless perservere with it as there are lots of them out there!
Another newb here. Wife bought me a Saxon 1021 EQ3 Go To scope. She did a lot of research, and even spoke to a few astronomy store owners. I was very surprised.
Just wanted to say hi, and I will post my questions in the Beginners Equipment thread.
Another newb here. Wife bought me a Saxon 1021 EQ3 Go To scope. She did a lot of research, and even spoke to a few astronomy store owners. I was very surprised.
Just wanted to say hi, and I will post my questions in the Beginners Equipment thread.
Cheers
Welcome to IIs Louis
Feel free to ask as many questions as you have.
Thats how we all begin to learn and grow.
You should try to find some IIS locals who can direct you to some nearby dark sky observing sessions.
Enjoy
I'm a very keen begineer, luckly for me my wife purchased a Bintel BT252-B telescope yesterday for my birthday which is coming up very soon. I also ordered today a Argo Navis and mount kit so come early June I'll be jumping into something I've always wanted to do.
I'm a very keen begineer, luckly for me my wife purchased a Bintel BT252-B telescope yesterday for my birthday which is coming up very soon. I also ordered today a Argo Navis and mount kit so come early June I'll be jumping into something I've always wanted to do.
Regards
Ric
Welcome Ric,
You have got a nice scope there and should give you plenty of joy.
The Argo is a great addition.
Look forward to meeting you in the future, meantime, feel free to ask any questions as you come across them.
My advice is always to try to find a group locally that has dark sky observing nights.
You are welcome to attend Mangrove mountain observing nights if you cant find any closer.
We have a number of guys who travel from Sydney.
Look in the Star Parties Forum (aka: Pony Club for Mangrove Mountain).
Hey all, another newbie here, I'm waiting to pick up my telescope which is a skywatcher Sk 1309 eq2 & can't wait to start gazing the night sky. You will probably hear a lot from me cos I'm sure I will have heaps of questions