First DSO light!!

[Lee]

Went DSO hunting for the first time tonight since picking up my 8" dob.
My targets were to be 47 Tuc and the Small Megellanic Cloud. I have decided I hate my finder scope - I feel I need a finder for it! I finally got lined up on Achernar, with a plan to creep around to 47Tuc via gamma-Hydrus and beta-Hydrus.... had difficulties as I was only using the All Sky Maps from Astronomy 2005.... not enough guide stars really.... gets confusing when the view through the scope seems to match the map, but not the upside-down map - hang-on, do I have a right-way-up-Dob!

Eventually got there.... a beautiful sight through the Andrews UW80 30mm.... popped in the series 500 15mm... even looked nice through that, a really dense core, surrounded by a halo of stars....
Never saw the SMC though, figured it was too light, as I was looking directly towards Newcastle city.

Scorpius was high in the west so checked out M4, M80 (I think), N6242, N6281, M6 and M7.....
Fingers crossed for more clear skies to come

[h0ughy (David)]

great stuff Lee! The NAS are having a public viewing night on Thurday night for the Newcastle East Public School up at the obelisk. your quite welcome to come and join in!

[Lee]

I won't mate, I'm on call for work on Thursday night.... am going to try and get to a NAS meeting though, likely end of October.... then I'll be OS until mid March.... get to see some northern hemisphere stuff for a while..... should be OK....
Thanks for the offer though!

[davidpretorius]

well done lee, it is lovely that one!. that ultrawide is a beauty. i let it cool out there with the scope for 1/2 and hour and i seem to move my head from side to side to view everything

it gets easier with the finder, choose a really bright star and then make sure that when the star is in the middle of your scope view, that when you go back to the finder, the cross hairs are lining up in the middle, adjust if necessary.

do it again with your smallest mm eyepiece. that way you know that when you centre with your finder, the telescope is going to be just right!

don't be afraid to squat down at the base of the scope to help align the finder to the stars, then look thru the finder and then thru the scope.

also I saw a laser for finding stars the other night and it was awesome. just over $100, but if you can save up, well worth it. it seemed like the laser was lighting a path all the wasy from the scope to the star. made it very easy!

i can see both clouds with the naked eye, but not much thru the scope. however, just below the lmc, is the tarantula, which is awesome with the ultra wide.

keep going a bit further north of m6, m7 and you will get the lagoon nebula, very nice.

galaxy wise, east is best for me ngc300 and ngc253, these you can find with ultrawide and then use 12mm.

gee it is a lot of fun

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Lee

Make sure you keep both eyes open when looking through the finder. One eye is looking through the finder while the other eye is looking at the sky (assuming it is a straight through finder ) When you overlap the image through the finder to the background sky you will know where you are. Sorry if I'm "preaching to the choir" here, but it may not be obvious to all noobs and I'm just wanting to help!

[iceman (Mike)]

Great stuff Lee.. once you know you're in the right area, 47Tuc will just jump out of your finder as a fuzzy round patch of sky. It's also worth using binoculars as your first finder, because the brighter DSO's (like 47Tuc and the SMC/LMC) will pop out straight away.

[ving (David)]

great one lee!
the 8"er is a good scope!