2 weeks of dark skies (hopefully) what to look for?

[Guest Hucknallred]

Hi

 

Due to  weather & other factors, I've only used my Celestron C6 SGT a few times, but from tomorrow I've got a week in deepest Wales, followed by a week in deepest Ireland, & it's coming with me.

So weather permitting I've got some excellent dark skies to come, so was looking for tips on what to look for, star clusters, DSO's etc, all tips appreciated.

 

CD

[+RonC]

Concerntrate on the constellations of Cygnus and Saggitarius, if you check your star maps there are 100's of objects to see in just those 2 constellations alone!

Clusters. nebulae, doubles and galaxies to name but a few. Cygnus is high ESE at the moment and Saggitarius to the SW, good hunting and clear skies!

 

Cheers

Ron

[BAZ]

Don't forget Scorpio, bags of stuff round there too. M4 just west of Antares.

Have a good one!

[Guest Hucknallred]

Well I'm here in darkest but cloudy & rainy wales. Although looking at the radar the midlands are far worse off as I type.

My landlord says this is one of the darkest spots going, hope he's right, if you're wondering where it is, look for Pontrobert & then go about a mile NE, it's pretty dark now & no orange glow at all, & not a streetlight for miles.

Astropanel is looking good for monday night, fingers crossed.

Edited July 27, 2013 by Hucknallred

[+RonC]

Wish you clear sky's Craig, let us know how you get on?

 

Ron

[cosmic dave]

Have a great time away. Hope you get to hse it..

[Guest Hucknallred]

Fingers crossed...

 

[Guest Hucknallred]

Excellent clear skies last night, but a fail on the scope alignment Quit annoying as I thought I had this sussed.

Every attempt at alignment had the scope pointing at what looked like where the star would be in an hours time, I wasn't sure if daylight saving was winter or summer, but both settings had the alignment wrong, trying to steer manually just got too difficult due to the sheer number of stars that were visible!

I also had problems with the keypad not listing stars, Deneb being a case in point, clearly visible before the mass of stars appeared, but wasn't showing in the list, need to have a good read of the manual as I'm sure it's something simple.

 

One thing I couldn't do was set my coordinates from my GPS, all I had was the cities option, I used Liverpool which seemed the nearest option.

 

Will try again tonight fingers crossed.

 

CD

[Guest Hucknallred]

OK, hello from Adare Co. Limerick, which is a lovely village I might add.

There was a loss of phone line in Wales so no connection in the absence of a mobile signal.

 

Great skies here in Ireland tonight, but alignment issues again on the scope, with a late decision to set up. Astropanel said cloudy, but clear as a bell at 9PM.

I think it will be a visit to Belper or Wymeswold for some coaching sessions.

 

Not all is lost, I've had some fantastic night sky views & have just about made out the Milky Way, I imagine it's fantastic in the winter sky? As my Welsh landlord said it doesn't really get dark in  the summer.

 

If you fancy as astro vacation I can thoroughly recommend the west of Ireland, small towns with little street lighting & lots of places to rent in the middle of nowhere. I can see a return later in the year...

 

A shameless plug for my Irish hosts, http://www.adarefarmcottage.com/ lovely people & 50 hectares to choose from, cows permitting.

[Guest dawson]

Sounds lovely. Sorry to hear about the scope issues. I'm sure it will be a simple issue which one of the clever guys will be able to put his (or her) finger on.

I'm off to wales in early september so i'm looking forward to a bit of dark sky / clear night combo.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

James