24/02/2012 - back garden.

[Daz Type-R]

Evening all.

Just come in from a rather enjoyable 2 hrs in the back garden. The "seeing" was not that good, the clouds kept rolling in but managed to see some new Messier objects that I have not seen before and a planet.

I still have the mother in laws 130P sysnscan round at mine so set that up as well as my 200P, tonight would also be my first proper light with the Baader Hyperion Zoom (had it a few weeks but the weather has been awful).

So I started off with the moon, looking good at only what must of been 5-10% lit, saw some good detail but still yet to find out the names of the places I saw, next on my list was Venus (a first for me through a scope), could not make much out but then again was not really expecting too. I then moved on to Jupiter, have seen her loads as of late but thought I would get one of my last views before she disappears behind the neighbours house, picked out some good detail, the north and south equatorial bands really stood out in the Hyperion ep, much better than the stock ep's I have been using for the past 12 months, makes me wonder why I waited so long.

I then turned my attention to Mars, originally tried this back in January but without much luck, this time I did not fare much better. I think Mars is still quite low in the sky at the moment and with the poor seeing conditions I could not make any detail out.

Next I went back to my old favourites, M42 and M45, both of which looked much better through the Hyperion, especially when I put the UHC-S filter on, Orion's nebula really stood out, but by now I was itching to try and find some objects I have not seen, before the cloud started to roll in.

M44 the beehive cluster for some reason has eluded me in the past, so thought I would give it another shot, I have been practising my star hoping technique recently since I have bought the Telrad and I believe this has helped tonight, as after only 5 minutes or so, there she was, M44 in all her glory. I admired that for quite a while before deciding what else I could turn my attention too but by now the cloud was rolling in and there was only a small patch of sky that I could see that had any visible stars and that was in the south, around Sirius, so off I went in search of M41.

M41 I must admit, I found rather quickly, which was good as the cloud was rolling in fast, admired that for a few minutes before she disappeared from view, a quick check of the horizon revealed nothing but cloud so decided to call it a night.

I must admit I was starting to get a bit disappointed with myself at my lack of ability to find things but after tonight’s outing, I feel much more confident, just need a really clear night and I`m away......

Regards,

Daz.

(1 happy chappy)

[Doc]

Make lists it is so important, if you do you will not spend the night aimlessly roving around the sky. The more you practise the easier it will become, but to me it sounds like a good night.

[BAZ]

A good night there Daz, any night without cloud is good, and new objects in the bag as well.

Sounds like your'e impressed with the new Hyperion.

[Brantuk]

I'd echo Micks advice - make lists - mind you I'm the worst one for doing that - goto makes me lazy lol. But when Di makes a list we usually have an entertaining night. I tend to follow what the group is looking at then tap it into the handset on my scope lol.

Smashing report and I'm glad you like the Hyperion Zoom - no one has ever come back to me complaining about it - the only extra thing I'd add for the 200P is a low power wide angle eyepiece of good quality for those larger objects like M31 (maybe treat yourself to a 30mm+ Nagler or Panoptic)

[Rusty Strings]

Another vote for lists, not that I do it all the time. But when I do, I have a far better night of it. Just sitting there thinking "what else can I look at", usually results in looking at nothing at all new/special.

[oldfruit]

I must admit i have to echo the advice given in the above posts. Also i think it is fair to say we have all been where you were when you say that you were struggling to find objects and i for one still am on occasion. .

[Daz Type-R]

Well been out again tonight, all though only for 2 hrs or so. The aim for tonight was to do some proper de-focused star tests on both mine and the mother-in-laws 130P, as mine has only been collimated once in 13 months and the mother-in-laws has never been done (only 4 weeks old or there abouts).

So started with mine, used the 8mm (150x) on Sirius, focus all the way out, lovely near perfect round circle with a round black circle in the middle, even saw the spider veins and the focuser tube, is that normal, as every report I have read just says you should have a circle and then a black circle in the middle?

Any how, it seemed fine, and as I only have a laser collimator I stuck that in, red dot right on the donut on the primary, so happy with that.

Next, onto the 130P, same as above, nice circle with a black circle in the middle, lasered that as well and it was slightly off, so adjusted and all seemed well.

As I was not going to do any star gazing I did not really make a list but as the weather seemed clear (seeing not great but better than last night) I decided to have a quick messier hunt, any way, picked M35 and after 20 minutes of searching and nearly giving up, I found it - yay - another to add to my list.

Never looked at splitting doubles so thought I would give one a go as my last search of the evening (my lad had me up at 5:00 this morning so getting tired by now). I picked Caster in Gemini as that is only 1 of a few I know that is a double, centered in on the ep, starting at around 15mm (80x) and by the time I got down to 8mm (150x), there they were, 2 stars, yay - my first double split.

So for me, another highly succesfull evening, accomplished more than I intended, so yet again, another happy chappy!

Tomorrow I am going to sit down and compile a list of things I want to see, as mentioned above, will stop me darting all over the sky looking for things to see.

Good night!

[Brantuk]

Great result Darren

When you can find Alberio - split that and you'll get a nice coloured surprise - beautiful blue star in the background and a gold one in the foreground - fabulous double. Also all the trapezuin stars in M42 are doubles if you didn't know allready

[cosmic dave]

Daz planetary observing take loads of practice, you really have to put the hours in at the ep to get an eye for detail and mars is not the kindest planet at showing off any features. (although you probably already know this)

Cheers

David