Newbies first night under clear rural skies

Hi there.

I have just spent a thoroughly enjoyable 1.5 hrs under clear rural skies before clouded out. this may not seem like much but I have recently just rekindled my interest in Astronomy (used to be mad about it when I was 13 or 14). For the last month or so, the weather has been very cloudy in killarney, when it was clear it was out the back yard under light polluted skies in killarney, finding my way around again. Tonight I went out into the country....I forgot what a beautiful sight awaited me. The amount of naked eye stars... In centre of Killarney 15yrs ago, I could see the milky way, now it is very difficult. I brough along the binocular hand book which i downloaded from here, and saw m41, m35, m36,37 and 38, and others which i never saw as I child...Thanks a million for a great publication and a great site. You now have another new convert, and hopefully a regular contributor to these forums. By the way I was using an old pair of 16X50mm and a pair of 10X60mm binoculars

Hi!

Amazing what you can see with a good pair of bins isn't it.
I use a 6" newtonian for most of my viewing, but I almost always have a quick look with binos first. If the object isn't too dim, it's usually easier to locate with the wider field of view, and I can make a mental note of some reference points, to help me star-hop with the scope.

Sounds like a good night,

regards
carlos

ftodonoghue,
welcome to the boards!

You'll have to thank John Flannery for the Bino Handbook! He did a great job of it. I'm doing the Bino Challenges myself, and I hope they'll bend the rules a bit if I get it in for Cosmos in April, so I can get a cert! (bend the rules because I'm on the Observing Cert Challenges team!)



Well I'm glad you had a great nights observing. Without sounding too much of an environmentalist, its a shame how light pollution has thwarted the likes of the sight of the Milky Way for the up and coming generation.

Clear Skies,

Seanie.

Great to see you're enjoying it.

You should try the challenge for binoculars. It's very good.

glad you like the Handbook! Welcome to the board! Feel free to drop me a line any stage for any advice on the binocular observing angle.

John F.


P.S. . . . here's an ode to my own observing yesterday evening . . .

I saw a star last night,
Gleaming with a radiance so bright,
Recently it's been a rare sight,
'Cause the weather's been so sh . . . terrible (like my poetry!)

Thanks for all the kind words. and particular thanks to John F. Its a pity I couldn't have got my hands on something like the binocular challenge when I was younger, It would have been a great help...and stopped me looking throught my 60mm tasco at 450 magnification, wondering why i could not see anything. I need to get my hands on some sort of mount for my binocs also...any suggestions