cold and unsatisfied

thanks for all the advice folks. can a green lazer pointer be used in conjunctin with a telrad, or is it one or the other? im afraid due to not owning a car yet, heading out to star parties is out of bounds for the moment , and the fact that i leave my scope in roscommon for the weekends as the skies are the blackest black with so many background stars, it makes the constellations difficult to pick out! now, to learn to use those skies!

I totally agree with Phillip! Fguihen, find someone who lives near to you and observe with them! Its the best way! I was lucky in that i have 2 very knowledgable astronomers who live near me!

DONT GET DISCOURAGED! I could only see the moon and jupiter for the first year i was interested in astronomy! I only saw andromeda in the past few months! Are you observing from a dark site?

The best thing is to have a fellow astronomer with a good knowledge of the sky and he/she can show you where the objects are and youll never forget where they are! Believe me! Trevor showed me where the christmas tree cluster is a few days ago and im never gonna forget where it is cos it is CLASS!

I have a few sellers on ebay who sell 5mW lasers for about€45 euro if your interested!

Matt

thanks mathew. il have a scope around and find out if there are any astronomers in the area. im defo intereseted in hearing more about the green lasers on ebay you speak of. i feel a small expenditure ( laser and telrad finder) will be totally worth it if i can find more objects. thanks guys

Last night, I too was looking for the Sombrerro Galaxy (M104), after some coaxing by David Brannigan! And I found it with the 12" Dob, just star hopping and sweeping back and forth. Corvus/Crater were down below the 30 degree line, so they were in a bit of 'murk' at the height of it. I did manage to see it, and sketch the field of view. The dust lane was unmistakeable.

Seanie.

Aswell you will need a mounting bracket which i know you can buy for 20 euro!

31 euro and 8 euro shipping. this is a 5mW

cgi.ebay.ie/POTENTE-PUNTERO-LASER-VERDE-...Z10955QQcmdZViewItem

This is a great price as i know a 5mW from North Down telescopes is €95 which is considered reasonable!

Here is a 50mW! :shock: 65 euro!

cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...=cross_promot_widget

Here is the bracket
cgi.ebay.ie/Astronomy-telescope-mounting...yZ3636QQcmdZViewItem

This is a very good price as its 18 pounds on their site!

Hope this helps!
Matthew