Ordered My 'First Scope' !!

Thats a great buy.
Best of luck with it.
Let us know how you get on with it if and when we get clear skies!

After the torrential rain earlier tonight the skies have cleared and its a beautiful night here in bray. Bit breezey though. Orion and Sirius reasonably high in the Southern Sky with the half moon rising over the neighbours house in the East. GRRRGGH!! I'd love to be out with the telescope right now!

Speaking of Breeze though. Is that a sign of bad seeing? I mean what are the weather indications for bad seeing. Like, "If its breezey don't bother setting up the scope even if the skies are clear etc.

Just had a brainwave when I came back inside there. I was thinking I'd have to dig out an old school geometry set from the attic and with a spirit level, cellotape and a laser pointer would be able to work out how much of my view was obscured by neighbours houses and trees. When I say brainwave, I actually mean it was a bit of a "DOH" moment.

I booted up stellarium and swung around to the east to find the moon. When I was outside I noticed the moon was a fists width over the roof of the neighbours house but there was a 'Star' below and to the left of the moon right in line with the roof from my viewing position. I just had to find this 'star' in Stellarium and see how many degree's high it was.

Imagine my surprise when this 'star' turned out to be Saturn!! Anyway it was at 16 degrees at the time. So I assume I am correct in saying that my view to the East is limited to 16 degrees and above. Sirius was visible just over the next door neighbours trees and Stellarium indicates this is about 19 degrees. North is more limited by Bray Town/Dublin Sky Glow Light Pollution than by the wall in that direction. Probably up to about 25 degrees I reckon. West I didn't check, but I know my own house obscures more than any of the other directions. I reckon about 25 degrees.

I thought I had it bad FOV wise but it doesn't seem that bad now that I know the actual figures. Didn't I hear that its usually a waste of time looking at anything while its below 25-30 degrees anyway because of too much atmosphere between you and the object which makes for bad seeing??? ie I could have flat fields around me and I'd still have to wait till the same hours of the nights till objects rose higher than the equivelent heights of my actual obsctructions??

Didn't I hear that its usually a waste of time looking at anything while its below 25-30 degrees anyway because of too much atmosphere between you and the object which makes for bad seeing??? ie I could have flat fields around me and I'd still have to wait till the same hours of the nights till objects rose higher than the equivelent heights of my actual obsctructions??

For scientific imaging purposes, it is not recommended to image below 30 degrees elevation. Below this, air mass becomes significant and has more effect in terms of scintillation, seeing and extinction.

For visual observing however, I don't think it is so critical. That said, if you're viewing at just a few degrees above your horizon, it may not be a pretty sight.

FWIW

Dave

Hi,
Fast moving clouds with gaps is a sure sign of bad seeing, as is wind.
all the same, it wouldnt stop me from getting the scope out and having a look.
If you waited not only for a clear sky but for good seeing aswell, then you might aswell sell the scope.
Remember that seeing doesnt affect deepsky objects nearly as much as the planets, usually you get mediocre seeing with a high transparency sky.
You are always better off waiting until the object is as high as possible in the sky until you view it, its often a trade off between waiting for 5pm or looking at it low at midnight, I'd still have a look at midnight if possilbe anyway.

I've been tracking the scope on UPS. From the Vendor it made its way to Brussles and then over to the UK. The last tracking entry was departing Tamworth UK depot at 3am in the early hours of Saturday and 'In transit to Dublin.

I have a feeling its going to arrive tomorrow!!

Gutted that I didn't have it for tonight. Another miserable day in Bray with rain and again an absolutely clear night! The bands of clouds coming in of the Atlantic seem to be synchronised with the day and night cycle. Whats the betting that the sync reverses when the scope finally arrives and we start getting clear days and wet and cloudy nights here in Bray.

What makes me really gutted is that there is only the lightest of breezes tonight. Even Sirius doesn't seem to be twinkling as much as normal, ie the air seems very steady.

On another note, I guess I started to get pre-delivery jitters about whether I had made the right choice of scope and whether maybe I was spending too much too soon on a 'First Scope'. I googled again for reviews of my orion and found my way to astromart revies section where I found this article www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=492

I feel so much better now!! He even mentions the XT12i.

It kind of confirmed what I had already been thinking myself but which I had put down to me just trying to justify my extravagent first scope purchase to myself.

When I was discussing the scope choices with my brother he actually brought up the semi valid arguement that he had read in his research that, "the Best scope for you is the one you use the most" and that he was worried that such an unwieldy monster as the 12in Orion might mean we wouldn't use it a lot. My arguement in favour of the 12in Orion was that we might quickly get bored with the few faint fuzzies we would see with a 'Lidl Special' such as a 6in Newt on a LX75 (whats the point of a 30,000 object db when you can only see 20 or 30 objects in any kind of detail) and never use the scope again whereas if we were blown away every time we used a big 12in dob we would be much more likely to use it despite how unwieldy it is. Nice to see from the article that someone agreed with me.

NB. I am not putting down 6in Newts btw. Its a fraction of the cost and is still greatvalue for money even if you can see a lot less or 'less well'. God, I think I sound like an apeture snob and I don't even have a scope yet. Am I digging myself into a hole here! For many people I am sure its perfectly suited, price wise, size/storage wize, transportability wise and would hold the interest of many people for many years without feeling the need to 'size up'. However, I know that one of my personality defects is that I am an instant gratification kind of guy and might quickly get bored. I am also lucky to be in the position of having a sibling prepared to share the costs of a bigger scope from the the off.

Anyway, thats all from me for a while. I suspect my next post will be some pics of the new scope and a 'First Light' Report!!

Can't wait! Woohoo!!