Re: The first night out with my 10" dob.

From: Robert Cook (rbrtck_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 09/05/04 

Date: 5 Sep 2004 14:36:19 -0700

"Tom" <tom@wallyworld.net> wrote in message news:<10jkr9v594tln53@corp.supernews.com>...
>
> Actually, it was my first night out with a telescope, period.

Welcome to a whole new universe! :-)

> I have dreamed of seeing M31. From what I have read, I knew enough to find
> it. After searching and searching with the 2" in the area to the left of
> the "Great Square", I finally noticed a smudge of light that was in stark
> contrast to surrounding collection of stars in my field of view.

M31's core is way, way brighter than its outlying areas. Based on
your description, there's no doubt that you had found it.

> I put the
> 9mm in to get a closer look, and the smudge got a bit bigger, but by no
> means did it give me a detailed view of a galaxy.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to see much under a suburban sky.
However, you should be able to see its buddies, M32 and M110, and you
may be able to detect its main dust lane (as a relatively sudden
cutoff in brightness on one side).

> I strongly assume this is M31 anyways. How can I make the most of this? 7mm
> Televue Plossl with a good 3x Barlow? The 9mm gave me a 140x mag. and this
> doesn't seem optimal for M31.

Use as low of a magnification as you can.

> Later that night (morning), I noticed an interesting cluster with my naked
> eyes, and set my bino's on it. Pleiades! I had never seen that formation
> magnified before.

Lovely, isn't it? It looks like diamonds on velvet.

> I stayed up the whole night to see Saturn and Venus, but
> by 5 a.m. clouds had set in:-( I did get a brief break in the clouds to see
> a bright object with the binos, dead east. It was disky, like a planet, and
> very bright, but no rings. Venus I assume.

Perhaps, although Saturn is quite close to Venus at present, so you
might have *just* missed it.

- Robert Cook

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