A good night!

[rybanis]

A little backstory: I'm 23, and despite several empty-handed attempts, have not really touched a telescope since I was 13.<br /><br />Alright. Last night my wife and I were having dinner at my parents house. I was talking to my dad about astronomy (a popular subject, though it seems like we never EVER had the time to actually do it). On a spur of the moment, we decide to go out for some dark-sky binocular viewing later in the night.<br /><br /><br />OOOOH it was great! I had a pair of 10x50s, and my dad has a massive pair of 25x100s. We started out in Sagittarius, where I'm pretty sure we saw M5 or M6. We then started looking straight up in Lyra for the Ring Nebula, which we found after a couple minutes. After that, we hit up Cassiopeia, but could not find any Messier objects in that area. We did, however, see Andromeda. It was probably the most amazing view of the night. It showed up well in my 10x50's...and was too large for the field of view in my dad's 25x100's. Amazing sight!<br /><br />Consider this nerd hooked again. We're going to get our 8" Newtonian out and collimated this next week, then take it out. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Sagittarius is the home of my favorite small scope/binocular object M22<br />It's a beautifil globular cluster.<br /><br />Of course, that's only because I can't see Omega Centauri <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

From my home area, M22 is always so low down in the murk, close to the horizon.<br /><br />M31 never disappoints as does M33 (I can see both from a dark site unaided).<br /><br />Needless to say, Jupiter is a firm favourite of mine for a very many different reasons.<br /><br />Saturn even in 7 x 50s looks peculiar, but in a very small scope, the rings & Titan are clearly visible.<br /><br />Other nice targets are M13 & M35.<br /><br />With binoculars, just sweep the Hyades & Pleiades (M42) in Taurus & the Beehive in <br />Cancer (M44).<br /><br />Or even look at individual stars, to notice colour differences, such as Vega (bluish), Arcturus & <br />Aldebaran (Orange), Betelgeuse <br />(almost Red), etc.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[rybanis]

I tried for a good half-hour to see M22, but no dice. Sag was down near some minor light pollution, and we had a hard time even seeing the handle-star part of the constellation. Try as I might, I couldn't see anything.<br /><br />What irks me more, now, is that there is a 17,000 acre wildfire burning west of Spokane, and the prevailing winds are moving the smoke in this direction. When I got up for work (at 3am this morning), NOTHING was visible. Not even Orion. When the sun rose, it was blood-red. A disconcerting sight. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>