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justanotherpete · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 27 Location: Rosyth

so if anyone wants a look through the AP give me a call so i can tell you how to get here. Coffee supplied - afraid it'll be bring your own biccies as I forgot to go shopping today.

Pete

bwh · Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Posts: 146 Location: Dalgety Bay

Super 6' and mount, pretty clear and cold.

Initially 3-star alignment was problematic - lol - and by time we had tamed the beast with 2-star alignment some clouds had rolled in....

but we saw
. M57 - ring nebula
. M31 - andromeda
. M29 - open cluster
. m11 - wild duck cluster with 7 distinct stars in cluster
. M27 - dumbell

so good night all round. will return favour next clear night as i can spot jupiter.
_________________
bwh

Meade 8inch (228mm) LX5 Smidt-Cassegrain fl=2000
Skywatcher 5inch (120mm) Refractor fl=1000m - For Sale
Meade DSI Pro
Toucam Pro II 840k

Cosmic · Joined: 12 Jun 2008 Posts: 190 Location: Dunfermline

John and i headed for the dark site tonight. I went at 19:30 and john came at 21:15. I had pretty clear skies most of the time but when john came, the clouds rolled in intermittently. Still a good night was had and a nice Latte coffee.
I took the 6" newtonian from the shop as My new scope will be delivered on Tuesday.
I opted for the 12" skywatcher dobsonian (the collapsable one) so i can't wait.
Anyway next time some more bodies would be nice.
Regards
Geoff
_________________
Meade LX90 UHTC 8" SCT
Celestron Nexstar 5SE SCT
Mintron MTV-12V6HC-EX ccd video cam
15x70 Astro Binoculars 10x50 Binoculars
When I was a child I had a dream......now I own a telescope ....it's no longer a dream.

justanotherpete · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 27 Location: Rosyth

Yep, apologies to Brian, afraid my driving of the handset was to blame Smile

that and not recognising star names in some constellations.

But as it happened about an hour after Brian left it cleared again. I redid the three star alignment (successfully this time) and, amongst other things finally managed to get a look at:

NGC 7662, The Blue Snowball (it really does have a slight blue tint) at about 91 times.
M15 Globular Cluster in Pegasus

Hopefully it'll be clear next Sunday when the moon should be high enough to clear the house behind me.

Btw muchly appreciated if someone could mail me with the darksite location?

thanks
Pete

Cosmic · Joined: 12 Jun 2008 Posts: 190 Location: Dunfermline

HI Pete

I don't know the name of the road but if you go past Dalgety Bay towards Aberdour you will approach a roundabout and a road off to the right to some kind of terminal. Down that road about 1/2 mile is a laybay next to a field. There is light pollution from the roundabout lights however I hope to have some of kind of portable screen made to eliminate this. Unless...
anyone has a better location. This one is safe as no one goes up that
road aprt from the odd car possibly workers. Anyway I have been down there on my own and feel completely safe. The carpark is tarmac not a field so not soggy.
Anyway would be nice to have good few down there. PS with auto align
telescopes its very important to set daylight saving Very Happy

regards
Cosmic
_________________
Meade LX90 UHTC 8" SCT
Celestron Nexstar 5SE SCT
Mintron MTV-12V6HC-EX ccd video cam
15x70 Astro Binoculars 10x50 Binoculars
When I was a child I had a dream......now I own a telescope ....it's no longer a dream.

Cosmic · Joined: 12 Jun 2008 Posts: 190 Location: Dunfermline

BY The way
The optics on that 6" Sky Watcher I have for sale are superb!!!
I saw jupiter in much more detail than I ever could with the ETX105.
Even the Andromeda Galaxy was much clearer.

So if anyone wants a good optical scope come to see me. It's a good price
and the SKY Scan EQ5 mount is rock solid!

It was hard to get used to the inverted view of the Newtonian over The Maksutov which gave an upright albeit sideways reversed image but the quality of the image seemed much more improved so I can't wait till the
12" arrives. I will let you know.

Excited Cosmic Wink

_________________
Meade LX90 UHTC 8" SCT
Celestron Nexstar 5SE SCT
Mintron MTV-12V6HC-EX ccd video cam
15x70 Astro Binoculars 10x50 Binoculars
When I was a child I had a dream......now I own a telescope ....it's no longer a dream.

Radge Badger · Joined: 17 Nov 2006 Posts: 24 Location: The Bay

Reluctantly left a house party in a dark, remote Perthshire glen last night, where the viewing would have been magnificent had we brought the full kit. Followed the moon home, and managed to see Jupiter, plus three of her moons, from the end of the street.

Map ref for dark site

http://streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf...h.srf&ax=318018&ay=684767

Cheers

Kirsty