Total Lunar eclipse this friday...........

[Fonzey]

Ructions said:

Camera attachment has to be my next purchase, though I’ve only had my telescope since Christmas.
Delighted to see the eclipse, sadly had too much cloud cover after 5am, but got to see the main event. Hopefully others had better luck with the weather. Next total eclipse isn’t for 14 years, I hope I see the next one.

Same here, perhaps our wives shared Christmas gift ideas!

[Ructions]

Also managed to find Jupiter low in the south eastern sky. Venus should be above it, but I cannot find it yet. Even though I’ve only been able to use my scope three or four times since Christmas, this has definitely been the best night by far, very enjoyable. Plenty of tea and biscuits also help.

[Fonzey]

Ructions said:

Also managed to find Jupiter low in the south eastern sky. Venus should be above it, but I cannot find it yet. Even though I’ve only been able to use my scope three or four times since Christmas, this has definitely been the best night by far, very enjoyable. Plenty of tea and biscuits also help.

Yea I've probably only had 4 sessions out including this morning. Had some great moon shots over Christmas, then a few nights trying to find and then looking at Mars but no Jupiter/Saturn.

I think with my entry level telescope Jupiter is probably my best bet for something decent to look at. If I kept Mars in focus the best I could get it was barely distinguishable from a star, you could make out the shape of it (rather than it being a pinprick of light) and could tell it was a planet but I'd have liked to seen it a bit "closer".

I have 3 lenses (so far), the easiest to use and the lowest zoom is the 20mm I used this morning. Can get the whole of the moon "into shot" and at a really good focus. Next one up is 10mm which gets about 2/3 of the moon in shot and on a properly clear night still has really good focus.

The last one is a 6mm one which is too much for the moon - and I struggle to get focus on anything if there's the slightest bit of haze in the air. I'm hoping this will be my Jupiter lens!

[Eric Mc]

Ructions said:

Also managed to find Jupiter low in the south eastern sky. Venus should be above it, but I cannot find it yet. Even though I’ve only been able to use my scope three or four times since Christmas, this has definitely been the best night by far, very enjoyable. Plenty of tea and biscuits also help.

If you can see Jupiter, you should definitely be able to see Venus - it's MUCH brighter.

It was overcast in Farnborough last night so no eclipse for me (I had a sneak look out the window around 4.00 am and it was totally socked in).

[eharding]

The good news is that it was gin-clear down here in Devon at 5.00am, and that my weapons-grade antique alarm clock duly went off with a volume just short of inducing a cardiac arrest to wake me up to witness it.

The bad news is that the moon was behind a tree.

Pants.

[Eric Mc]

Was it a very big tree?

[anonymous-user]

Got up at 5am, very good view.

Wish I had a good camera at the moment - the above shots are superb!

[eharding]

Eric Mc said:

Was it a very big tree?

Not huge, but it has a lot of others either side of it. Caught a glimpse of the eclipse through the branches though.

Feeling slightly guilty as the telescope and camera situation down here has got completely out of hand (I'm sure the damn things are breeding), so I really should have got some kit prepared the night before and worked out a viewing position somewhere at the bottom of the garden, but the weather has been so rubbish of late I fully expected it to be completely clagged over.

[Ructions]

Eric Mc said:

Ructions said:

Also managed to find Jupiter low in the south eastern sky. Venus should be above it, but I cannot find it yet. Even though I’ve only been able to use my scope three or four times since Christmas, this has definitely been the best night by far, very enjoyable. Plenty of tea and biscuits also help.

If you can see Jupiter, you should definitely be able to see Venus - it's MUCH brighter.

It was overcast in Farnborough last night so no eclipse for me (I had a sneak look out the window around 4.00 am and it was totally socked in).

I’m very new to astronomy, in all likelihood it was Venus that I saw and not Jupiter. I’m using the Night Sky app to help me navigate the sky, but it isn’t perfect and I still have to manually sight the telescope. Any advice from yourself or anyone else who has more experience in these things would be greatly appreciated.

Still haven’t been able to see Mars through my telescope despite being able to see it with the naked eye, just been very unlucky with cloud cover. Already thinking I need a bigger scope.

[Eric Mc]

Binoculars are probably best when learning your way around the night sky. Large magnifications actually make things more difficult - at first anyway. Also, full moon periods (like now) are actually the worst for stargazing - or even looking at the moon.

[Zad]

A couple of pics taken with my elderly 450D and 200mm lens (hand held 0.25s, misty cloud). I think the first one looks more like Mars. Best viewed from across the other side of the room with your eyes squinted.

[Ructions]

For some reason I can’t sleep tonight, big day ahead tomorrow in more ways than one, but seeing Jupiter in all it’s glory is well worth missing a few hours sleep over.

Saturn not nearly as clear, but well worth dusting off the telescope for the night. I really need to invest a little bit more time and effort into this.

Edited by Ructions on Saturday 1st June 02:45