www.skyandtelescope.org copy pastes.

[Butters1919]

saw NEOWISE last night from downtown Guelph, ON, Canada. I have little light in my backyard. saw the comet with my eye, but no tail. my binoculars easily resolved the tail and the telescope made is stunning. My first comet 2 years into my "new" hobby.

[2dimes]

Noice, tell us about your telescope.






https://skynews.ca

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/interactive-sky-chart/
Banff Latitude: 51° 17' N - Longitude: 115° 57' W
Calgary 51.4 N - 114.7

https://cam01.sci.ucalgary.ca/AllSkyCam ... tImage.JPG

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

[jusplay4fun]

I live in the Eastern USA, near Richmond, VA and Washington, D.C. Light pollution towards the big cities is very likely, IMO.

I cannot see the comet; too much light pollution where I live.

July 14, 2020
How to See Comet NEOWISE
Observers in the Northern Hemisphere are hoping to catch a glimpse of Comet NEOWISE as it zips through the inner solar system before it speeds away into the depths of space. Discovered on March 27, 2020 by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission, Comet NEOWISE is putting on a dazzling display for skywatchers before it disappears, not to be seen again for another 6,800 years.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-to-see-comet-neowise

[jusplay4fun]

I have evidence for Light Pollution in my area, posted earlier:

https://www.globeatnight.org/map/?2013

Less than 100 years ago, everyone could look up and see a spectacular starry night sky. Now, millions of children across the globe will never experience the Milky Way where they live. The increased and widespread use of artificial light at night is not only impairing our view of the universe, it is adversely affecting our environment, our safety, our energy consumption and our health.

What is Light Pollution?
Most of us are familiar with air, water, and land pollution, but did you know that light can also be a pollutant?

https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/

The inappropriate or excessive use of artificial light – known as light pollution – can have serious environmental consequences for humans, wildlife, and our climate. Components of light pollution include:

Glare – excessive brightness that causes visual discomfort
Skyglow – brightening of the night sky over inhabited areas
Light trespass – light falling where it is not intended or needed
Clutter – bright, confusing and excessive groupings of light sources

Last year I bought some property way out in the country. Amazing to see a rural sky vs the city. Anyway, it was about 11pm and I saw a planet rising, im almost sure it was Jupiter, but didnt have my binoculars.

[2dimes]

How far are you from Washington DC? It is visible there.

https://patch.com/district-columbia/was ... it-nova-dc

Maybe you could drive there to view it.

[2dimes]

I bought a SkyMax 150 P. So of course now it is very cloudy.

[WILLIAMS5232]

I bought a SkyMax 150 P. So of course now it is very cloudy.

wow, that's quite an upgrade. what kind of mount did it come with. i hope an equatorial mount. i was curious about that type of telescope, the portability is great. i considered it, but went with the less expensive option.

[2dimes]

No mount. I bought an Orion tripod for now. It's like a photographic one but much sturdier. Just need to wait for the clouds to go away. It was raining with some hail today.

[WILLIAMS5232]

well, that stinks... i mean the clouds.

i took the leisure of downloading the info on Hercules from the book i recomend, got some decent items in it to spot.
i don't expect you to read all the history of it, but it's there if you want to. i found if you read up about it, it makes it easier to understand each constellation as far as remembering where it is in the sky...
the real info for the objects to observe starts at the bottom of page 3

northern hemisphere

southeast

hercules

page1

page2

page3

page4

page5

[2dimes]

Looks like some good stuff. I need to dig out my books too.

Jupiter and Saturn are out together this month and I'm excited to check them out. Hopefully can see the comet a few more time too.

I grabbed an Orion Star Target planisphere from Sea and Sky when we went to Houston. I need the senior citizen large print version.

The interactive sky chart from the site JP likes is fun because it changes according to date and time and includes the planerts. That was how we knew where to find them last week.

https://www.skyandtelescope.com/interactive-sky-chart/

[2dimes]

I have an appointment this morning so even though it was potentially clear skies I went to bed last night.

Woke up to piddle and after going online I looked at the webcam at the nearby observatory. It was super clear, the most stars I have ever seen on it so far, so I woke up my son and we went outside, right now it's still clear but the sun will be rising soon and light is already starting to wash out things in the north east.

I just felt like we had to go out quickly with no scopes for a look because it was so clear and I noticed on the sky chart, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus are all and there is no moon in sight. No comet, it would have set, also there was an article saying the 23 might have been the last night it was bright enough to see from the city.

We could see Mars and Venus from the school yard across the street. Then we took a quick drive to a hill somewhat near us. Could not see much more even though we were above the buildings and trees on our street and did not identify any planets other than Mars which was pretty high up.

[2dimes]

Sorry to triple post but.. Check out this link.

https://theskylive.com/guide

It's awesome! It tells you what's out, about when you can see it and wether you need binoculars or a small scope. There are maps but I was so excited I came to share the main link and have not clicked to open them yet.

You can choose a city or manually submit your coordinates. I found it by checking Google to see if the comet was still supposed to be visible from here.

I clicked on change location, Houston is on their list then I entered Washington DC and checked that out briefly.

Fun for all!

Astro pic of the day is good too. Hopefully this goes to it. The comet over a mountain with some lightning.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2007/C ... r_1920.jpg

[Dukasaur]

I looked for the comet over the weekend but couldn't find it.

I did spend a lot of time watching my old friends Jupiter and Saturn, which were both very visible.

[2dimes]

Do you have some binoculars Duk?

The silly comet was easy to see after my son pointed it out but maybe I would not have found it without his nice young eyes. He also keeps spotting fun moving objects that I would probably be missing without his sharper vision.

Jupiter and Saturn have been easy to see together the last few weeks.

Last night was awesome clear and even in the city fifty feet from those blinding bright led streetlights there was quite a lot out to see.

[Dukasaur]

Do you have some binoculars Duk?

The silly comet was easy to see after my son pointed it out but maybe I would not have found it without his nice young eyes. He also keeps spotting fun moving objects that I would probably be missing without his sharper vision.

Jupiter and Saturn have been easy to see together the last few weeks.

Last night was awesome clear and even in the city fifty feet from those blinding bright led streetlights there was quite a lot out to see.

No, I haven't been able to find my binoculars in a while. I had a good telescope but an old buddy of mine used it more often than I did so I ended up making it a gift to him. Nowadays I just look with the naked eye.

[2dimes]

Maybe borrow a pair off that Doom guy a couple of times. It's planet week.

I enjoyed naked eye last night. Part of it was finding Mars probably for the first time ever and looking for constellations. Lyra, I think, because it has a cool nebula I hope to check out and it's kind of close to Hercules.

[WILLIAMS5232]

I looked for the comet over the weekend but couldn't find it.

I did spend a lot of time watching my old friends Jupiter and Saturn, which were both very visible.

was it clear at least?

have you found the andromeda galaxy yet? or M13?

[Dukasaur]

I looked for the comet over the weekend but couldn't find it.

I did spend a lot of time watching my old friends Jupiter and Saturn, which were both very visible.

was it clear at least?

have you found the andromeda galaxy yet? or M13?

Yeah, we had perfect conditions this weekend.

I don't think Andromeda is visible this time of year. I have seen it in the past.

[2dimes]

Just got home and brought the new scope in the house. We enjoyed it a lot.

I guess the comet is gone. We could not see it where we went. The article saying the 23rd of July might be the last night could have came true.

So now I see what everyone means about field of view being such a big deal.

With the 32mm eye piece I'm at a magnification of 56.25x. However with the new scope being so much larger aperture, Saturn is clear and I could see a nice sphere with rings around it. With my little scope using the 4mm eyepiece I get 75x magnification but it is a pretty crude view.

The difference between looking at Saturn at 56 and 75 is not much at all.

Using my new 9mm eye piece the magnification goes up to 200x which is significant yet does not make for as dramatic a size difference as it sounds. The problem is trying to line it up in the much smaller circle you are now looking through. Then since I am using a tripod mount, I have to manually chase it as it swings out of the viewing area.

I did enjoy the viewing though. I might have to go across to the field and check it out one night. Jupiter is definitely bright enough to view in the city. We probably did not need to drive an hour to get the class 4 light pollution, you can see it under the street light which must be worse than class 9.

Here is a pretty good photograph of what Saturn looks like at those magnifications.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p018q5t9/p018q087

Jupiter was easier to line up because it is larger slightly and quite a bit brighter.

I did not try to line up Mars. It was easy to spot with our eyes though.

[WILLIAMS5232]

I looked for the comet over the weekend but couldn't find it.

I did spend a lot of time watching my old friends Jupiter and Saturn, which were both very visible.

was it clear at least?

have you found the andromeda galaxy yet? or M13?

Yeah, we had perfect conditions this weekend.

I don't think Andromeda is visible this time of year. I have seen it in the past.

For some reason, when I read this, I thougbt it was 2dimes....

But regardless, I'm pretty sure its out right now. I use the constellation Cassiopeia to locate it, if you imagine the bigger triangle being an arrow, it points rigbt to it. And there are two stars of andromeda constellation, that if you imagine are a hypotenuse, then the galaxy forms the point that would make it a right triangle. I'll draw a picture tonight. With a six inch telescope, it wont be very dramatic but its probably one of the eisiest to spot deep sky objects....in my ten inch scope, I can see the other galaxy that is in its background, so its like a double galaxy. Pretty neatin the grand scheme of things.

[WILLIAMS5232]

So now I see what everyone means about field of view being such a big deal.


Yeah, kind of hard to explain until you see it for yourself, its almost like it looks more clear with less magnification...similiar to a pixelated image. Except for the moon, it doesnt hurt to go all in on the moon

The problem is trying to line it up in the much smaller circle you are now looking through. Then since I am using a tripod mount, I have to manually chase it as it swings out of the viewing area.

This is where that equatorial mount comes into play, it lines up with the earth's rotation, and. There is a single tracking gear that you can turn while you view that keeps it centered perfect. There is manual and automatic, but to be honest, the manual works so well, I dont guess id ever pull the trigger on the automatic

Sorry, I'm on my phone and formatting these quote tabs is kind of a pain

[Dukasaur]

But regardless, I'm pretty sure its out right now. I use the constellation Cassiopeia to locate it, if you imagine the bigger triangle being an arrow, it points rigbt to it. And there are two stars of andromeda constellation, that if you imagine are a hypotenuse, then the galaxy forms the point that would make it a right triangle. I'll draw a picture tonight. With a six inch telescope, it wont be very dramatic but its probably one of the eisiest to spot deep sky objects....in my ten inch scope, I can see the other galaxy that is in its background, so its like a double galaxy. Pretty neatin the grand scheme of things.

After I read your post last night, I watched a couple videos about locating Andromeda.

Unfortunately I can't confirm or deny if I could see it now. Vacation is over and I'm back in town with the light pollution. This will have to wait for my next opportunity to get out of town.

[2dimes]

I have not seen andromeda galaxy or any of the Messier catalog yet.
I hopefully will be able to do a bit more observing.
Currently I'm able to get out fairly easily.

So far this year we have probably put in too much time and effort looking at Sarurn but there are some reasons for that.

• I am currently in awe looking at those rings in person.
• One thing this thread has taught me is how often it's cloudy.
• My observing partner is not a morning guy but also struggles to stay up late.
• It seems I was fortunate to see the comet Neowise that one semi clear evening.

I'm quoting this from a sub forum chat because it looks like a pretty interesting list.

Get to work on the Messier objects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_object

We will see but I'm thinking about giving it a try eventually.

My current next potential target when the planets go away is a ring nebula located in Lyra. There's a great small picture of it in one of my books, it might be setting me up for disappointment.

book

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Backyard
GUIDE TO THE
Night Sky.

By Howard Schneider.

I googled it and there was a link to buy it for $35us claiming it sometimes costs $45us

Pretty sure I paid much less lik maybe $30 Canadian?
I might have bagged it on sale. I might have coughed up the big bucks.
It is probably lacking compared to the Audobon one williams and my brother have but I like it, it is nice and small and has some great star charts as well as info on lots of constellations.


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/335 ... -night-sky

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/20 ... ing-nebula

[2dimes]

This is quite strange. The what is observable tonight part of https://theskylive.com/guide says we should be able to see the comet Neowise with naked eyes from near where we went last night.

That should have been true for last night also but we did not see it.

It was pretty clear out and light pollution is not bad there. We saw it from very close to there last time. I wonder why we didn't find it last night?

[jusplay4fun]

What little I read online suggested that July 23 was the last date to see the Neowise Comet easily.

This is quite strange. The what is observable tonight part of https://theskylive.com/guide says we should be able to see the comet Neowise with naked eyes from near where we went last night.

That should have been true for last night also but we did not see it.

It was pretty clear out and light pollution is not bad there. We saw it from very close to there last time. I wonder why we didn't find it last night?