Ok, last night I went out to see what I could find, I saw two shooting stars, and two UFO's, lol, they were moving fast in a straight line, was'nt a plane, they were moving to fast and they were big. What could it be? Also I found Vega, Deneb, and Altair, and tryed to find the Dumbell Nebula, and M29, couldnt do it. Could sombody fill me in on the trick of focosing in on something past the stars, I know I was in the right place, but didnt see anything.

 Usually getting the stars in focus is a start. If the DSO is then out of focus then adjust it.

DonDon,

What direction was the big "UFO" coming from and in what direstion was it headed?  We got to see the Space Station the other night.  It was coming out of the NNW kinda and headed SSE.  It was big and bright.  I thought it was a plane, but I couldn't see any blinking lights.  It was something to see.

  I too have had this problem!!!  Collimate your scope, align your finder with the scope.  I'm assuming rather simply that because you live in washington, light pollution is not an issue.  Is this true?

   If you are looking for nebula through the finder scope, unless it is theorionnebula, you might have a very, very tough time of it.  you will have to be a very good navigator, trust your alignments, and do a liitle searching and looking through the eyepiece.  Many people use a Telerad finder or red dot to locate exactly where they are pointing these big dobs.  I use a laser (beam) this works very well too, and solved my problems.

   Chances are, your scope isn't pointing exactly where you think it is.  And when you are looking 10,000+ light years away at faint objects ofen only 5-15 seconds wide, close just ain't gonna get it!!

  I suggest a telerad or a green laser, and things will radically improve.

North to south. I just happened to be looking through my binoculars at the time I saw it, so I followed it for a second then tryed to see it with my eyes but couldnt find it again.

That's right, I live way out in the woods, light is not an issue, the trees are though, lol I do have a telrad, just havnt put it on yet, the 10X50 finder scope always seems to be off. I use the main scope to look around. Thank's..

Could it be that I need a (Very expencive) narrowband nebula filter?? Or would the brightness of the moon be causing problems?

Um, yes the Full Moon will drown out things like M-27. 

Have you aligned your finder?  Does it have the ability to be focused manually?  To align the finder pick an object on the ground that you can see that is far off.  A streetlight, a transmission tower, a tree, something that you can find the top of or the middle of easily.  Once this object is in the main telescopes field of view, use the knobs/screws on the finder scope to put this object in the center of it as well.  Once in the cross hairs if you really want to use a tight focus put a higher magnification eyepiece in the focuser and adjust the finder just that little bit more to get the object dead center.  For me the apex of a distant transmission tower works great.

Focus the finder on a brighter star when its dark and then you will be ready.  Try a few easy things to confirm you are set. Is Saturn in the middle of the field of view in both the finder and the scope? A 9x50 finder will show most brighter nebulae as small dim bits or fuzzballs.  Open clusters will show up a bit better.

Right now you are limited to the brighter objects because of the Moon.  Look for a couple of easy things like M-13 or M-57.  Because of their location between fairly bright stars in their respective constellations they are easier to find than things like M-27.  Once you get the hang of it finding things will get easier.  Study those star charts and pick items that are close to brighter stars that form the constellation patterns.  There are quite a few of those and they make a good start.  Check out the great open clusters for example by the scorpion's tail.

Keep looking up,

L

  listen to leo--

   I don't think you need a narrowband filter just yet.  Try finding these easy objects first!  With low light pollution, stray man-made light shouldn't be much of an issue.  It will help with contrast somewhat, but LP is probably the main reason most folks use them.

  Once you get the hang of it, you'll see the utility of a telerad or laser for less well-demarcated objects (most of them!!!).  After that it's gravy.

  the more time you spend taking care to collimate and align your optics, the better your night will go.  The finder is essentially useless unless you spend the 5-10 minutes 'zeroing' it--justlike the scope on a rifle...

  good luck--

Thank's for the info guys, I just put my telrad on and removed the 10X50. I also checked the collimator, and did some fine tuning with that. I will try the brighter objects tonight, weather permitting that is, Thank's again...Don.

Well I put the telrad on yesterday and took it out last night, and WOW what a differance from the finder scope. Everything I centered in the telrad was centered in the main scope, FANTISTIC!!! I would give the telrad a 10 out of 10!! Thank's to all who have helped me, through my very short jurney, thus far. The information you provide is invaluable, and all the tips and tricks you give are also! Again, I thank you all! And also a thank you to astronomy.com for giving us a place to learn... Don.

Consider this; there are currently over 2000 artificial satellites orbiting Earth. If you looked at the sky for more than a few minutes on a clear, moonless night in an area without much light pollution, it would be pretty remarkable NOT to see one. Although most are relatively small, they reflect light pretty well.

 I'd put that Telrad on and download the charts and print them sometime today. It's going to improve your success rate from the start. Then before it gets dark, find some faraway, stationary object and line up your finder, the Telrad (I still use both)and your objective view. If all that fails to work, do some research on collimation and choose the best way for you to collimate your 'scope. You may be using only a fraction of the light-gathering ability of your scope. I also have a 10-inch Dob and had to collimate it when I got it, though it takes only a little tweaking every once in awhile now.

Finally, the skies in Gig Harbor may not be as dark as you think! You're still getting a lot of light-pollution from the town itself, Tacoma and even Seattle. Haul your scope up to Table Mountain north of Ellensburg on Blewett Pass for the new moon in July or August (August is better - longer nights!)and see what it can do. I go up every year from Seattle and it's well worth the work. From your location I'd head west and try to get up into the foothills of the Olympics, as high as you can.

One more thing - The Dumbell is a pretty small object not easily found with a 10 inch in the Puget Sound area. Go for something big and easy like M31 or any number of globular clusters. You're just not going to pull in lot of galaxies around here. When you get out into the land of less light-pollution, you'll have better luck.

Clear skies!

Where do you get the charts?

I live about 20 miles north west of Gig Harbor in a very rural area. On a dark night I cant see my hand in front of my face.

Start at Skymaps. Click here. You can download a free monthly chart there. But go to their online store and look at the various atlases and charts available there, as well. Buying from their online store supports their free chart service.

Another good place to acquire charts and books is the Lunar Photo of the Day site (click here). Likewise, buying online there supports their service.

Or, try this...

http://www.atmob.org/library/member/skymaps_jsmall.html

If that doesn't work email me at pleiades151@comcast.net and I'll send you the charts in Word format. At least I think they're in Word - they're on another computer and I haven't looked at the files in awhile.

Thank's Pleiades1, this is a fantistic link for those of us that dont have our star charts yet. I have all 16 maps now, with names and numbers of each object, distance, ect, ect. An excelent link for all amature astronomers, and seasoned astronomers as well! Thank's again!!!

M65, 35 million light years away? Wow, is that even possible for man to see??

Thank's chipdatajeffB, I have a NightWatch book that's been in the mail for (two weeks now), after I check it out i'll see what else I will need from there.

A telrad and good charts and guide books made a huge differrence in how much I enjoy my dob.

I can surely relate to that, im making big progress, thank's to the good people on this site..

Here's another online source of Messier Telrad charts:

http://www.utahskies.org/deepsky/messier/charts/messierTelradFrameSet.html

Commercial versions are available at http://www.duchekconsult.com/telrad_finder_charts.htm and http://www.blueplanetoptics.com/Sky%20Spot/SKYSPOT.htm

Dave Mitsky

DonDon:

M65, 35 million light years away? Wow, is that even possible for man to see??

M65 and M66 are rather easy targets for small telescopes at dark sites and are also visible through binoculars.

Dave Mitsky