It was clear and dark last night in NY. I'd rate the seeing at medium. While I was unable to locate or identify any galaxies, I did manage to find some open clusters.
I actually spent more time looking at the sky with my naked eyes than with the scope... I was looking about half way between Leo and Saturn (Cancer, it turns out) and I saw this fuzzy area. I was sure it was something, and not just a cloud or smudge on my glasses... so I got the scope aimed at it and saw the Beehive cluster (which I found out later)! Cool stuff!
I also managed to find M38 with the naked eye, then go inside and look it up.
I definately made progress as a star gazer. I was able to find something, figure out what it was near, then go look it up on a star computer program. I imagine the next natural progression will be to look something up, then go find it in the sky.
It was also very exciting to realize I was looking at something much farther away. When I first got the telescope, the moon seemed like a distant object. Then Saturn and Jupiter seemed amazingly far away. M38 is 4200 light years away! Big step up from our solar system!
I actually spent more time looking at the sky with my naked eyes than with the scope... I was looking about half way between Leo and Saturn (Cancer, it turns out) and I saw this fuzzy area. I was sure it was something, and not just a cloud or smudge on my glasses... so I got the scope aimed at it and saw the Beehive cluster (which I found out later)! Cool stuff!
I also managed to find M38 with the naked eye, then go inside and look it up.
I definately made progress as a star gazer. I was able to find something, figure out what it was near, then go look it up on a star computer program. I imagine the next natural progression will be to look something up, then go find it in the sky.
It was also very exciting to realize I was looking at something much farther away. When I first got the telescope, the moon seemed like a distant object. Then Saturn and Jupiter seemed amazingly far away. M38 is 4200 light years away! Big step up from our solar system!
