New to this!!

On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 16:54:09 +0100, "Mary Shakespeare"
wrote:

I am new to all this, but I now got a pair of binoculars and I have
borrowed from my local library "Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars" by
Patrick Moore (Good book by the way!!) and tried looking out on our balcony
and I think I saw Mars, it looked like a star with a red tint around it.
I give it another go tonight or should I wait until next week when the
Weather Forecast said it will be frosty.

Mary


Why wait? You have to cherish any clear night you can get in the UK!

ChrisH

UK Astro Ads: http://www.UKAstroAds.co.uk

"Mary Shakespeare" wrote:

I am new to all this, but I now got a pair of binoculars and I have
borrowed from my local library "Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars" by
Patrick Moore (Good book by the way!!) and tried looking out on our balcony
and I think I saw Mars, it looked like a star with a red tint around it.
I give it another go tonight or should I wait until next week when the
Weather Forecast said it will be frosty.

Mary

1) Look whenever you can. Mars can shine through quite heavy mist and
can be the only visible thing up there if there is thin cloud and no
Moon. It is still very bright (but it is fading from its peak
brightness of late August)

2) It will be somewhere starting on a rising arc, from low in the
South East to low in the North west, so it mostly depends depending on
when you look. If the sky is clear it will at the top of the arc and
at its highest in the sky when it is South - tonight at about 11pm.
(it gets to its highest a few minutes earlier every night)

3) It looks distinctly orange to the naked eye. The red fringe round
it in your binocs may be more a side-effect caused by the glass in the
binoculars. (You have to buy really expensive binoculars before these
effects go away - most of us just put up with fringes and false
colours)

Good luck

Cheers

Martin

--------------
Martin Frey
N 51 02 E 0 47
--------------

"Mary Shakespeare" wrote in message
...
I am new to all this, but I now got a pair of binoculars and I have
borrowed from my local library "Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars"
by
Patrick Moore (Good book by the way!!) and tried looking out on our
balcony
and I think I saw Mars, it looked like a star with a red tint around it.
I give it another go tonight or should I wait until next week when the
Weather Forecast said it will be frosty.

Mary



I'm also new to astronomy, I borrowed a pair of Binoculars and bought a
similar book also by Patrick Moore "Astronomy Without a Telescope" - I like
his style of writing and i think it will probably turn out to be a good
"newbie" reference. The Binoculars I have are 20x50's shall be trying them
out on mars and moon tonight! - Clear skies permitting.

Steve
www.534n13w.co.uk

I did not wait until Tuesday, because I did not see alot because of light
pollution around our flat, but I did look at the stars with the binoculars
on Monday whilst I was out in the country and my partner and I are "hooked".
What a view? don't you miss alot with just the "naked eye",
"ChrisH" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 16:54:09 +0100, "Mary Shakespeare"
wrote:

I am new to all this, but I now got a pair of binoculars and I have
borrowed from my local library "Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars"
by
Patrick Moore (Good book by the way!!) and tried looking out on our
balcony
and I think I saw Mars, it looked like a star with a red tint around it.
I give it another go tonight or should I wait until next week when the
Weather Forecast said it will be frosty.

Mary


Why wait? You have to cherish any clear night you can get in the UK!

ChrisH

UK Astro Ads: http://www.UKAstroAds.co.uk

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 10:07:20 +0100, "Mary Shakespeare"
wrote:

I did not wait until Tuesday, because I did not see alot because of light
pollution around our flat, but I did look at the stars with the binoculars
on Monday whilst I was out in the country and my partner and I are "hooked".
What a view? don't you miss alot with just the "naked eye",


You certainly do. Before you go out next time, make a short list of a
few brighter objects - like M31, the double cluster in Perseus, and
M27. Take a sky chart with you to help orientate. Then see if you can
find these objects in your binoculars.

ChrisH

UK Astro Ads: http://www.UKAstroAds.co.uk

"astrono_me" wrote in message ...
"Mary Shakespeare" wrote in message
...
I am new to all this, but I now got a pair of binoculars and I have
borrowed from my local library "Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars"
by
Patrick Moore (Good book by the way!!) and tried looking out on our
balcony
and I think I saw Mars, it looked like a star with a red tint around it.
I give it another go tonight or should I wait until next week when the
Weather Forecast said it will be frosty.

Mary

I'm also new to astronomy, I borrowed a pair of Binoculars and bought a
similar book also by Patrick Moore "Astronomy Without a Telescope" - I like
his style of writing and i think it will probably turn out to be a good
"newbie" reference. The Binoculars I have are 20x50's shall be trying them
out on mars and moon tonight! - Clear skies permitting.

Steve
www.534n13w.co.uk

May I suggest that you invest a little time at your browsers looking
for Chris Marriott's SkyMap Pro (demo version). Search with skymap
pro. It is a free 8.6Mb download. It will help you locate the objects
you want to see and show where they are when you can't! Great fun and
very flexible. You'll see what I mean when you have it onboard your
computers. Many of us wouldn't be without this and other popular
software packages. Welcome to astronomy heaven!

Chris.B

"Chris.B" wrote in message
om...
"astrono_me" wrote in message
...
"Mary Shakespeare" wrote in message
...
I am new to all this, but I now got a pair of binoculars and I have
borrowed from my local library "Exploring the Night Sky with
Binoculars"
by
Patrick Moore (Good book by the way!!) and tried looking out on our
balcony
and I think I saw Mars, it looked like a star with a red tint around
it.
I give it another go tonight or should I wait until next week when
the
Weather Forecast said it will be frosty.

Mary

I'm also new to astronomy, I borrowed a pair of Binoculars and bought a
similar book also by Patrick Moore "Astronomy Without a Telescope" - I
like
his style of writing and i think it will probably turn out to be a good
"newbie" reference. The Binoculars I have are 20x50's shall be trying
them
out on mars and moon tonight! - Clear skies permitting.

Steve
www.534n13w.co.uk

May I suggest that you invest a little time at your browsers looking
for Chris Marriott's SkyMap Pro (demo version). Search with skymap
pro. It is a free 8.6Mb download. It will help you locate the objects
you want to see and show where they are when you can't! Great fun and
very flexible. You'll see what I mean when you have it onboard your
computers. Many of us wouldn't be without this and other popular
software packages. Welcome to astronomy heaven!

Chris.B

I have loaded a package for my Psion Revo called Solun it seems to work ok
but i'll have to wait for clear skies before I can test it for real.
Also my Revo doesn't have a back light - duh! But when I get my red-light
sorted I'll give it a try.

Steve
http://www.534n13w.co.uk