Bright starlit night - what can you identify?

[Jeanied]

Just popped outside to let the dog finish off before going to bed - and was surprised to see a bright starlit night outside. Remember I live in a very light polluted area but was pleased to see Orion's belt over the roof of my house!
What stars can we all see, I wonder...

[mothhawk]

Too much light pollution here, ask me again when the street lights are out



edit - oops - it's not too much light, it's too much cloud

[Jeanied]

Great, Mothhawk - just popped out to see Betelgeuse just because I could!

And what a great map to post!!

[Thelma Sanders]

too cloudy here

[Kristen]

pleased to see Orion's belt over the roof of my house!
What stars can we all see, I wonder...

Bit to the left of, and higher up than, Orions Belt is Jupiter. Should be the nicely bright With a pair of binoculars you'll probably be able to make out some of Jupiter's moons

[Jeanied]

Too late, I had gone to sleep when you posted this Kristen! Hope it is clear again tonight.

[rustylady]

Orion has to be my favourite constellation - so easy to spot.

[WilliamD]

If you have reasonable eyesight, stand facing north and look almost straight up. There's a not particularly bright or interesting star sitting there looking pretty isolated. But that's Polaris, the Pole Star and the starting point for so much navigation down the centuries. Look again at a different time and every other star will have moved, but Polaris will be in the same place.

[Kristen]

Astronomy does my head in!

My eyes are not what there were but I can still just about make out the Andromeda galaxy on a good night (better with a telescope of course ) but struggle to get my head around the fact that the light has taken over 2 million years to get here. Not much point waving at them!

And in the Cigar galaxy (somewhere up in the North somewhere around Polaris [other star map descriptions are available!]) a star blew up 12 million years ago and the light has just got here, and what's more its possible to make out that individual star in the faint fuzz of the galaxy (need a decent amateur telescope, and to do it soon as this weekend will probably be its brightest). Imagine when Betelgeuse, Orion's left shoulder, blows up - that's only 650 light years away and would be spectacular. Its due to blow up at any tick of the astronomical clock - the next million years or so. I also cannot get my head around its size - if it were our Sun it would stretch out to beyond Jupiter, and when it implodes it will shrink to about 15 miles diameter. Nope, definitely can't get my head around any of that! and Orion is going to look a right twit with no left shoulder!

[WilliamD]

... and Orion is going to look a right twit with no left shoulder!

You think that's bad; wait till Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka go supernova .. they're the three that make up his belt, so his trousers will fall down!

[Kirk]

Astronomy does my head in!

My eyes are not what there were but I can still just about make out the Andromeda galaxy on a good night (better with a telescope of course ) but struggle to get my head around the fact that the light has taken over 2 million years to get here. Not much point waving at them!

And in the Cigar galaxy (somewhere up in the North somewhere around Polaris [other star map descriptions are available!]) a star blew up 12 million years ago and the light has just got here, and what's more its possible to make out that individual star in the faint fuzz of the galaxy (need a decent amateur telescope, and to do it soon as this weekend will probably be its brightest). Imagine when Betelgeuse, Orion's left shoulder, blows up - that's only 650 light years away and would be spectacular. Its due to blow up at any tick of the astronomical clock - the next million years or so. I also cannot get my head around its size - if it were our Sun it would stretch out to beyond Jupiter, and when it implodes it will shrink to about 15 miles diameter. Nope, definitely can't get my head around any of that! and Orion is going to look a right twit with no left shoulder!

If your eyes can see Andromeda without trouble they are good eyes, or where you are is too dark to see your hand in front of your face. Scope on it is actually little use, binoculars are better - it is basically too big to see it all in a scope.
Wait around say 5 billion years and you can talk to the Andromedians on a mobile then as that is about the time we will collide.

[Glutton4...]

^^ Nutter!

[Kristen]

If your eyes can see Andromeda without trouble they are good eyes, or where you are is too dark to see your hand in front of your face

Skies are pretty dark here

Scope on it is actually little use, binoculars are better - it is basically too big to see it all in a scope.

My scope has 2" eyepiece and I treated myself to a 31mm Nagler ... "No trouble, just a little expense"

[Kirk]

The 32mm Nagler has a reasonable FoV, 82 degrees, possibly enough field of view to get it in as long as it is not a big Mak or SCT or even the normal Newtonians. A CPC 11 even with a 31 Nagler still wouldn't get it in. You need a scope focal length of less then 850mm to get all m31 in even with the T5. That removes a lot of scopes from consideration.

Perhaps time to sell the T5 and get a newer ES 100 ?

ES's are easier to "maintain" as shown at the 8 minute mark by ES themselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur-AcYk1YRs

But you have to be brave.

[The Cobra]

I love star gazing, but need to invest in a 'scope. Obsessed with all things space related, but like Kristen says, it's hard to make our little brains understand it all!!