Finally, Andromeda!!!

 

Tonight, as it has been clear skies, I thought I would spend an hour or so in the garden and play about with my phone holder. The moon was not out but I thought, it would be fun to try and focus on a planet. Venus was in the sky, so I decided to take a shot.

The holder made it incredibly easy to get the planet in the middle of the shot. Obviously, this is a terrible picture, too much glare but I accept I have much to learn, and that is part of the fun for me.

I was surprised by just for steady the skies were this evening, for the first time I have been able to use my x2 barlow paired with the 6mm plossl on Jupiter and I could still see the bands. Not quite as well as I could at lower magnification but certainly the best clarity, I have ever had so zoomed in. I am not sure if I saw hints of the GRS tonight or whether my eyes were playing tricks on me. This has happened to me before and I would love to be certain on whether I am seeing the red spot.

 

Now for the good bit, I am buzzing. I fired up Stellarium and thought I would use it to check for M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) and was amazed to have found it. Sure, it was very faint and showed little to no detail, but I found it in my tiny, little, 114/500 Bresser. I spent over 40 minutes just looking at this patch of light that has taken over 2.5 million light years away. Surprisingly averting my vision and moving the scope showed more of its shape.

I don’t think words can express the sense of achievement and how happy I am feeling right now, utterly elated!

To celebrate, I am about to buy myself an 8 inch Dobsonian!