[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

The current string of fine cloudless days here in Hobart have made multiple observations of Andromeda quite straight forward this year.

I am not chasing Andromeda for the views, rather the challenge of being able to see it from Hobart and marvel at the 2million plus years the photons have travelled only to be captured by my eyes . It is a matter of patience waiting for the right conditions given Andromeda is so low on the northern horizon. I live well south of Hobart so I have to look through the Hobart light pollution. On the plus side I have a virtually unrestricted northerly horizon down to about 1 degree elevation with these low hills blocking the majority of the direct line of sight lights of Hobart.

Andromeda was clearly visible in my 7X50 binoculars and 8X50 finderscope last Saturday night during the Astronomical Society of Tasmania member observing night at our Mt Pleasant observatory outside Hobart. Another member was reporting seeing the small diffuse spot in 10X42 binoculars. The observing area has a good low dark outlook to the North.

The star hop is easy and Andromeda popped out as a broad diffuse patch with obvious brightening to the centre in my scope. The slightly elongated shape was discernible. During moments of better seeing, it was obvious that the faint hazy area surrounding the central bright core was not uniform. A hint of structure was present but definitely not enough to define anything specific. Seeing was only average, but transparency was high which seemed to contribute to better contrast this year compared with earlier years when the whole FOV has looked quite washed out.

Andromeda was close to culmination at the time.

Two of us decided we should try for repeat observations atop Mt Wellington to see what difference 4,000 feet in altitude might make. We journeyed up there last night. Of course there are too many uncontrolled variables to make any real comparisons. The transparency was about the same and the seeing was definitely better, however, the light pollution from Hobart was worse than I was expecting. There is also little opportunity to get away from the summit road, so, we had to contend with quite regular traffic - sightseers, aurora chasers, love birds and goodness knows what else.

The result for Andromeda was about the same with the binoculars. The telescopic view was slightly washed out with less contrast and a slightly less rich view. We then spent several enjoyable hours ranging over our favourite targets. We tested some time exposures, but unfortunately there no aurora on the night.

Scope: Vixen NA140SS on TRex mount with Panoptic 24 (33X and 4.2 exit pupil) and LVW13 (62X and 2.3mm exit pupil).