Well.. A night that started out with hopes of imaging Jupiter...
Beautiful clear skies at 5:30pm, Scope was set up and 3 star alignment completed by 6, a bit of a tinker with drift alignment just to get a bit closer... then went inside for an hour or so until it got suitably dark outside and the scope had time to cool down.
I went back out at 7:30 to see Jupiter at around 50 degrees so I wacked in the webcam and noticed the seeing was VERY AVERAGE! So I thought to myself... hrmmm.. I havent played with the tour mode on my EQ6 pro yet....
So I wacked in my 30mm ep, hit tour and started off...
M8 : Landed smack bang in the center of the eyepiece.. I fitted my UHC filter to get a better look... It was as beautiful as ever.
M16 : again. dead center of the eyepiece.. Having never looked at M16 with the UHC filter, I was pretty shocked at how much of a difference it made. I could make out some finer detail, but I think light pollution was winning the battle.
M83 : Need I say it, It landed firmly in the center of the eyepiece (Im starting to wonder how I ever did without go-to) I removed the UHC to get a better look at it... I found 30mm wasnt quite close enough so I switched to a 10mm, which seemed too close, but found a nice happy medium with the 25mm + 2x barlow. The view was stunning, very contrasty and some structure was easily seen even in my light polluted suburban site.
The night continued much this way past M104, Eta Carine, Centaurs A, M17, M6, M7, M22, Omega Cent, Jewel box and a few other clusters... Then it took me to NGC2070, the tarantula. I peered into the ep... and thought "whats this?? its missed??" I looked away from the ep and in the general direction the scope was pointing to be greeted by a nice thick band of cloud coming my way from the south..
I quickly packed up the scope, laptop, and all the other gear, slipped the waterproof cover over the mount (i dont move it much as I suck at polar alignment..
) and headed back inside...
All in all, a night that did not go as planned but was the perfect way to spend a few hours.
Incredibly enjoyable.
Alex.