...just like everything else in life, astronomy has good times and not so good times
Last night was perhaps my worst session this year. Ok, the forecast was trash - showers ontop of more showers, but it was actually clear so I went out. Sirius was twinkling a bit but only very slightly and with a southwesterly wind I assumed seeing was going to be good. I look back now and laugh....
ANyway left the scope outside to cool for an hour and a half. This is where things started to go wrong. The batteries for the fan went flat. No biggie, but is basically symbolic of the whole nature of the evening. Then I found spiderweb across the tube. Last time I found spiderwebs on the tube, I woke up the next morning to find the inside of the tube laced with cobwebs
Anyway, my first target was Saturn. At 146x, Saturn was basically jumping and blurring in n out of focus. I immediately realised that as far as lunar and planetary viewing was concerned the night was a write-off. I also observed Regulus at 146x and geez its not often you get to see a star jumping and shimmering like that. I then turned to the moon. Nice and crisp at 146x, but at 250x I couldn't focus at all. Everything was just a blur.
Just goes to show the crapness of the seeing. SO I figured I'll hunt some open clusters in the Milkyway but low and behold, that rotten Melbourne Cloud was already moving in. SO I had to pack up. During packup one of the finger loops on the scope's altitude springs snapped almost clonking me in the eye. Once again no huge deal but there could hardly be a more fitting way to top off the evening.
Tonight looks like it will be clear.....