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Old 14-05-2008, 11:50 PM
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goober (Doug)
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Observation Report: 14th May 2008

Location: Melbourne
Time: 2200 - 2345 EST
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 5
Moon: Waxing gibbous
Dew: none
Weather: ~12C, calm, smell of smoke in the air

Moon
Seeing looked quite steady so I spent 45 minutes on the Moon with the 5mm Nagler in (108x). Nice, steady views. Copernicus was awesome, the sun just coming up over the crater. The terracing and detail on the inside sunlit wall was stunning.

Lambert and Pytheas were pits of inky black, and they were both throwing long shadows behind them back into the terminator.

Plato revealed three craterlets, although I wasn't sure about one of them. It winked in and out over near the crater rim, where the rim breaks into a triangular wedge before reforming again.

Jupiter
Quite low, but good views at 108x. NEB sharply defined and revealing detail, while the fainter SEB seemed to be split in two. Fainter belts were easily seen when the seeing steadied. Interesting alignment of the moons, with three of them very close and in a line. They were starting to move out of alignment as I observed - very neat. No sign of the great red spot, but I wasn't sure where it was located. I popped in the 2.5x powermate, but the low altitude didn't work two well and the view went to mush. I sketched a view at 108x.

Nu Scorpii
With the 2.5x and 5mm stack still in the scope, I swung up to Scorpius and went after the Lesser Double Double. It's a toughy, but I think I resolved four components at 270x. I sketched this view too.

That's it.... most of the time was spent on the Moon and Jupiter, waiting for the seeing to steady out.
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  #2  
Old 15-05-2008, 07:34 AM
Karlsson
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Interesting report - the GRS was just disappearing from view while you were observing the Moon...
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Old 15-05-2008, 08:15 AM
你B
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nice report, better make use of these extremely rare clear sky events!

you got steady seeing? Never would of imagined with the shambles I had to put up with. Looks like I live in a very crap seeing regin then. It is fairly hilly out here so maybe that's why.
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Old 15-05-2008, 10:42 AM
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goober (Doug)
No obs, raising Harrison

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Quote:
Originally Posted by 你B View Post
you got steady seeing? Never would of imagined with the shambles I had to put up with. Looks like I live in a very crap seeing regin then. It is fairly hilly out here so maybe that's why.
Yeah, it was pretty good. Jupiter was below 45 degrees and I was surprised at how sharp it looked (only at 108x though, but that seemed to give up plenty of detail).

I forgot to mention I had a look at Antares at 270x - no sign of a split, but the star image was very stable.

Different locations, different conditions, different scopes?
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Old 15-05-2008, 05:40 PM
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JethroB76 (Jeff)
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I could be wrong but, isn't the larger aperture Dob looking through more turbulent cells in the atmosphere compared to the smaller refractor, hence is more susceptible to the seeing conditions?
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Old 15-05-2008, 05:56 PM
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goober (Doug)
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Yes, there are all sorts of possible issues. Mirror cooling, tube currents, etc.
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Old 16-05-2008, 10:00 AM
你B
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^^ it's a truss dob so there's no tube currents. The open air design should aid cooling aswell. Normally I'd leave it out for 2 hours before observing.
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Old 17-05-2008, 11:21 AM
Rob_K
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Short but good Doug! There's always something to see, and the moon can be very rewarding (not always 'the enemy', LOL).

Cheers -
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Old 18-05-2008, 11:59 PM
你B
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^^ I love viewing the moon - there's to much to be seen and you can just get lost for hours in those mountain ranges and craters.
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