|
M42 is the answer to....
i went for an evening walk yesterday, in some rare sunshine. it felt unusually dry for this time of year. And the sky had that deep blue unctuous quality that only astronomers can describe...a sort of umami blue: no high cloud, just a scattering of some low stuff. Promising.
The plan was to open the obsy for a spring clean and setup for the coming season this weekend, but a peak outside at 10pm looked good. Better then average seeing and transparency. A few minutes of indecision later and the obsy was open for the first time in about 3 months. Barely a twinkle in Sirius. Just plugged in the Hand controller and loaded an old alignment. Fingers crossed. Goto to Sirius was almost spot on! But no need for goto tonight. I left the obsy lights on to make sure no creepy crawleys or snakes had made bed fellows with the scope.
With a 99% moon, and rusty eyes, the next 2 hrs were spent jumping between Rigel, Sirius and the Trapezium. Rigel was easily split at 120x, and a beautiful view of a dusky blue companion it was. it got me very excited at the prospect of splitting Sirius. The trapezium resolved to E. But i couldnt get F no matter how hard I pushed. And The pup remained elusive yet again....I’ve only seen him once, and that was using a camera. Finally went back to M42, the crisp contrasty swirls ensured that I woke up this morning with a big smile on my face.
|
