goober
15-05-2008, 12:50 AM
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.
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.