Ordinary night, 14/5

[§AB]

Seeing as it was probably the only clear night for several more weeks, in light of this incredibly disgusting autumn weather of late (and that's a MASSIVE understatement), I thought I'd try my luck.

I began by trying to shim the primary of the 12" dob to alleviate that comllimation shift problem and I appeared to be rather successfull. I spent like over an hour working with that to get it right. I also checked the jetstream maps - gee, not a hint of jetstream anywhere. Looking good!

Scope: 12" F/4.65 dob
Time: 9pm-10:45pm
Seeing: 2/10
Transparency: 3/5
Temp: 10ºC
Dew: none

Unfortunately, tonight the seeing was so crap that it had to be seen to be believed. I couldn't even focus Saturn at 176x, sure there were a few moments of clarity but for the most part it was as if someone had smeared it with their finger. I've heard reports of excellent seeing in Adelaide and NSW but obviously nothing in Melbourne. No surprises there, our climate is the most lametacular in the nation.

Alot of the time was also spent fiddling with collimation. Maybe I'm paranoid.

MEL 101
This is a moderately sized open cluster near the " Southern Pleiades". At 83x, it appeared quite large, sparse and populated with faint stars. The brightest stars are arranged like a V sitting on top of a W, much like the Volkswagon symbol.

NGC 5979
Just a random planetary I found in Triangulum Australe. Sits in a rich area which makes it slightly more difficult to pick out at low power. I couldn't use high mag due to the abhorrent seeing, so I had to stick with the 8mm eyepiece for 176x. I could see a small, grey disk, it reminded me of NGC 3918.

M80
Globular just northwest of Antares. Very condensed, classic profile. Outer regions were largely resolved at 176x, pushing mag to 208x bought no improvement.

by 10:30, along with everything else, I got really tired and have to go tro uni aswell. Didn't bother me, as it was far from a spectacular evening anyway. Moonlight, horror seeing.

[goober]

Yikes, didn't sound good. It seemed okay for me, but perhaps my standards are lower. 176x is getting up there for moi :)

I did point the scope at Saturn around 10:30, but it was getting down in the west, and the view wasn't great.

Seemed to be a bit smoky last night, too. I could smell it.

[§AB]

I don't know, the seeing was truly a disgrace and even those with the lowest standards would've been displeased.

[Starkler]

Had a quick peek at Jup at around 1.30am with the r130 and the seeing wasnt toooooo bad, but not quite good enough to inspire me to set up the refractor for a better look.

[§AB]

Seeing this crap is virtually as rare as excellent seeing. Only twice this year did I have seeing so lame.

[Starkler]

I wont bother to look at planets unless the seeing supports 200x, maybe 1 in 5 clear nights in Melbourne?

[§AB]

^^ Usually I find that I can get 200x on Saturn on the majority of clear nights with both my scopes, but above 250x is a different story. So to me, anything below 200x that is not usable means craptacular seeing and I'll resort to open cluster and large nebula viewing.

I only had awesome seeing twice this year, on those occasions i had my 10" at 625x on some PNs and 750x on the Tarantula Nebula but I find that such mags are only possible perhaps once every few months. Most I got out of my 12" was 566x on NGC 3918 on a rather decent night.

On the contrary, last year I had one night of the most aweful seeing, where at just 60x Jupiter was unfocusable. Such nights would be as rare as 10/10 seeing IMO as I've never experienced anything that crap since then.