Infamous IISer erick who is back from Israel for a brief visit, dropped by my place last night to check out the SDM and get some decent southern hemisphere viewing.
Seeing was great last night with stars rock solid all night, but transparency was poor. Lots of moisture was in the air, and light pollution from my outer suburban skies limited what we could see.
Nevertheless erick had the honours of target selection and piloting the SDM. We did a Planet Nebula and Globular Cluster tour in Sagittarius. Unreal how many targets are in that part of the sky. It also really helps when you have somebody who really knows Argo Navis driving too
The SDM has pretty decent dew prevention so despite the scope and all my gear absolutely dripping by 11pm, the secondary remained 100% clear and primary about 95% - so no problem there.
Absolutely great night and fantastic to catch up with somebody who first taught some of the basics of Astronomy at my 1st Snake Valley camp about 6 years ago.
As expected by those that know me, view of the night was 47Tuc
Paul