Yippee!!!
Photons at last!!!
A night of several firsts it was:
First night in months we got to use our scopes.
First night in months for screaming great stable conditions.
First night in years I saw the Horse of Sagittarius naked eye.
First night of not a breeze and enough dew and frost to drown in!
The view of Saturn through Adrian's scope was nothing less than staggering! A truly magnificent sight. Only once or twice did I see a hint of a flutter from thermal currents. Just wonderful
I took my new little 8" f/4 rich field wonder, Kulali.
, what a special beastie it is...
Coupled with good eyepieces for a fast newtonian, and the image it throws up is just delicious! Upto a 3° true field of view I can get with it, and the detail that such a rich field scope can throw up at low magnification is amazing. The galaxy M83, not only a sizeable blotch, the nucleus was obvious even with direct viewing, averted vision revealed its bar, and I caught a couple of glimpses of one arm. I needed to view M83 through Adrian's scope to confirm what I saw, and there certainly was the same arm in the same place in Adrian's scope. Angle's breath faint though, and I only managed a few fleeting glimpses of it.
That combustion heater though, if it wasn't for it I don't think the cold that night would have been so tolerable.
A wonderful night with great company!
Alex.