I'm too lazy to start a new thread so I'll add my thoughts in here. I got a few wonderful hours of observing tonight from 8:00PM to 11:00PM, which is probably what everyone else is doing at the moment! It was very clear and started off a bit windy but then it died down. I did my observing out the front lawn of my fiance's house this time, instead of my parent's backyard. This time, I had to contend with only one streetlight instead of three but alas, the neighbours all have automatic motion sensor lights which kept turning on for no apparent reason! There was also an abundance of mozzies so I slathered on the repellant. Only got bitten about 5 times this time! YAY!
My first target was the neighbours antennae just to make sure my finderscope was aligned which it wasn't. Next was the moon. It was very sharp tonight, one of the sharpest views I've seen for a while. I took a few snapshots of the moon on film with the OM-1 at prime. I tried ep projection as well but found that I had to strip the focuser to bare minimum in order to achieve focus with the camera and 9.7mm ep and camera adapter combination. It was racked almost all the way inwards! While observing the moon, I did notice a slight purpley/blue tinge on the side of the moon opposite the terminator. I never noticed it before so maybe my collimation is out. Must check it the next time I'm out.
The next target was 47 tucanae. I tried using my sky atlas 2000 monster map to figure out where the glob was but it was difficult as I could not locate very many stars towards the south. All I could see was skyglow, an eerie unnatural pinky colour. But I eventually found it by sighting it with the binos first. That was my very first time viewing this highly acclaimed globular and it's safe to say that it lived up to my expectations. It is amazing! I could actually see individual points of light. It was like a magnificent swarm! It was much more easily resolved in the 9.7mm than the 26mm. I must have stared at this glob for a full ten minutes. I just couldn't take my eyes away from it. I even tried using my astronomik CLS filter on it and I think it actually made the glob seem clearer. Maybe it was just my eyes. There is a slight blue tinge with this filter but it works a treat on nebs. I also tried a few shots with the OM-1 at prime and boy was it fun to try and focus. I tried to use the varimagni finder and upped the mag to x2.5 but it was dim and the field of view was tight. I also found the finder flopped a bit and had to be held in place. It was the first time I've used the finder and having heard so many good things about this being a useful tool for astrophotography, I have to say that it's not completely wonderful. I have to say it did help me focus a little but the image does blink out a bit so my eyes had to be right up close to see the full field and it is quite dim.
I then moved the scope...yes the massive 10inch with counterweights and everything else attached, all by myself, to a better position so that I could view comet machholz. And now my upper back is really sore! But it was worth it. The comet looked really fuzzy and bright in both my 26mm and 9.7mm ep's (I only have meade's by the way). No sign of a tail. It had a slight green tinge, though not as green as comet neat (or was it linear?) form earlier this year. I stared at the comet for while too, just standing there, awkardly, neck craned, pondering, soaking in the view of my third comet.
I couldn't find M1 either doug and then later when I went inside to check starry night pro, I realised I was looking in the wrong area. But I probably wouldn't have been able to see it anyway to due to amount of skyglow I have out here
All in all, it was great to be out there again. My only passing thought about tonight is that I wish I had something like the orion 100mm or 80mm as a grab and go setup. My gear needs two people to setup and packup quickly. Luckily, I have an understanding and super strong fiance.
Clear skies all! Hope you enjoyed my report
