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Hi, Michael, nice report. I was at Mt Canopus for the AST's regular Hands On Astronomy night. We were slightly more blessed with the weather, one of those funny nights when the whole sky would disappear, and then ten minutes later virtually clear from horizon to horizon.
I met a nice guy named Joseph who'd brought along his brand spanking new LX90. What a dream scope that is! In about 10 minutes we caught up on about 30 years of astronomy as we steered from glob to glob in Sagittarius, and from galaxy to galaxy elsewhere (NGC 55 and the Silver Coin). It made my puny Megrez seem positively pedestrian, although that complemented the night with some nice wide-field views, such as the Lagoon and Trifid in the same FOV of the good ol' Andrews 30mm UWA. Also Antares nicely balanced by M4. (Can't wait for M45, M42!)
47 Tuc, of course, and Omega Centauri. (The Jewel Box was nicely magnified in the LX90 when we looked at it early, but I think perhaps the scope wasn't properly cooled yet and it was stirred a bit by tube currents.) Unfortunately a rude roof got in the way of Albireo, but apart from that we mowed down an amazing amount of the sky.
Naturally we got talking about equipment and add-ons. (I'm pretty sure it won't be long before a focal reducer is purchased from Bintel.)
One of my most enjoyable evenings for a long time. (Thanks a million, Joseph!)
Regards,
Brian.
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