Observing report 4th Aug.

[asimov (John)]

Seeing conditions: 8/10
Transparency: 9/10
jetstream: No idea
Extremely heavy dew
wind: nil

Had a very productive evening with observations commencing at 7.30pm using 152mm F/8 achro refractor/EQ5

Jupiter: Only spent ten minutes viewing time here. Getting too low for good viewing. @ 50X-80X

Jewel box: Excellent viewing with the refractor, simply amazing! Never ceases to amaze me, no matter what telescope used. @ 50X

NGC 3918/blue planetary in centaurus: Finally found it! Took nearly 1.5 hrs to track it down. My first time for this object. @ 50X you can tell it's not a star. @ 160X it was seen as a 'fuzzy disk' about the same size as uranus @ 212X in my big newt. A slight blue green colour. Very nice.

Omega Centauri globular: Wonderful viewing @ 80X..Not as good as the newt.

Lagoon neb: Very nice @ 50X @ 80X even better, excellent contrast. Better views than the Newt! Not sure why..

Trifid neb: Again, excellent view & 80X and 160X Dust lanes quite prominent.

Neptune: Still took some time to locate, even though I've seen it twice now. But I'm getting quicker! Went straight to 200X No detail naturally. Nice viewing though.

NGC 104/47 Tucanae: Excellent glob. cluster! Stars resolved to core @ 80X Not as good as the newt.

NGC 362 Another excellent glob. Not as bright as NGC 104. But very nice @ 80X and 160X

Called it quits at 11.15 Due to the dew & temp. of 3 deg.

[davidpretorius]

very busy boy!!! very cold down here too! need a dew shield on the site scope as i can't see thru it!!!!

[asimov (John)]

Yup! That was one of the 'mods' I had to quickly add to mine. Just thin plastic round mine, with a red light in it to illuminate the cross-hairs.

[davidpretorius]

how does the dew shield work? do the red light server as a heater as well as illuminator?

[asimov (John)]

No dave. No heating..I'll send you pics tomorrow in a email bout it.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

If all GS dobs use the same size Finderscope as mine you will find that a Mailing Tube is the perfect size for a dew sheild. Cut it as long as you want it. I painted mine black inside and out to keep moisture out of the cardboard. Works great!

Interesting report John.

Especially the bit about one neb looking better than it does through the dob!

[dhumpie]

Nice report John. Maybe we should make it a habit of posting short observation reports like this

Darren

[asimov (John)]

Thanks Darren. Yeah, I'm going to make a point of writing up small observation reports from now on. In this weather it's easy, I have time to do a quick write up. In summer, seeing I'll be observing almost every night, a report everyday may become a bit much though..