Sucker holes by ving
date: 6/3/06
time: 21:30 to 22:30
scope: 8" Eq newt
seeing: 0-4/10 (small patches of 6)
Gee, it seems like literally months since i have actually done a true observation... yeah i have whipped my scope out and looked at a few things but that was mainly battling with my scopes mount... loose wires resulting in no tracking, polar aligning, and its a bugger to ballance.... but on monday, the weather was fine at lunch and i was determined to iron out the balancing and get some real observing in damn it!!!
Not on your nelly! stated mother nature in a brisk windy tone.
and so, with the scope aligned as best i could (my yard is not very flat) and ballanced as best i could, and set up ready i started.
9:30pm and my positioning was too low to view the moon, my first target... bummer. so i swung her around to ngc 4755 (kappa crux (the jewel box cluster)). the seeing was bad and mother nature was doing her best to get me inside.... clouds drifter thru my FOV. But i persevered! the cluster was splendid as per usual with a multitude of coloured stars. she is one of few objects that i have photographed...
I stayed for a while gazing upon this beauty then shifted up and right to alpha crux. Alpha Crux, to those in the know is a multiple star with A and B close together and the dimmer C star out a bit. now the seeing was so bad that i could barely seperate A and B stars in my 15mm SV. it was only as light cloud drifted thru my FOV that the seperation was easy... of course C star disapeared
shoving the scope right further put you in the constellation of musca, the fly. with in said constellation lies to nice globular clusters ngc 4833 and ngc 4372, of which i visited only one as clouds threatened to blout out the entire insect (fly). i choser my target and stayed with it for as long as i could (4833). many stars resolved themselves unto my eye and it was quite pleasant to behold... then it disappeared...
not happy with the clouds i swapped horizons to find myself surrounded by clouds. only smallish sucker holes were present now... I did think to have a go at the eskimo planetary but though better of it as the clouds thickened. my last port-o-call was glorious saturn. she never ceases to amaze me. I wacked in my 7.5mm ultima (great EP i tells ya) and when the seeing was erasonable the deatil hit me like a sledge hammer
multiple bands on the globe and clear ring structure was mine for the taking (for 2-3 second periods at a time).
It was horrid out there and the cloud eventually pushe me indoors but I have to say, It was good to have a semi structured session after such a long break
hopefully i will get out on the weekend, but at this stage it doesnt look good.
Nice report as per usual David - and re the troubles with the eq 
