I saw Mars last Saturday night. The conditions were very steady, and it was looking magnificent - polar ice caps and several clear darker regions on a ruddy disc.
yes! finally the clouds have given way, the ground was too soggy to set up my dob, and we don't have a concrete slab in an optimum area. So i decided to borrow an old board (2x2 meters) off my uncle to set up the dob . Orion is absolutely spectacular, Jupiter isn't hit too hard by turbulence so it to was a great sight as I just witnessed the moon transit.
BONUS!!! the turbulence is really low now, I can now see cassini's division and much more surface detail on mars. on the downside, i'm starting to get some fog and the moon glow is limiting me to brighter deep sky and planetary work..... but thats ok, hope the weathers stays like this until my OIII filter arives...
Hey guys, I had a good night observing on the Central Coast. The seeing was only average at best, but it was just nice to catch some photons.
The highlights were NGC 2440, an extraordinary PNe in Carina which looks like a bow tie with jets at either end, Upsilon Carinae, which is a lovely double where the primary is blue and the secondary green, just 5" apart.
Upsilon Carinae is just about a degree away from Eta, and so I spent a good deal of time enjoying her as well. I found another nice colour contrasting double in the vicinity, Dunlop 94, which has a yellowy orange primary and a blue secondary, not quite as magnificent as Albireo, but definitely a distant cousin!
I had another good look at Mars last night, the polar ice cap and some dark markings on the disc were evident, but because the seeing was not up for lots of magnification, it was not quite as good a view as I had last week. Still, magnificent!
. Orion is absolutely spectacular, Jupiter isn't hit too hard by turbulence so it to was a great sight as I just witnessed the moon transit
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