It has been 3 weeks since I got my new 12" DS dob (tales of misfortune to follow), and in that time I have had a couple of clear nights seeing that I was forced to miss because of prior commitments. I live 30 KM inland at an elevation of 500M, and since I received my new toy I have had nothing but sea mists, fog, bushfire smoke, cloud , storms, rain, winds... you name it. (productive for mods and collimation but no use for observing)
The scope gods were not happy with me for buying this, but tonight they forgave me my sins and tonight was THE NIGHT!
If I never experience anything like tonight again I won't be dissapointed.
Late afternoon confirmed what I suspected throughout the day. I knew it was going to be good. The air was cool, clear and crispy. The mountain was a happy pinky blue instead of the dismal depressing grey it has been since I bought the 12" GS dob. The mountain was giving off good vibes.
That is a good sign.
To explain, the mountain is Mt Roland, south of Sheffield Tasmania. It is made up of a conglomerate of crystaline rocks that have interesting reflection and refraction characteristics.
It has moods.
Today and tonight it was having a rare good one. Probably won't last, moody bugga that it is.
I got the scope out before dark and got the fan going on the mirror of my new supa dupa astro bazooka to cool it down asap.
Twilight came and I started off with a bit of lunar, checking out the new moon. I love "claire de la lune" and enjoyed the contrasting views around the terminator, but there was still a bit of turbulence in the air (or was it in the tube?). It settled as the moon fell out of the sky and the cow jumped over it.
As it got darker the milky way started to glow and became bright and creamy, the coal sack was as black as black, the sword of Orion was as clear as I have ever seen it, and I was even seeing the 'fuzzies" with my worn out old eyes.
I started off with the easy targets, and got "4 in the trap" easy peasy. Upped the mag and got 5! The great neb was like looking at a stormy sky and made me want to go sailing. (Argo Navis?) Swung around and split Rigel, too easy! Showed gf the jewel box. Should NOT have done that, now she now wants a real one!
Oh oh, I knew this hobby could get expensive!
Over to OC, showed the gf. All is forgiven, she loves me again and can live without a jewel box for this week.
Saturn arrived above the rooftops and got snared, drifting in and out of focus, sometimes so clear I could make out surface bands and a division in the rings, sometimes fuzzy and teasing. I wanted to physically explore it! GF was getting jealous so I let her have a perusal. It was the first time she had seen something with a ring that big (her words). It was a big WOW for her...! It came, it went, then it came back again. Sometimes clear as a bell, sometimes boiling with atmospheric disturbance. Rinse and repeat.
I exhausted my limited knowledge of the universe trying out this EP and that EP, swinging round from this to that, but in the end the best "all rounder" for the night was a 12.5mm series 500 Plossl. It gave a wide enough FOV for the nebs and globs, with enough mag to make out the finer details, but my favourite EP was a 32mm 2", which allowed me to rapidly hunt and capture targets, then use the 12.5mm for finer detail. Any more mag was almost impossible to use with hand tracking, but I did stay steady enough to split Rigel with a 6mm.
Now before calling it a night I need to report in so DP knows I am still alive, and then ID all the interesting stuff I found that I have never seen before.
What a night! 3:00 am and I might go back now and see if Jupe is worth a squizz
.
Prolly not, it can only get bigger from here on in!
I love my new scope.
Brian.
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