Wed evening I looked outside about 6-7 pm to see what sky was doing, high haze, scattered clouds, go watch lousy TV. Not fair, I haven't bought anything recently.
9:10 - looked outside and sky had cleared !!! Totally !!
Skeletope was down in the garage where I put it during the rains but the 4.5" was in the lounge, not cooled down or anything. Grabbed the binocs, checked seeing, not bad, 47 Tuc coming soft but visible. Checked Eta Carina region, heaps of stuff.
"Official" report from here.
Viewed from 9:20 till 10:10. Eta Carina region in South Eastern sky ( not my best LP free area. ) Seeing was not bad with stable moments. Transparency poor as usual, not much naked eye visibilty.
Using 20 & 15 mm GSO Superview EPs.
NGC 3532, big teardrop shaped open cluster.
NGC 3766 - small open cluster sth of the above
Southern Pleiades - (my marker group, always pretty)
NGC 3293 & 3324 with dust clouds and lanes just visible. Averted vision found them but patience rewarded me with better direct viewing. Another camera target for sure.
Not being prepared beforehand I obviously missed a lot, not identifying objects I saw. I checked Stellarium afterwards to check what I'd definitely seen and next time I'll be ready but a beautiful albeit short session under the stars. You've got to use the chances when they happen, the weather forecast is for more clouds & rain.
Now waiting for Saturn in a month or so when it rises above my eastern tree line at a reasonable time. I may try an early morning wakeup this weekend to see if I can spot the storm in the 10" before it fades away. Clouds permitting of course.
But I was impressed with what the little 4'5" could see after my secondary mirror mod which considerably reduced the vanes and hub obstruction. Much less diffraction and light loss. Also says the mirror is good one, a handy travel scope in the back of the wagon. It will come on the Tongariro Crossing trip in 6 weeks for a bit of evening viewing on Friday night I hope. Altitude there is about 1000 meters and nearest significant civilisation is about 100 km away.
