Finally! A sky to look at!

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Well it has been a pretty lean time for me with regard to getting out under the night sky. I really can not go out during the week as I have to be fit to work and weekends have not presented me with a clear sky in over a month. Today was looking pretty ordinary but just on dusk the sly cleared so I grabbed the scope out and set it up.

I am not going to make a proper observing report as such, more just a happy report that I got to see though the scope again.

Targets for tonight started with a quick look at the crescent moon and then as soon as it cleared the trees in the way, on to Saturn with a reasonable view, occasional glimpses of the Cassini division and a pretty clear view of a cloud band below the rings. At low power (58X) it was easy to get both Saturn and Porrima in the FOV, unfortunately I did not think to try to split Porrima in the FOV with Saturn (as has been suggested in another thread) or by itself.

After Saturn I spent half an hour or so on the Sombrero galaxy and could see the dust lane fairly clearly, about as well as could be expected set up near a house (My wife chose that moment to turn on the light that threw about the worst glare my way so the dark adaptation would not be the best)

After that I had a bit of a manual star hop to just browse around (Scope is a CPC925 goto so I usually cheat and pick a target via the controller) and I found myself looking at a pretty, yellow, star near the band of the milky way in the south. For a moment I though the dew was starting up as there was a faint irregular blob around it, but after a moments thought I realised I had happened on Eta Carinae while pointing at random (The nebulosity in the area was what attracted me in the first instance) so I stayed there to see what I could tease out of it. Unfortunately that was pointing towards the house so the light from there affected things and a faint dumbell blob was about as good as it gets. I will have to go to a dark site someday and try for a really decent view.

Finally I moved over to the jewel box for ten minutes or so before it was time to put our three year old to bed, the dew was going to well and truly set in before that was done and the transparency was dropping away so that was the end of the night.

Not a lot of targets, but to be honest I prefer a relaxed night and half an hour or more just staring at one object rather than hitting as many as I can do, to see what detail I can tease out after some time, like the three faint stars in a triangle near Eta Car, which I have not noticed before.

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Great to get some obs Paul. I love how eta c grabs the eye and the dark lane on M104 is always gorgeous even if a light gets turned on. Look forward to more reports.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Been really frustrating again, cloudy all of the long weekend and then threatened to look OK last night, but beautiful skies when I am leaving for work in the morning.

So tempting to get the scope out, call in sick and have a look at the current crop of morning planets instead of going to work!

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Tonight was a bit better than usual so out it came, even if the nearly full moon meant that targets had to be big and obvious.

After the obvious (Moon) for my 3YO son to have a look at I just roamed around a bit to see what I could still see, the Sombrero galaxy was still visible in the glow but really not a lot else, so I did my best there for ten minutes and could just spot the dust lane.

After that I moved on to Saturn for a while, but tonight between the lighter background due to the full moon and general conditions I could not spot the Cassini division at all. Following up a suggestion in another recent thread I put Saturn and Porrima in the same FOV at about 90X, but could not split Porrima so I centered Porrima and tried it at 180X, which gave me a quite elongated peanut, then at bout 220X, which gave a double point but with overlapping airy discs. 310X gave me much the same result, just a visually bigger gap between points.

After that the dew set in so that is that for the night. Maybe I can get away to work late enough in the morning if the sky is clear to set up and have a shot at the morning parade of planets.

Unfortunately our western horizon is tall hills so I reckon the moon will have set before totality tomorrow! The last lunar total eclipse I saw was mid summer and starting at some civilised hour like 8PM and we sat and watched it over several beers at a mates place over the evening.