5/01/06 Ob Night

[beren]

Date/time
Jan 5th
Set-up by 19.00
Observing session started 20.30/finished 23.10
Observing Site
Home
Conditions
Fine and warm conditions leading into/duration of the evening
Estimated temp 24c
Brisk and steady breeze throughout
Some early light cloud patch's but dissipating by 21.00
Seeing conditions poor/ limiting mag 4
Telescopes/equipment
10"SCT/80mm Refractor

Setup
Had a last minute cancellation on going out so had the chance to catch some scope time . No exact plans for the evening but it evolved into some Lunar exploring , some LPI snap pics and open cluster exploring from M45 to the the rich Canis major region.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...etupMedium.jpg

Moon
Conditions weren't to good for high mag observing but viewing the 6 day old Lunar surface with a 22mm eyepiece at 112x through the SCT was excellent . The striking crater formation of Theophilus, Cryillus and Catherina dominated the view with the terminator just west of the system forming interesting and striking viewing from the crated southern limb to the northern with Mare Nectaris/Tranquillitatis/Serenitatis dominating.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/beren/Moon8.jpg
The region within Theophilus/Cryillius/Catherina and the mountain chains directly adjacent where favourably highlighted with deep shadows and crisp detail seen. The Atali scarp that nearly borders Catherina and extends to the the crater Piccolomini was very striking through the FOV and also the prominent mountain/ridge head that culminates at the border of Mare Tranquillitatis that is part of the montain system that borders Theophilus.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/beren/Moon9.jpg
Further north the crater Plinius that lays at the border of the Mare Tranquilltatius and Serenitatis was very striking with deep shadow hiding its inside surface along with the craters Posidonius/atlas/Hercules .The extensive rill and ridge systems on the two Mares surface were favourably highlighted as well.
Mars
Seeing was poor to provide any visual identification of surface features on the martian surface .Tried a few toucam runs but it proved to be difficult.
M45
The ladies looked mighty fine as usual with both a 40mm in the SCT and a 32mm in the 80mm . The six faint stars that form a rough cascading line from bright Alcyone and the faint 3 star triangle the opposite side of the star form a nice asterism.Saw a satellite pass the star Electra.....its interesting how many satellites you see just after the sun sets , the brighter ones always surprises me if i see them with averted vision in a region that i know a little and you think what the heck is that star don't remember that being there.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...tourMedium.jpg
Open Star Clusters
Leading from the Hyades in Taurus to Canis Major i explored some of the rich Open cluster systems found in this rich region .NGC2362 is one of my favourites , dominated by the bright white central star the components are grouped in a triangular shape to my eyes , very nice DSO. Most of the fainter open clusters went prominent in the refractor with the LP but through the 40mm and SCT it was quite good . Wind started to pick markedly so i finished off looking at M44 near Saturn and called it quits for the night .

[davidpretorius]

just what i love, a short brief couple of words, no pictures........not


brilliant report, thanks for the detail. your reports are always very informative.

i must do some more moon work!!!

[ving (David)]

now if i did imaging my reports would look that good too

thanks stuart

[beren]

cheers , hopefully more people can put in some celestial adventures, i enjoy reading peoples thoughts etc

[mick pinner]

great report Stuart l like the idea of showing the nightly set up, gives a real feel to how everyone approaches their sessions and ideas for people to think about.

[beren]

Mick the PC workstation in the pic is a cheap number picked up from Officeworks the day before , cables and gear where getting out of control . I set up some points on the side to store and run the cables that contol the scope/D70/LPI and toUcam in a tidy fashion . The desktop is there for processing , the lappy is to slow plus for net access in the "field" . All I need now is 4 walls and a sliding roof .....and some film filter stuff for the PC screens .