Observing 26th April 2009

[AWR]

My new finderscopes (9 x 50 and a Quikfinder) arrived this week along with my new 24mm Hyperion eyepiece and a dew shield (which I hope might also help contrast). I'd had a busy week so I was keen to get out for a look around even if it had to be a quick one.

The night was clear to start but with some patchy cloud drifting in about 10pm. Seeing was not ideal, and light pollution terrible as always.

I started with M3, which I was really pleased with. Not much detail at 60x but pretty nonetheless.

Taking last weeks advice, I had a look for M81 and M82. My new viewfinders definitely made finding these a lot easier. M81 was not too difficult to see against the not-so-dark sky but I could only just make out M82 before the cloud started to roll in.

I finished on Izar which I found difficult but did manage to just split at 150x. The secondary was right in the diffraction ring of the primary. Is this normal for my aperture scope (5")? I'd say the primary was yellowish but found it hard to decide on the colour of the secondary. This is partly my colour-blindness (no joke) but also because the secondary was in the diffraction ring!

Andrew

[John]

I finished on Izar which I found difficult but did manage to just split at 150x. The secondary was right in the diffraction ring of the primary. Is this normal for my aperture scope (5")?

Thats how it is with my 102mm ED refractor Andrew - right on the 1st diffraction ring !.

Nice report by the way

John