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foundaplanet

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Blog Entries posted by foundaplanet

  1. foundaplanet
    Matt turned up around seven as I was setting up the frac on the goto. Conditions had faded a little from my first hour out with the dob but but with exception to the clouds that were troubling our northern horizon and some thin stuff coming up towards the zenith the rest of the sky was in pretty decent shape for most of the evening.
    By the time we were both set up we had a pleasant little triangle of 3 scopes. This was the first time I had been out to my dark site for a while and a good reminder as to why it is worth the effort, even just to be there with a chair and some bins would bring a smile to the face. The more I read on SGL about some of the lousy light polluted skies many people here have to endure the more I feel lucky to live out in this Shire. I had no particular plan other than to do whatever came to mind as and when and just enjoy the night.
    It was good to feel like there was time to have a bit of a play, mostly of late it has felt like a race to get a bit of viewing in. I got the camera out to take acouple of pics. 30secs @ 1600.

    This is a single 30 sec 1600 of Orion and Sirius...

    I was keen to see what Lara (Lara is my new sexy Lyra Optic frac) would make of M42. It was close to three quarters of the field with the 25mm ep and again, this 4" frac comes up and gives me another surprise. It just shows how much is gained though when you only have to put up with a little LP. On good nights here I can eyeball mag 6 stars.
    I did a quick split on Rigel and found it to be a nice double and I'm starting to realise there will be a lot of fun had on splitting doubles.
    Matt was bagging new Messiers on the southern horizon and with his telrad and finder maps he pretty much gave me a lesson in how to do it, boy is he efficient with one of those. I really must get myself one for the newt now I'm dobbing, it is the first time I have seen one used by the accomplished and they are an impressive tool.
    We managed a few Messiers on the southern horizon, 41, 46, 47, 48, 50 and 93 which was very faint but M79 was not going to reveal itself. I did wonder weather I may have caught a hint but I don't feel it was enough to be confident of a true hit. Such a busy area of sky, how nice it must be to live a few hundred miles further south to get some more of that (looks up at ceiling to dream of lottery win, looks back at keyboard and thinks you'll need to start doing it first).
    A very much needed tea break to wipe and blow dry the scopes. Dew was quite a big problem most of the night on ep's and I found my pocket rotation system to be far more effective than Matt's method, whatever it wasn't... :p We had a good night and just as we were packing away the moon broke the cloud low on the horizon like a red neon light. I quickly got the zoom lens out but by the time I'd switched the dovetail plates and messed with sorting exposures I felt I'd missed the best part.... But we had a grand night out..

    Here is the difference of a shot of Orion taken from my little back garden with the same settings that I used last night for the earlier pic.. :D

  2. foundaplanet
    Initially I started the session at about 3 o'clock by loading my van with every piece of astro kit I own and headed off to the secured dark site for what I was hoping would be a good night out with the toys. By about 5.15pm it was looking bleak so I called off the observing party (small band of 2 others) and drove back to the Manor.
    My Manor is a little one with a garden the size of a postage stamp. The garden is nice but its no good for astronomy, at least its no good for deciding what you want to look at, it's more a case of this is what you are going to be looking at. But it's okay, I can have a glass of red and providing the lass next door doesn't decide to have a bath I can cope.
    So needless to say shortly after arriving home the sky starts to clear, out with the mount I went laying Lara the Lyra to rest on the top, and what a grand night with Jupiter it was... Not much messing, the seeing was pretty darn good and I was at 204x for the entire night viewing between the odd passing of cloud. I thought it was about time I had a go at a drawing...
    This turned out to be quite difficult, with my eye at the eyepiece and a 2B pencil the things I was seeing or thinking I was seeing were moving faster than I could put to paper. I had no rubber so I popped in to get a bit of bluetack as a substitute. I would have to say I found it quite difficult in getting my shades correct. It is my first effort for over thirty years though and I'm looking forwards to having another go.

    I watched the GRS come and go and Io begin to tansit. I can't believe I spent 4 hours not even thinking to look at anything else now. The moon was late rising but it never crossed my mind to look elsewhere, so good were the views I was having I suppose.
    This is only my second time out with this scope and its a joy..
  3. foundaplanet
    I had been looking forwards to this double transit in the same way I had the last one and the one before that, and the one before that.
    I have seen a few single transits but have been waiting to get my first double. The weather never seems to want to offer assistance on these occasions. Thinking on, it never seems to offer any assistance on any event occasion.
    The whole day had been looking bleak, as always I was forever hopeful, fat lady singing and all that. I got home early from my first day back at the stone with the clouds doing well. I decided that if I was going to have any chance I best chuck the dob out the back door for an instant view should the opportunity arise. So I was hanging around in the kitchen doing tea and poking my head out every 5 mins or so to the virtual orange glow I get out there when the clouds are low.
    I figured that if I had a bath the sky would clear and sure enough twenty minutes later I get out the bath and poke my head out the door to a patchy sky and Jupiter on display. The back door is next to my bathroom, I was in a towel. That was my chance, so t-shirt and slippers on I was sitting at my dob and I finally got my first double transit. I caught the last 15 or so minutes and watched both Io and Ganymede's shadow leave the limb.
    So that was my first double transit observing in slippers, a towel and t-shirt. You have to take ya chances huh...:)
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