TransparentBadger

Well, last night turned out to be a nice little outing with the scope. I was hoping to see Asteroid 2012 DA14 but this, as for many people, was not to be. However, I did get to see a few of the objects that I've looked at on my last 3 outings. The Moon - Only my second go at The Moon and even more successful than my first attempt. The disk was a little more illuminated than it was the previous time and also a little higher in the sky. The terminator displayed some dramatic chiaroscuro, with the craters appearing beautifully three dimensional. I managed to view at 60x 150x and 300x magnification. The most satisfactory results were with the 10mm eyepiece (150x mag.). The poor quality of the Barlow really showed up at the higher magnifications, although I did manage to achieve acceptable focus. I really must take a copy of the Lunar 100 out with me next time, this will give me something to do rather than just scanning the surface. Jupiter - Pretty much the same as last time I viewed. Managed to make out the bands clearly with the 10mm eyepiece. When pushed to 300x with the Barlow, the view softened somewhat, but I was able to make out a small back dot which I assume was the shadow of one of its moons. M42 - I still can't seem to resolve much more than the core on this one. I didn't think my skies were massively light polluted (they're certainly not of rural quality though) but what I did mange to do was make out the trapezium very clearly and it was one of those real Aha! moments, when you go from a slight uncertainty as to whether you're looking at the right things to thinking "How on Earth did I miss that?!". M45 - This is a binocular one for me. Really beautiful, if a little unsteady in my novice grip. Other than that, I'm continuing to add to the number of constellations I can name without the help of a sky chart. I've got Orion, Gemini, Cassiopeia, Auriga (which I can always spot because of the "rocketship" blasting off from it), Ursa Major and Leo. I've almost worked out Perseus (at least I know where it is), Taurus always seems too faint for me to pick it out, as does Ursa Minor. I'll keep looking and figuring them out. The recognition of the night sky is a really lovely feeling. I think going forward, I need to start planning ahead a little more and setting myself some goals. It's nice getting more and more familiar with the same objects, but equally it would be nice to extend my range a little. All in all an enjoyable couple of hours out and fingers crossed for some more clear skies tonight. James

Well, that has to be the best Valentines I could have hoped for. After spending yet another day bemoaning the clouded sky, there was finally a break. On my way home from work I spotted the crescent moon floating in amongst the clouds and ran home like a giddy child. This was the first time since I got my scope that the moon has been up and visible after dark. All I can say is, this is what I'd been waiting for. Jupiter was lovely, M42 was enchanting but The Moon, my lunar Valentine, was sublime. Her pock-marked face was probably one of the loveliest thing I've ever seen. What made the whole evening even better was, the whole of the view to the South rapidly cleared and I managed to spend an hour or so taking in what the Southern vista has to offer. I can't wait until my birthday, when the Moon will be high in the sky for most of the night and I'll be able to see more of her beautiful features. Until then, my love.

Friday, 1st February 2013 08:50 - In the shower, there's a knock at the door ... house mate answers ... the scope has arrived. 09:10 - Wander downstairs to assess the package. Brown cardboard box. Size: Aprox. 870mm x 430mm x 250mm - Weight: Aprox. 12kg 09:20 - Place box in conservatory to cool down/put it out of the way. 09:30 - Go to work. 21:30 - Get home from work (after a couple of pints). Open cardboard box. Open second cardboard box. Open numerous cardboard boxes. Read instructions, decide the instructions are useless and proceed to put scope together without them. 21:50 - Scope assembled. 22:00 - Take scope outside and plug in battery pack. 22:05 - Unplug battery pack, put batteries in to battery pack and plug battery pack back in. 22:10 - Try to align finder scope. 22:35 - Rush upstairs to ask the help of the good people on Stargazer's Lounge in aligning my finder scope. 23:00 - Finder scope roughly aligned with main scope. 23:05 - Point scope at Jupiter, center the image, fine tune the focus and hold my breath in wonder ... 23:10 - Clouds come over.

I've just taken delivery of my new Skywatcher Skymax 127 ... watch this space.