My third night out this year!

[The Warthog]

March 23rd, 2007, 9 - 10:30 PM

I set up the 6" reflector and did a rough polar alignment, using my new 24mm Speers-WALER.

My first target was the Moon, which was a nice waxing crescent. The Moon snapped into crisp focus in the S-W although at about 31x it as quite small.

The weather was mild, about 5 - 10 degrees with no wind. My neighbours had their lights out, so I just had to cope with streetlights.

I tried the Moon with the 32mm Plossl. Nice, but not quite as crisp in focus, although that is a subjective opinion. Also put in the 8mm X-Cel and walked up and down the terminator awhile.

Next I put the 24mm back in, and went for a look at Venus, which was low in the Western sky, perhaps 10 degrees altitude. In the 8mm it appeared to be showing a gibbous phase, but the seeing was making it swim a bit.

Went to look at M42 next. It was a pretty sight in the 24mm. Moving up and down a little, I was able to take in all of the Running Man, and I moved around the lower part of Orion for a while, finally centering on Mintaka, which is an easy split even in the 24mm, then went off in search of M78 which I found, but as the transparency was declining, it didn't show many stars.

Dropped down to Sirius, and easily found M41 south of it - a nice open cluster.

I wanted to try the Leo triplet, but at this point could only make out Regulus and Algieba, and the triangle that marks Leo's hindquarters.

I decided to try for Saturn, and had it in the edge of the field, but because a leg of the tripod interfered with the scope I had to swing the mount around, and then was unable to pick up the planet again because of the wierd contortions I had to do to aim the scope.

Caught the lovely splash of stars that is M44, Praesepe, The Beehive, but packed it in right after that.

The night started out as one of the best in recent memory, although I had difficulty making out Cassiopeia, because of the proximity of the Moon. Polaris was obvious, which is not always the case from my back yard. The streetlights began to show a ittle light fog was forming, although my equipment didn't get dewy.

Also enjoyed a fine Honduran Don Tomas cigar, which I had got for my birthday.

My scope appears to be in need of collimation, and I need to align the finders again, and put the red-dot finder back on.

The 24mm appeared fine, giving a generous FOV, although the dimmer stars didn't really come to a good point possibly a collimation issue. The stars did smear out a little, too, in a narrow band around the edge of the FOV. Contrast was extremely good in the EP.

All in all, an enjoyable night.

[geppetto]

Excellent

Pleased you managed to get out WH.

Our skies have been poor but you've had it worse by all accounts.

[blinky]

Great report WH, I really enjoy reading others reports, thougt it does sometimes get me jelous of others sucess at finding the sights!

[magician]

There are times when no matter what it is you do ,when you can say 'That was good' sounds like you had one of those times WH,just enjoying the enjoyment! at times like that you think 'Life's not bad', many more to you.

Cheers Frank

[lunator]

WH

glad you got out and had a good viewing session.

Now Spring is here I hope you get a few more clear nights.

Cheers

Ian

[Andrew]

Nice report WH -sounds like you took in a wide range of targets

[garymcgrory]

Loved the report WH, sounds like a nice tour round the night sky and top marks for your English composition "Caught the lovely splash of stars that is M44, Praesepe" That's SGL for you- full of the worlds foremost astronomical intelligentsia!

[dazza1639]

Nice report WH. Here's to more clear skies for you.

Darren