Pluses and minuses

[Citizen]

A lovely clear sky tonight and scope out nice and early. In fact, just in time to catch Mercury for literally one minute before it went behind next door's house and disappeared for good. Another planet notched off the list though and just leaves Neptune now (although the views of Uranus and Mercury have been fleeting and I'm imagining Neptune to be the tiniest dot through a 6" anyway?). Obviously they will all be revisited over the years to come.

Still struggled to make out much detail on Mars, although lengthy views did slowly make out faint darker markings, as expected. It didn't like much magnification that's for sure.

However the downside is the dew tonight was shocking. Come 9:30 it was like someone had thrown a bucket of water over my set up. The worst I've had it so far. I have an Astrozap dew shield which kept the corrector plate very clear but the ep was unusable. I assume I made the mistake of leaving it in the star diagonal all evening uncapped (even when not viewing). It would be better off in my pocket I'd expect, when not being used?

The dew shield seems to have done its job, so not sure I need one of the fancy heated ones, and have the wife's hair dryer if necessary. However the eyepeice was the problem. Can I give that a blast with a hair dryer or just pocket it when not viewing and cap the star diagonal?

You live and learn. I was a little gutted as the sky was so clear and Mars was getting higher and showing better as the evening progressed. All dewed up and defeated before Saturn had even come up!

[Double Kick Drum]

Congrats on Mercury.

I also just have Neptune left to find. Late summer/Autumn should be a good time to do it.