Cold night for observing

[Kirscovitch]

Nice clear night tonight. Thought about taking out the new dob but wasn't sure how long I would be out as the temps had dipped to -12F. 

Decided to take out the SLT instead and had a pretty good evening. While the scope was cooling down had a view of M45 with my bins. I have decided that that is the best way to view them. 

After cool down my first subject was M42. This is quickly becoming my favorite. Using a 9mm with a 2x barlow the trapezium really splits nicely for me. 

M31 was next. It showed up nicely in my 25mm. I slewed over to Cassiopeia and just spent some time poking around this beautiful constellation.

I tried for a few more DSO's but after slewing over to them they ended up being too low on the horizon so they were either behind houses or trees.

Finally I went to Jupiter. It's becoming a good friend. Showed up nicely in the 9mm with the barlow. Banding was very prominent. 

I had been out for just about an hour now and as cold as it was I wasn't feeling it. I went inside to get my Starshoot and decided to do a little imaging.

After fighting with the focus (it was just about froze solid at this point) I managed to get 3 video clips about 5 min each. I'll run them through registax 6 later and see what I can get. I tried using the imager with the barlow but couldn't get any sort of image on the screen. I'm sure that it was a focus issue but being so cold and fighting with the scope I just packed it in. Total time out was just over 2 hours. I didn't even get that cold except for my toes and fingers. 

[ultramol]

I could feel the cold as I read your report Matt, Where I am in the UK it is just damp and overcast as is usually the case, and very windy    Good luck with the - 12  degrees

[Kirscovitch]

It is unusually cold for this time of year. We usually don't get temps like this till January or February. You kind of get used to it after a while and when it does warm up to around 30F people think it's spring and we go around in shorts lol.

[cotterless45]

Neat, there's not many sport shorts here, even in high summer. Seems like flippers and a wet suit will be fashionable ! Nick.