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Dare I trust to hope?

SlyReaper

By SlyReaper
in The Astro Lounge

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oldpink

oldpink

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Had a brief moment of partially clear skies, enough to get a two star alignment on the new ten inch dob.  But the seeing wasn't great - the view of Mars was no better than what I've been able to achieve with the 5 incher.  But I'm loving the Synscan Goto mcguffin.  Select M3 from the M catalogue, it automatically slews round to view it (though I had to correct it slightly, as it wasn't perfectly centred).  It appeared as nothing more than a fuzzy blob, but I'm hoping that'll improve later once the twilight disappears.  It's gone overcast again, but the Met Office website promises the sky will clear at 1AM.  Maybe 2AM. 

promises promises, LOL

just happy to be getting some decent runs on Mars though there is some whispy high cloud about

seeing average bit a lot better than a cloudy sky :)

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SlyReaper

SlyReaper

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Just got myself a little bit of M57 - my first Messier - I'm well chuffed.  Need to venture somewhere darker in the future though!

Same here!  Wasn't able to image it, but was certainly able to view it with my 25mm and 10mm eyepieces. 

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Laurie61

Laurie61

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Not a bad night all told, things started to dew up from around midnight but managed to find the Comet although my focal length was a bit low (275 mm PD video camera). I also decided  to look at M 81-82, the SN was not visible with my set up last night. With the Dob Mars showed detail with the bigger features showing ( Syrtis Major, white area of Helas and tiny pole) and Saturn had the Cassini division, cloud band with 4 moons. Called it a night just after 1 am, not too bad considering we are only three weeks from the longest Day :smiley:        

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SlyReaper

SlyReaper

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You had a better time of it than I did.  I managed to catch a cloud band on Saturn, and the barest hint of the Cassini division in post processing (which, frankly, could well just be a processing artefact).  I did get Syrtis Major on Mars though.  That was the best Mars I've ever had, but I was hoping for much better given the new equipment.

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Laurie61

Laurie61

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You had a better time of it than I did.  I managed to catch a cloud band on Saturn, and the barest hint of the Cassini division in post processing (which, frankly, could well just be a processing artefact).  I did get Syrtis Major on Mars though.  That was the best Mars I've ever had, but I was hoping for much better given the new equipment.

What camera are you using ? and are you using a barlow. Saturn is relatively dim so pushing up the focal length is more difficult but Mars will stand using a longer FL.  I think your Mars,Saturn are good considering its the first time using the 10" dob :smiley:   

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SlyReaper

SlyReaper

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Wasn't using the barlow, but I may use my 2x barlow for future attempts in better conditions.  I think any images I captured would have completely disintegrated if I tried using the barlow last night.  The camera was a ZWO ASI thing.  Has a "120MC" in the name. 

Was fairly happy with Mars - I was never able to capture any surface features on Mars with my old 5 inch reflector (at least, never clearly enough to convince myself it wasn't just an image processing artefact), but you can clearly see some dark albedo feature there, which I reckon is Syrtis Major.  It took me a while to figure out why it was slightly egg shaped, then I realised some of the night side would be showing.  Saturn, I'm less happy with.  It's slightly better than what I've achieved with the 5 incher, but not hugely better.  Not as big an improvement as I'd expect from a telescope with four times the light collecting power.

Right now, I'm seriously considering a holiday to Spain, for the sole purpose of getting clear dark skies.  I just don't trust the airlines not to smash my telescope...

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