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I'm happy 'till the next year...

Tzitzis

By Tzitzis
in Observing - Reports

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Tzitzis

Tzitzis

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Well I'm the kind of guy that writes reports once in a year apparently (cause I do not observe) and well... it's that time of the year again! I had some observing yesterday - after 11 whole months - and oh boy what an observing night it was! Fellow astronomer and SGL-er Dimitris (seo) invited me for an observing night and we had fun. With scotch, beers, some peanuts and a lot of conversations we had quite the night.

There was wind and I mean WIND (at times) and a full moon. We also had to deal with the lights from the church accross the street which was illuminated fully by a set of 25-30 light collumns with 3 light bulbs each ( seriously 3 ) in the park and its own lights illuminating the bells and stuff. There were lit ALL NIGHT LONG (and you guys nag about UK :p ). But this was going to be my first observing with such a scope and such a good company and it couldn't go wrong. And it didn't...

We let the big 'ol "grandpa" out of his closet - a 10 inch newtonian - to cool, set the mount. I' ve learned about equatorial mounts for the first time, about RA and DEC and some nice new star hopping. As we waited for the scope to cool the moon got higher up. Our NW was covered in street lights and the SW-S was covered in LP from Athens; you could see the haze. We weren't discouraged and set course for the first target, our Moon. I put my eye in the 38mm EP and I was blinded for 5 secs (lol). WOW. We put a filter and then observed for some time. "Grandpa" delivered some great views and we went on to try some fainter stuff. Andromeda was easy! Not a lot of detail but there was definitely a bright core and some dust around! Then on to M15 which was smaller (of course) and with bigger magnification showed some structure. We tried M2 I didn't see it but Dimitris could see it (how..? :( ). We changed some EP's and went back and forth between these targets. It was getting close to dawn. I then remembered cotterless45 post about getting your eyes away from the moon and tried for the Double Cluster in Perseus. Such a beautiful object... I was awed, a totally WOW moment for me. Stuff like this must be seen be every person in the earth... Just stunning. I then glanced M45, very nice too. In the end I tried some doubles as the sun was approaching dawn. ε1, ε2 Lyr very nice double double. Eta Cas, another one which I don't remember ( :( ) and Albireo for an amazing end to our journey to the universe... 

I learned quite a lot yesterday, practically and theoretically. How to set up a scope in an equatorial mount, how to place my eye in the EP (yep, newbie after all), the results of dark adapting, I saw how a coma looks like (lol) and many many more... I can't begin to describe you how happy I am. I found a great companion for my star adventures, a better place to observe (well I live in the center of Athens, light pollution be a harsh mistress). I put my eye to a 10 inch reflector, I saw things I have never observed (I saw NGC objects imagine that!) and I got some views through high quality EP's. It was a night I will remember for the rest of my life and I know there are many more to come!

I hope you all have clear and dark skies and I wish you have the joy I' ve known yesterday each time you observe. I love astronomy...

Cheers, Tzitzis 

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Piero

Piero

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Super report! Very glad that you had a chance to observe a hopefully you will again with your friend! Maybe one day you guys could take the 10 inch weapon under dark skies?

Piero

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Tzitzis

Tzitzis

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Thanks guys for your kind words! This venture WILL be repeated when the moon disappears and when Dimitris can. Pierro it was an amazing night. Darker skies would be great but to tell you truth I'm happy as it is! I observed mate :D:D:D 

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Roy Challen

Roy Challen

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4 hours ago, Tzitzis said:

Thanks guys for your kind words! This venture WILL be repeated when the moon disappears and when Dimitris can. Pierro it was an amazing night. Darker skies would great but to tell you truth I'm happy as it is! I observed mate :D:D:D 

Yeah, light polluted observing is better than no observing!

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alan potts

alan potts

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A really nice report Tzitzis, having been to Athens many times I guess the moon is the last thing to worry about. I have always been a big fan of Greece and they do seem to know how to light up a Church and there are some wonderful examples around the islands too.

Alan

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