Venus and Mars

[alan potts]

Sounds like a good name for an album or has someone already done that.

Had the 18 inch out last night and I was using it on Venus long before it got dark. I was sort of trying out advice from Mike who told me that he felt reducing the glare from the planet was a way of seeing more detail, not that your ever going to see that much. Well in my books viewing before dark works wonders on Sirius so I thought why not. I also turned up the volume going to get my 8mm and 6mm Ethos'ssss. The only trouble is the planet is rather low in the sky, even for me here with a good 10 degree advantage over the UK, so your always going to get aberrations caused by the atmosphere, which is about the only place they come from with these eyepieces and my mirror.

I have got to say I could see a good deal of shading to the central region of the disc which was about 66% phase though there was a little blue and red aberration at the north and south of the planet but not too bad and did not detract from the eyepiece view. Having used the 8mm at X286 and taking note of how the seeing was standing up I pushed on to X380 with the 6mm, often wish I had kept my 7mm Nagler sometimes as this is a jump and a half. This is of course well within the ability of the scope and is always down to conditions as to whether I can use it, as luck had it I could and if anything things got even better. The down side of this amount of power is the speed any object whips across the field of view, even when that is about as big as you can make it. It for once was a real pleasure sitting, yes it is that low down, and soaking up the view.

Moving on to Mars which as it is a bit further away from us than Venus really needs that extra power to even see the disc at a reasonable size. Higher in the sky it was too much for my 50 year old chair, even with a couple of bricks on it, so it was wide legged standing technique, lord knows what anyone seeing me would think, maybe, needing the mens room. I am no expert on Mars and never have been, it is an object that I just cannot get excited about but I could see some details around the central area and what I though was a polar cap, though I am not sure on that. This scope really brings out details that my others do not, maybe it has been on the beer that refreshs parts others cannot reach, who knows. By now it was getting dark and I thought I would continue my latest game.

This is, find the galaxy, using a book I bought on advice from John, Sky and Telescopes pocket atlas. I have used this a fair bit recently mainly with the Dob and what I do is open the book at a page and shut my eyes and place a finger. First attempt required a trip by aircraft down to Australia but second was closer to home with a very small galaxy in Ursa Minor NGC 6217. I must be getting the hang of this scope as it only took me 2 minutes to find, it was of course no more than a fairly small inconspicuos blur but it was there, right where the book told me it would be. I also viewed NGC 2300, 2276 and 2268. The former two are so close together I could only see it a one and did not bother upping the power to see if it would split, on reflection maybe I should have, something for tonight if this fog goes away.

I finished the evening as I had a few things to do, with the central star of M57 which I saw better than ever before, it was visible most of the time with direct vision, something that I have not seen on other attempts when I have only glimsped it. To finish how can you not look at M13 with a power of X380, it was truely stunning and I can find words to tell you just what this looks like in what has proved to be superb optics from John Nichol, I often wonder what this Dobsonian could do on one of Mathew's trips to Namibia, though it would require it's own air ticket as it is a bit bigger than carry on bag size.

alan

[chiltonstar]

Good that someone has some clear sky! I'm surprised you don't get a retinal burn with an 18" on Venus.....

Chris

[laudropb]

Lovely report Alan. A most enjoyable read.