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25th January Unexpected Lunar Session


Paz

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I wasn't expecting to go out for at least the next week as clear outside is forecasting wall to wall cloud as far ahead as it goes, but it was mostly clear when I got home at 6 pm. I ignored this temptation usually it then clouds over and I have been burned by clouding over enough times after setting up. At 9:45 I have a look and it's still good... and all is quiet in the house.

I decide to go for it. Given it is a week night, I am tired and have a lot to do tomorrow, I'm only planning on looking at the moon, I can't go out for long, there's raging light pollution and I know I won't get dark adapted, which scope to take out... obviously the VX14!!

I get set up and start on the moon with the 17.3mm Delos (106x through the Paracorr). The experience is the same as always - a huge amount of detail everywhere I look. There's tube currents but they don't bother me and I try going up to 153x then 230x and it's still good. Clavius looks great - the crescent of smaller craters in its floor are sharp but I also see lots of other floor details  I don't see in my other scopes. Porter and Rutherfurd look like the eyes of a gas mask with Clavius making up the face. An evil looking half-black-hole marks out Copernicus right on the terminator. I spend a long time roaming around at 230x, sometimes looking for good bits on the terminator, sometimes looking for the profiles of mountains and crater edges on on the limb, and sometimes hovering over the brightly lit areas looking for crater rays.

I swing over to Sirius to see how clear or wobbly it is - it's ok but I realise it is shining through the branches of a tree. I defocus and notice heat coming off the secondary heater - it looks like heat from a cigarette! I hold my hand over the aperture to check which direction the heat is in and it is going up from the secondary and my hand itself also creates visible swathes of heat on the defocused star image. I switch off the secondary heater.

A quick look up at M42 - loads of nebulosity and crisp boundaries to it even with no filters and not much dark adaptation. E and F are visible although not easy.

I go back to the moon and go up to 307x and it's good so I decide to go higher. At 526x (3.5mm Delos) I line up on the limb and let the view fly by to the terminator and I repeat this many times lining up different parts of the moon for each flyby. It's impossible to deliberately pick and hit or track any particular target. In fact playing around like this is great fun and gets the most time in this session. The view has degraded but it is still a winning view. I don't try identifying anything but just watch craters, domes, rilles, ejecta, valleys, rays, hills, and mountains going by. I then drop back down to more sensible magnification for a last roam around.

I am having such a good time I wonder about going for some doubles and start heading for 55 Eridani but quickly decide to quit while I'm ahead. The moon has now dropped behind a tree - it's still clearly visible but only through the branches. Clouds are also moving and will be covering the moon soon. I packed up glad to have got a chance to go out.

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51 minutes ago, Pete Presland said:

Always nice to get those unexpected bonus sessions. Sounds like a productive session, M42 is always worth a look, as is the moon.

I opted for a bath and early night, with an early planetary session planned. Woke early only to be fogged out, pretty annoying :icon_biggrin:

Sorry to hear you missed out, that is annoying!

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 Great report Paz.  I also got an unexpected short lunar session last night but earlier than you.  I went out at about 5.30 for half an hour.  Meade etx 125 with binoviewers and 20mm eyepiece with Barlow give me about 180x.  Straight onto rupes recta, the straight wall in Mare  Nubium. first time I'd really decided to look for it and was surprised by how easy it seemed - thanks to the terminator probably!. Fabulous view of Clavius, but missed the gas mask image you describe (definitely looking for that next time out). Some nice craters in the Mare Nubium area and near the terminator last night - Thebit, Purbach, Regiomontanus. Spent a bit of time around the alpine ridge and mons piton and pico. Archimedes always looks impressive when the terminator is near, the Archimedes mountains glimmered in the fading sunlight and I could see the relief nicely.  As always Erosthenes looked magnificent at the end of the brightly lit Apennine Mountains. The previous night I had seen Aristillus and Autolycus in Mare Imbruim and further south Pallas and Murchison, tonight though they all looked rather flat and one dimensional now the terminator has edged further west.   

Clear Skies Everyone and thanks again Paz for the nice report.

Steve

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Awesome report! Those “just go for it” sessions are always fun. I think it’s the low expectations. You’re happy to play around and just have fun because you didn’t even expect to be out. It was a great night for lunar last night. I saw the straight wall for the first time. It’s funny how something simple like that can make you smile!

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5 hours ago, Stu said:

Nice session Paz. The moon looked fab last night, seeing not brilliant here but good to get out. Plato looking very nice too, managed a couple of craterlets in the Tak.

Yes Plato was good, in that area the mountains on the north edge of  Imbrium just south of Plato also got my attention. 

3 hours ago, Trikeflyer said:

 Great report Paz.  I also got an unexpected short lunar session last night but earlier than you.  I went out at about 5.30 for half an hour.  Meade etx 125 with binoviewers and 20mm eyepiece with Barlow give me about 180x.  Straight onto rupes recta, the straight wall in Mare  Nubium. first time I'd really decided to look for it and was surprised by how easy it seemed - thanks to the terminator probably!. Fabulous view of Clavius, but missed the gas mask image you describe (definitely looking for that next time out). Some nice craters in the Mare Nubium area and near the terminator last night - Thebit, Purbach, Regiomontanus. Spent a bit of time around the alpine ridge and mons piton and pico. Archimedes always looks impressive when the terminator is near, the Archimedes mountains glimmered in the fading sunlight and I could see the relief nicely.  As always Erosthenes looked magnificent at the end of the brightly lit Apennine Mountains. The previous night I had seen Aristillus and Autolycus in Mare Imbruim and further south Pallas and Murchison, tonight though they all looked rather flat and one dimensional now the terminator has edged further west.   

Clear Skies Everyone and thanks again Paz for the nice report.

Steve

That's a good haul of action! I did pick out the wall a few times in passing but didn't stop to look at it on this occasion. Often I pick the best 2 or 2 things and just focus on them but everything was looking good this time!

3 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Awesome report! Those “just go for it” sessions are always fun. I think it’s the low expectations. You’re happy to play around and just have fun because you didn’t even expect to be out. It was a great night for lunar last night. I saw the straight wall for the first time. It’s funny how something simple like that can make you smile!

This is it, when you dont expect anything, everything's a bonus!

1 hour ago, cloudsweeper said:

Nice account of an exciting session Paz.  I'm all fired up for go myself this evening!

Doug.

Good to hear. I'm still amping and if it's even half on this evening I'm having another go myself! The forecast is bad but it was bad for last night too.

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Further to my earlier post - took a look at Plato just after 4pm - a bit early, yes - nicely framed in the Hyperion Aspheric 36mm.  With the ES 30/82, it looked "milky", with the notorious Ring of Fire effect.  The big Meade 5000 UWA 20/82 and the ES 18/82 also showed the RoF.  You don't get that distracting effect with the humble Revelations!

Anyway - hoped to continue later, but.......hazy clouds covered everything!

Maybe tomorrow morning.....

Hope others are doing better!

Doug.

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I too got out last night for a mainly Lunar session, really had a nice time and was wall to wall grin.
Think the 3-6 Nagler Zoom helped with that too though.

Really enjoyed looking around Mare Ibrium and got really good observing of the various mountains and ranges.
Later got stunning views of the Great Wall, best I have ever seen it.

As others had done, early night for up early for a bit of Planetary to wake to a blanket of Fog!
Cloud tonight of course.
Good while it lasted.
 

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1 hour ago, cloudsweeper said:

Further to my earlier post - took a look at Plato just after 4pm - a bit early, yes - nicely framed in the Hyperion Aspheric 36mm.  With the ES 30/82, it looked "milky", with the notorious Ring of Fire effect.  The big Meade 5000 UWA 20/82 and the ES 18/82 also showed the RoF.  You don't get that distracting effect with the humble Revelations!

Anyway - hoped to continue later, but.......hazy clouds covered everything!

Maybe tomorrow morning.....

Hope others are doing better!

Doug.

It's similar here - it was looking ok earlier with patchy low cloud and clear breaks but that's been replaced with higher clouds with no breaks. The moon is visible but a fuzzy blob - I'm glad I made the most of it yesterday!

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