An Obligingly Clear Saturday Night in London...

[Captain Scarlet]

Saturday night (19th May) looked to be lovely and clear with not too much Moon, so after our barbeque I addressed myself to my little Mak 127, having got it out as soon as the Sun had set. Seeing as I’ve just acquired a reasonable (Berlebach Report) photo-tripod (my previous tripod I’d accidentally left in Ireland), I also set up my Leica Televid 62 APO spotting scope plus 20x-60x eyepiece to compare.

The main view from my back garden is SSE-to-West, with West-to-North only at higher elevations due to a large Oak; and NNE to SE completely blocked by a four-storey house (mine).

Obviously the first target was Jupiter, all four Moons out to play with Ganymede and Callisto marking the outer reaches, Europa and Io closer in and sitting symmetrically astride the centre-line joining them all, rather pleasing and something like

.       o  :                .

Through the Delite 18.2 (82x) and Delos 10 (150x) Jupiter’s 2 main bands were clearly visible with others occasionally briefly shimmering in to view. But despite looking hard and long, I couldn’t make out any further detail. With the Panoptic 35 (43x), and with the Leica at 40-60x, the planet was too small and bright to make out much detail, though as an extended-field view of the whole system, both scopes were equally satisfying.

I didn’t bother with the Leica after that. Although the tripod is ace, sitting on a not-great video pan/tilt head it was too difficult and jerky to find or track anything.

With the Mak I did quickly look for Polaris B, more as a test of clarity than anything else, and it was only just visible at 82x, indicating not the best conditions: I’ve had much sweeter views of it from this location. Perhaps there’s more heated air coming off the house (or the BBQ) on summer evenings. Similarly, Ludwig’s Star, between Mizar and Alcor and almost directly overhead, was barely visible. Normally it’s very clear, sometimes even through binoculars.

I also went for M13, which in dark Ireland through my Mak 180 I recall as a spectacular and an obvious cluster of stars. Here, 20 miles SW of central London, it was like looking at a white football 2 feet down in a muddy pond: definitely something there, but indistinct.

All in all not too many targets but enjoyable nonetheless.

Magnus

[Stu]

Nice report Magnus, good to get out there.

I’m finding the seeing is changing quite dramatically over a relatively short space of time. It may be heat rising off houses in different ways, but on the moon yesterday evening I looked and one time it was dreadful, waves of turbulence making the image squeeze and stretch in different directions, half an hour later it was far better.

Jupiter is a challenge this time round isn’t it? Being low down makes the sort of detail we’ve become used to much harder to drag out. Sounds like the little 127 is very capable though.