Luna Never Fails To Please

[cloudsweeper]

Like many of us, I've not had a decent sky for a while, so when I spotted a lovely waxing crescent Luna I set the Dob up at 4.25pm for a quick session, without worrying too much about stray light, poor transparency, etc..

I homed in on crater Piccolomini, south of Mare Nectaris.  Just to its north, an interesting series of craters stood out in a circular pattern resembling a flower - six about the same size, two smaller, a very pretty arrangement.  x127 and a bit more were used; x212 was less sharp as instablilty kicked in more.  Rupes Altai (the Altai Scarp) followed a jerky trail NW from Picc., and was swallowed by the terminator.

And that was enough at present to refresh the pleasure of observing.  I finished with a wide, general view - x53/1.55deg, revealing clarity, texture, and stability, albeit at the cost of finer detail!

Doug.

[Peter Drew]

It failed to please here I'm afraid, absolutely awful seeing even at low power, Mars was just a fuzzy blob.    ☹️

[cloudsweeper]

3 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

It failed to please here I'm afraid, absolutely awful seeing even at low power, Mars was just a fuzzy blob.    ☹️

Peter - maybe I should've said it never fails to please when you can see it reasonably clearly!  ?

Anyway, I've just had a look (6.40pm) and now the Moon is a misty blur, so I did well to get a good 50 minutes in earlier.

Doug.

 

[domstar]

Rats! I just thought I'd wait for about half an hour and when I got back from the laundry room it had clouded over. 

[scarp15]

Great there had been a lovely crescent and earthshine earlier this week. Had not taken advantage with binoculars etc, therefore nice account Doug, cloudy forecast has since resumed.   

[PGM]

Always a favourite of mine, a bit cloudy and poor seeing but that terminator never fails to make me smile.

[paulastro]

3 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

It failed to please here I'm afraid, absolutely awful seeing even at low power, Mars was just a fuzzy blob.    ☹️

I expect you were using the 16 inch at x400 instead of that nice fluorite 4 inch at a lower power  ?