Short Heritage lunar session

[Nyctimene]

Was out this morning from 01.45 to 02.30 CEST with the Skywatcher Heritage 130 P Flextube for an unplanned session. I love the setup - scope with Seben 8-24 zoom and Baader 2.25x barlow in one hand, small stool and a plywood "T" (as a scope riser) in the other one; just two minutes. The seeing was sub-average, but still with some calm moments, allowing mags up to 150x. I started at the Montes Carpatus, very contrasty under the terminator, cruised along Copernicus, Fauth and Reinhold to the terrassed crater Bullialdus. Next were Kies ("reading glass"), Pitatus and Hesiodus. In moments of better seeing, I was able to spot the concentric crater Hesiodus A adjacent SW. The same went for the Hesiodus rille (Rima), that could be held for just seconds. Alphonsus showed it's two larger lava spots. I ended with the marvellous Clavius and it's crater chain, Longomontanus and Wilhelm. The namegiver of the latter was the German16th century landgrave Wilhelm IV. of Hessen-Kassel, an avid astronomer, who built the first European observatory in Kassel around 1560, hosted and supported Tycho Brahe, and took measurements for a star catalogue. When he observed the 1572 Tycho Brahe nova, he was reported, that a part of his castle had caught a fire. He first completed his observation, before he took care of the fire (found that in Arthur Koestler's "Sleepwalkers"). - Once again, I was very pleased with the Heritage grab-and-go set; and so to bed at 02.45.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Edited May 14, 2019 by Nyctimene
grammar

[Stu]

The Heritage is a great little scope and sounds like you had an excellent session with it Stephan. Might just get mine out tonight for a quick session!

[Eastman]

On ‎14‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 17:14, Nyctimene said:

I love the setup - scope with Seben 8-24 zoom and Baader 2.25x barlow in one hand, small stool and a plywood "T" (as a scope riser) in the other one; just two minutes.

Great grab and go  scope with a zoom eyepiece. Nice report.

[des anderson]

A lovely report, I was with you all the way  and I enjoyed every moment of it. TA. Des

[jetstream]

Great report Stephan, glad you enjoy this telescope, we do as well. Fast cooling, VG aperture in a light little scope with very capable optics. I grab it more than the frac lol!

[Lurcher]

Very interesting report Stephan. Brilliant.