Back in the saddle again.

[Kn4fty]

Last Sunday night/ early Monday morning was the first time in months I could get a scope out. For the past few months work and weather prevented any time at the EP. For a week I had watched the forcast predicting a clear night. I had spent the day swimming and was preparing to head home for my date with the stars when I got side tracked in conversation. I finally got home about midnight. I was tired but wanted some sky time. I was too tired to set up Copernicus, my 8" Newt, so I set up Kepler , my ETX 70 I had repaired. Grabbed a couple EPs (26mm and 9.7mm) and did a quick two star alignment and began to hunt. I initially tried to find galaxies around Ursa major. I knew the surface brightness of those were beyond Kepler's grasp, but what the heck! Obviously no luck. I then pursued more reasonable quarry. I punched in M27 the Dumbbell nebula and the little ETX slewed to it. I could see the roundness of the nebula, but no structural detail like in the big scope. Plus, my eyes ain't what they use to be. But it was still gorgeous to see it hanging there! Next I figured I'd check out a planet. Since Jupiter was behind a tree, I tried Saturn. In the little scope it was tiny! Tiny but satisfying. Satisfying because I immediately thought "This is how Galileo saw it!". The rings looked less like rings and more like the "ears" he saw. After a bit, I dialed in M11 the Wild Duck cluster. It initially appeared as a nebulous mushroom with a couple stars. Some time at the EP brought out many more stars as the "nebulosity" changed into individual stars. About this time the active day had caught up with me and I waa starting to yawn. I figured one more before I turn in. The little scope moved to M15 globular cluster. It was tiny in the scope and looked like a fuzz ball. I couldn't see any individual stars, but thats ok. I still got to get under the sky with a scope for a couple hours. And you know what? It was worth it!! In the immortal words of Jack Horkheimer-

"Keep looking up!"

Rob