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Half-Yearly Review


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There are many posts about lousy weather, unreliable forecasts, and general lack of astro-action, so I must be relatively fortunate here in NW England having this year enjoyed:

the Sun, planets (Venus to Uranus), doubles, variables, OCs, GCs, galaxies, nebulae, and comet 46P.  

Plus the Moon, which has been a great source of delight.  There was the eclipse; my first view of the effect of bulging craters; crisp magnification up to x423; and a very special observation with the shadow of Mons Piton, which I estimated to be about 34 miles long!

In all, I've had 47 sessions, which is one outing in just less than every 4 days, and with other interests and activities, I'm not sure I'd want many more!

'Scopes?  The Dob is of course the instrument of choice for faint stuff, but of the others, I've developed a fondness for the gorgeous sharp views with the ED80 Triplet.  And on the Celestron GoTo mount (see pic), it's a powerful tool, especially when light skies make hopping trickier.

I wish you all happy observing.  Here's to another enjoyable six months!

Doug.

 

P1070134.JPG

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Great stuff Doug, your commitment is to be commended! Your early morning sessions are something I just can't seem to manage these days.

I've not done too badly, probably in the high teens including solar but have missed out on opportunities to do more, so we shouldn't complain.

Good luck for the second half!

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Quite right, Doug. There’s normally opportunities for at least a short session if you really want it. Having a proper grab and go set up or binoculars is key to this, to my mind at least. I was pretty good about getting the dob out, even for a few mins but having a little refractor makes it even easier. Having said that I’m sitting outside in shorts and a short sleeve short watching Io emerge from Jupiter with the dob now. Seeing is too poor to get the shadow but I’m happy nonetheless. Here’s to another great 6 months under the stars :) 

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I've done 48 observing sessions up to and including June.

The majority are short sessions, sometimes only 15 minutes, and many have involved cloud dodging. Quite a lot gave been white light solar sessions, there's no spots usually but I still have a go looking for other features.

I've been using all my scopes fairly evenly and enjoy seeing how they show things differently.

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