Simplifying observing sessions

[Paz]

I had a short session earlier this week that went really well on which I have been reflecting.

The conditions were lots of direct light pollution, some heat off the nearby roads/rooftops, the moon was nearly full and quite low - no higher than 15 degrees, there were some small thin clouds passing, and I was really busy with life in general and could not afford to tire myself out with a late night.

It is easy to to think it's not worth going out.

Earlier in the evening I put my maksutov out to cool on the off chance that I might be able to go out later (I'd say more than half the time I put a scope out to cool I don't get a chance to go out).

I then picked the bare minimum set up... Only one eyepiece (17.3mm Delos) so only 110x but my idea was it would be within the seeing. I didn't take the 8-24 zoom which most of the time I would,  as that would bring choice which brings distraction.

I took out a telrad but no 9x50 finder, and no dual speed focuser to save weight and reduce vibes (I did take  a baader t2 prism diagonal that does have a fine focus facility). The reduced weight  allowed me to use my Porta 2 rather than my EQ5. No tripod spreader to save set up time, no maps, no eyepiece cases or boxes/bags of gear, no need to get dark adaptation, and I only had one simple plan - pick the one best target near the terminator and focus on that. I had no list of other I objects to chase (usually I'd go for a few doubles).

This is what I did and I had a great time.

I ended up focusing on Mons Rumker and took a lot in. I packed up after about 20 minutes at the eyepiece and got back to normal life and got to bed in good time so I wasn't tired the next day. I also therefore had time to have a good read up about what I was observing, which I really enjoy. 

I'm finding that simplifying my sessions and making it possible to do very short ones is proving to be a good thing.

[Alan White]

Funny how stripping things back makes things easy and enjoyable.

I with my terrestrial photography often take camera and one lens fitted and work with it rather than fussing over which lens to use etc, makes it challenging but great fun.

With Astronomy, when many start, it’s simply two or three eyepieces at most, things are simple, it’s just when the want monster strikes and you find a case full of nice eyepieces and things and start to fuss over what to use. At this point it can become challenging.

[Paz]

3 hours ago, Alan White said:

With Astronomy, when many start, it’s simply two or three eyepieces at most, things are simple, it’s just when the want monster strikes and you find a case full of nice eyepieces and things and start to fuss over what to use. At this point it can become challenging.

This is true, and for me it's then like going around a big circle and sometimes going back to more like  how it was when I started.