30 min from the balcony

[grjsk]

Had a few minutes available, so geared up out on my tiny balcony. I few points:

• Even the 102 mm on the twilight 1 is a bit too big on my balcony. Maneuvering around out there is a bit of a hassle, and I constantly have to change position just to avoid bumping into things. I am considering getting a small 70 mm f/6 or something simply to have something easy to use out there. I’ll become a father for the first time in 6 weeks time, so I’m guessing there will be far more 30 min on the balcony than there will be trips to a dark site in the future.
•  I have yet to really enjoy 178x. I’m not sure if it’s just the seeing that is bad, my eyes can’t handle the exit pupil, the fact that I am using a barlow, or what it is, but it always looks a bit hazy. Perhaps it’s a combination of several factors.

 

Orion Nebula: Even in Bortle 8 skies with horrible glare from pretty much all directions, this one doesn’t disappoint. Nice and vibrant. A good start.

Sigma Orionis: I have yet to split the A and B components here. I guess it should be possible at 178x, but that isn’t working out for me at the moment. D and E splits easily even at 44X. In combination with the wide STF 761 this is a pleasant view, even though they all look fairly similar with a very light blue color. The B component is a B0,5 star, and is reported to be whiter, so I’ll keep trying to get that one as well.

Collinder 70: a fairly large open cluster. Switching to the 32 mm plossl I’m getting everything into view at the same time. It’s fairly loose, with an even spread of stars. Mostly blueish-white colors, but a little bit of light orange is possible to pick up in HR 1874. Epsilon Orionis Nebula is supposed to be here, but no hint of it at all unsurprisingly.

Mintaka: A and C splits a fairly low magnification. No sign of the B component.

Uranus: I was about to pack up, but I wanted to see if I could get a glimpse of Uranus. Because of all the light pollution star-hopping was a bit of a challenge though. Trying to maneuver around caused me to breath on the finder, fogging it up, so I’m not really sure if I found it. I’ll put this one in the “not viewed” list, and try again later.

[GlenM]

Another well written report, thank you.

 

Glen.

 

[domstar]

Great report. I have a 100mm f9 refractor on the balcony and I'm squeezed, or treading on crocs or scraping my chair to get into a good position. Maybe a Mak is the answer. I never go above 150x and prefer around 100x on all but the closest doubles. 1mm exit pupil should be good. Your problems with Sigma Ori isn't down to lack of magnification. It's an easy split at 90x. It must be the conditions or light pollution. It is fairly faint so less mag can help with that. Anyway, I enjoyed the report.

[grjsk]

1 hour ago, domstar said:

Great report. I have a 100mm f9 refractor on the balcony and I'm squeezed, or treading on crocs or scraping my chair to get into a good position. Maybe a Mak is the answer. I never go above 150x and prefer around 100x on all but the closest doubles. 1mm exit pupil should be good. Your problems with Sigma Ori isn't down to lack of magnification. It's an easy split at 90x. It must be the conditions or light pollution. It is fairly faint so less mag can help with that. Anyway, I enjoyed the report.

Thanks for the feedback. A mak is certainly an option, but I'm really enjoying low mag/wide field views, so I am not sure a mak would satisfy me. A smaller refractor is therefore on the top of my list at the moment. 

[bish]

Nice report. I used to observe from a small light polluted balcony. My SW 150 and EQ3 would just fit on but I would be out most clear nights until the early hours.  Probably spent more time observing on the balcony than anywhere else.