A short person meets a tall scope!

[Stu]

I had a fun early evening in the garden today. I went for my daily exercise on the heath for an hour at about 5.15pm, and spied the crescent Moon quite high (though not as close to Venus as I claimed elsewhere, that is tomorrow night!).

Keen to have a look, I popped the Telementor out on its ‘new’ alt az Mount which I had been fitting saddles to earlier on to take standard scopes, rather than having to bolt rings to it. This mount proved a big success with the Telementor and will be ideal as a quick grab and go setup.

At this stage, the Moon was looking good already, although no earthshine was visible. I tried the 24mm Panoptic for a wide field (x35, 1.95 degrees) and then my nag zoom for some power (x140 to x280), mainly on the 6 and 5mm settings.

The skies looked pretty stable, so out came the 8” f8, and I’m glad I did because both Venus and the Moon looked stunning through this scope. Wonderful terminator detail, and the two diamonds hanging in mid air along the dark limb. I had been finishing off a simple counterbalance system for the f8 which I tried out tonight, and it worked very well I’m pleased to say, particularly at lower altitudes. The weight can be easily removed when looking closer to the zenith, or replaced with a lighter one.

At this point I called Lorna (my 6 year old) out for a look. The observing chair was ideal for this; I lifted her up onto it and it made it much easier for her to get in a good position to see. She accurately described Venus to me so I knew she was seeing it genuinely, and I got a ‘wow’ or two over the Moon. Lovely that she is old enough to appreciate it more now.

Later on, @markse68 prompted me to escape my bathing duties (well actually hair drying duties) and head out to try to see the Pup. This was a no go, but whilst out I noticed the Earthshine showing on the Moon and the Telementor was conveniently positioned. With the 24mm Panoptic in the focuser, it was a beautiful view. Bright earthshine, lovely terminator detail and those same two diamonds in mid air on the dark limb. Little or no CA showing from this lovely achro.

After a few minutes I noticed a satellite passing diagonally above the Moon, lower left travelling to upper right. Then a second, then a third. Soon they were just missing the top of the limb, and then the last two I saw actually transitted, showing up as bright specs over the dark portion of the Moon.

Although I’m not a fan of these constellations of satellites, it was an  amazing sight, and pure chance that I saw it.

The skies are quite milky here tonight, so I just grabbed a few favourite doubles; Mizar, Izar, Algieba and Polaris, using both the Nag and Leica zooms to good effect.

So a fun little session, looking forward to the closer conjunction tomorrow if it is clear although the forecast is getting poorer unfortunately.

[cotterless45]

Milky skies here , but what lovely views of earthshine and the terminator. Great post as usual, stay safe ,

old Nick.

[wookie1965]

Cracking report Stu I do like that Telementor looks a lovely scope I have missed all 3 clear nights as my back is playing up walking is very difficult these reports keep me happy.

[Size9Hex]

Thanks for posting. Truly enjoyed reading this. Really captures the wonder and fun and excitement of getting out under the night sky.

[Stu]

46 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Cracking report Stu I do like that Telementor looks a lovely scope I have missed all 3 clear nights as my back is playing up walking is very difficult these reports keep me happy.

It's a lovely scope Paul, really nice for lunar and doubles. Last night the seeing wasn't great and the 8" barely split Izar but the Zeiss showed it beautifully. 

[faulksy]

i was out last night stu, was looking at markarians chain,m51 the ring 😀 81,82, a few globs but conditions were poor could only just see the joining arms on 51 😛

[Ships and Stars]

The Telementor is very cool! These are fairly hard to come by I take it? 

[Dave1]

Nice report! Nice a Tormentor ! 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Size9Hex said:

Thanks for posting. Truly enjoyed reading this. Really captures the wonder and fun and excitement of getting out under the night sky.

Thank you Paul! I’m aware that certain sections of the forum may think my posts are about mundane observations and not so interesting, which they probably are, but I work with what I’ve got and continue to enjoy my astronomy! 👍👍

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Ships and Stars said:

The Telementor is very cool! These are fairly hard to come by I take it? 

They do come up on the used market every now and then. Sometimes they go for silly collectors type prices but you can still pick them up for reasonable money if you wait.

[Size9Hex]

40 minutes ago, Stu said:

Thank you Paul! I’m aware that certain sections of the forum may think my posts are about mundane observations and not so interesting, which they probably are, but I work with what I’ve got and continue to enjoy my astronomy! 👍👍

No, not mundane at all. Definitely a place for reports on pushing the limits with big scopes, dark skies or uber high powers, but it’s not the only way to enjoy the skies. Keep ‘em coming! 👍😀

[estwing]

Kids love a telly...

[RobH2020]

23 hours ago, Stu said:

the two diamonds hanging in mid air along the dark limb

Can i ask what you mean by this? Not a term I'm familiar with! Craters picked out ahead of the terminator? 

Thanks!

[Stu]

19 minutes ago, RobH2020 said:

Can i ask what you mean by this? Not a term I'm familiar with! Craters picked out ahead of the terminator? 

Thanks!

Of course! I managed an image of it this evening when three or four of them showed up. It happens around thos phase and is caused by mountain peaks catching the light before the main surface is illuminated, so they show as bright dots against the dark limb. This sort of thing....

[niallk]

Great stuff @Stu !!  Some great pics of the session + like the moon shots.  Those 'detached' peaks catching the sunlight are a wonderful sight.

[Sky-searcher]

Clear night in the Isle of Man tonight Stu. My 7 year old son joined me for a peak at the Moon and Venus. Also the misses came out for a look to! 

[Stu]

On 29/03/2020 at 22:28, Sky-searcher said:

Clear night in the Isle of Man tonight Stu. My 7 year old son joined me for a peak at the Moon and Venus. Also the misses came out for a look to! 

For some reason I missed this post at the time! Great shot, and yes it’s really fun to get the children involved 👍👍 Thanks for posting the picture 😀