Moon and Venus Right Now

[cloudsweeper]

Monday, 8.05pm - lovely waxing crescent Moon, high, south-west.  AR 127L frac in use.  Atlas and Hercules were near the terminator - Hercules mainly in shadow, but Atlas revealed fine detail at x240. 

Noticed Venus half an hour later, lower, west - still at x240, it appeared exactly like the Moon but smaller of course - a lovely, bright, but well-defined slimmish crescent with a purple haze from the CA, but that was not really detrimental to the crisp view.

Doug.

[John]

Sounds very nice Doug

Clouds here though

[cloudsweeper]

53 minutes ago, John said:

Sounds very nice Doug

Clouds here though

And it got better, John!  I wanted to see more detail in the floor of Atlas so took it up to x400 - still good, but no rilles.  Then I got the "bulging crater" effect and the brain wouldn't let it go!  Back down to x300 - crater normal again, and focusing and tracking easier.  And just as I was about to lose the Moon behind trees, I caught sight of rilles within Atlas during moments of good seeing.  Very satisfying!

Doug.

[Dave1]

Sounds like a good session. Nice to see somebody else using a long frac.

David

[cloudsweeper]

10 hours ago, Dave1 said:

Sounds like a good session. Nice to see somebody else using a long frac.

David

Indeed - it really looks like an archetypal telescope, and gives sharp views, depth of focus, good contrast at low power.  Plus it's more forgiving with a range of EPs.  And in use last night I was perched comfortably on a stool - a pleasant break from the usual standing position with my other gear.

Doug.