Solar System Start To The Day (Plus BVs)

[cloudsweeper]

4.25am, still, mild, Moon (waning crescent) just S of E, Venus below it in the E, Mars higher, E of S.  Well worth a look with the 102S frac, despite the poor transparency.

Venus: beautiful half-lit disc.  Going from x33 to x100 reduced the glare.  Some purple fringing.  

Mars: not much to see with all the thin cloud.  Dull orange disc at x150.

Moon (with red Aldebaran at the same altitude, further to the S): 5.00am, sky lightening, decided to use the BVs again for that splendid view.  Extension tube had to come off (as did specs for viewing).  The 26mm Plossls gave x46 and 1.13deg, and when I got the angle between the tubes right, the view was rich and stunning - a beautiful crescent with a well-defined terminator, framed against a dark sky.  Very little shimmering was evident at that mag, and there was no noticeable CA. 

I then swapped the Plossls for my only other matching pair, the 12mm XCels, giving x100 and 0.6deg of field.  Had to rebalance the 'scope against the extra weight.  Luna almost filled the view of course - a rich, immersive view.  I concentrated on Gassendi, north of Mare Humorum.  Its central peaks were very clear.

Back to Cyclops vision for a bit more mag - x150 using the 4mm DeLite, view a little unstable.  Then x200, and finally x240 with a Barlowed 5mm.   x200 was somewhat sharper, and I noticed some fine detail near Gassendi's eastern rim, and even a brief sign of the neighbouring rilles, using AV.  Very pleasing!

By 5.35, the sky was quite light, and only the Moon and Venus were on show.  I finished with another quick look at Venus at x150 - a lovely well defined hemisphere, without the purple fringing this time.

Thanks for reading!

Doug.

[Mr niall]

I've never done a night-to-day observing session. That sounds great - but to have the moon coming up as night time fades sounds like the perfect way to do it!

[cloudsweeper]

2 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

I've never done a night-to-day observing session. That sounds great - but to have the moon coming up as night time fades sounds like the perfect way to do it!

Yeah - the Moon is great when the sky is not too light or dark.  Lots of detail, and little glare.  Even better with BVs!

Doug.