short, sweet & sneezy

[ian_d]

I've been battling the dreaded "man-flu" for the past few days, but the sight of a lovely clear early evening sky here with Venus staring at me was too much to resist. What better opportunity to see just how "grab and go" my gear is? Could I get out, get a look at the phase of Venus, spot Uranus in the same field, and get back in again before the lurgy got the better of me? :?

Happily, yes! Since I moved all my astro gear into our shed, it's become a lot quicker and easier to get set up. I managed to get the CG-5 mount and 6" SCT out and set up (very roughly - no fancy polar aligning!) in about 5 minutes, and by just doing a "Quick Align" got the GOTO working closely enough to get me in the vicinity. Venus was a good sight - looked like it was just shy of dichotomy (terminator just to the west of the meridian), and a really crisp view inbetween moments of wobbly seeing. I *might* even have noticed the faintest hint of the Ashen Light, but I wouldn't want to bet the farm on it....

Then on to Uranus - bearing in mind it was only about 5.30pm and there was still a fair bit of twilight around I wasn't optimistic, but sure enough there it was - faint, but undoubtedly a disc with a green / blue hint to it.

By this time I was getting both cold and sneezy, so it was time to effect a speedy escape back to the warm. Had the gear packed away in 5 minutes, got the kettle on, and into the central heated study to drink Lemsip and write this report.

So - no doubt that I can get the scope out and working in double-quick time now, which is great. And nice to bag two planets so close to each other. Now all I need to do is shake off the bugs so I can last more than 25mins next time

cheers

Ian

[Talitha]

Thanks Ian, that was quite a successful grab'n'go session!

Take care and get well.

(Love the post title, btw. )

[ian_d]

cheers Talitha - on the mend now, but predictably enough the cloud has rolled in and scuppered plans for observing tonight. Typical!!