Dodgy Doubles, a lunar mission and a hasty retreat.

[SuburbanMak]

I'd missed out on the clear skies earlier in the week having been slightly flattened for 48 hours or so by my first Covid jab  - glad to feel it was working though and oddly relieved considering I hadn't thought myself unduly worried about getting the virus. When SGL-ers were putting out the big guns on the moon this week though I hadn't felt much like standing in a field at midnight, consequently I was particularly keen to get out Friday for some observing. 

Last full moon I'd canvassed the hive-mind on here and picked up a fantastic moonwashed target list and enjoyed a couple of fabulous nights centred on Double Stars. I set out armed with a hit list of Doubles, mainly in Bootes and a plan to have a look at Porrima in Virgo and Alpha Herculi.  

The wind was stronger and a lot colder than I'd bargained for and at midnight-thirty or so there was much more cloud around than the forecast window on both CO and Met Office cloud cover. Moonlight was casting shadows & playing on high cloud leaving only mag 3+ or so stars visible naked eye. My mid rugby-pitch spot took on an unexpected arctic tundra feel...

Aligned on Vega and Arcturus, noting that both looked a bit blobby in the Mak 127 & Baader Zoom.  

Epsilon Bootes - had thought to start the evening with what looked on paper like a gem and doable split of 2.9 arc seconds - but no, the wind vibration was too much - I couldn't tell what was what. 

Porrima - definitely split this at around 150x but  mushy view - the magnification required wasn't really supported by the seeing & flitting cloud. I'll count it as split but need to revisit to get that nice crisp view & "Oooh" moment!  

At this point I gave up on the list, chilled out, stuck some music on and trained both the Mak 127 and ST80 (on a new-to-me EBay Manfrotto 55 & ball head) on the moon, well if you can't beat them...

Cloud was by now thickening and I watched it scudding past the almost full lunar disc in wide-field in the ST80 at 17x, quite beautiful.  I noted a really bright, white spot both in the ST80 &  naked eye in the NW quadrant and in a brief gap in the cloud trained the Mak to that area and cranked up the magnification. Finally got my "ooh" moment for the night looking at what I later checked as Aristarchus and Herodotus craters - the first so bright and the second contrastingly shadowed. I "flew" across to the terminator and down to the pole vowing to spend more time familiarising myself with lunar geography. 

I felt the first raindrop and, based on the lessons of a lifetime of hill-walking, figured that as raindrops rarely travel alone it was time to rapidly get some lens caps on and beat a retreat. It was raining steadily & properly cold as I trudged back but I'd renewed my wonder at the moon & really enjoyed a new mount for the ST80.  Spent a nice hour thawing out with a whisky and map of the moon. 

 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by SuburbanMak

[Nik271]

Sometimes the seeing and the weather conspire against best made plans. Still you got Porrima, that is a nice catch! And the coming Monday and Tuesday look like clear skies and summer temperatures. Izar (Epsilon Bootis) will be much easier then.

For the Moon in the field I use this small book: 'Moongazing, a beginner's guide' by Tom Kerss. It is pocket size and has 16 photographic pates with detailed labelled craters and other features, very convenient to check what I'm watching. 

 

[Mr Spock]

Sound like a good session. I always keep an eye on the radar. You can predict most showers quite accurately as well as persistent rain.

[SuburbanMak]

4 hours ago, Nik271 said:

Sometimes the seeing and the weather conspire against best made plans. Still you got Porrima, that is a nice catch! And the coming Monday and Tuesday look like clear skies and summer temperatures. Izar (Epsilon Bootis) will be much easier then.

For the Moon in the field I use this small book: 'Moongazing, a beginner's guide' by Tom Kerss. It is pocket size and has 16 photographic pates with detailed labelled craters and other features, very convenient to check what I'm watching. 

 

Thanks Nik I’ll take a look at the book - know a few features & the main mare but it all gets quite complicated toward the pole! 
 

Weather looks great in the week fingers crossed the seeing matches! 

[SuburbanMak]

2 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Sound like a good session. I always keep an eye on the radar. You can predict most showers quite accurately as well as persistent rain.

The Met Office did have a one-raindrop sign out for that hour to be fair