Spectacular failure, but a fun evening.

[Stu]

With the poor forecast for tonight and tomorrow, I thought I would have a go for the Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 which was due to be at 10 degrees altitude at 8.15pm last night. I really needed a bigger scope, but for various reasons chose to put my two old 4” refractors out, hoping to use the 5 degree field of the Genesis to help with finding. It was a mixed bag of a night as we will see…

Successes were establishing that I have a 2 degree horizon to the South, though trees take it up to 4 degrees in places, overall pretty good, and way better than I had at my last house. Another success was managing to be in exactly the right spot to have the asteroid in the field of view after a bit of star hopping.

Biggest challenge was dew. I thought it would be ok looking down so low, but both scopes dewed up so I had to whack the heaters on full for a bit and they cleared nicely.

Biggest failure was being about a magnitude or so off in terms of the faintest stars seen vs where I needed to be to see the asteroid; a combination of atmospheric extinction and glare from the full Moon did for me I think. So, no asteroid spotted I’m afraid. I should perhaps have made a dash for my 150p but decided just to enjoy what I had setup.

Still, it was fun to have the two scopes setup and in use; it’s been quite a while since I used them and it reminded me why I have them. Binocular like (but with sharp stars) views in the Genesis/31 Nag, and beautiful high power views in the Vixen. I had a fun time trawling around old favourites, not achieving anything in particular but just enjoying the views in each scope.

At one point I tried the AP Barcon element screwed into the bottom of my Leica Zoom to get a bit more power. Surprisingly this just didn’t work well at all. It led to some horrible ‘sparking’ effects around bright stars including Sirius, and the star test outside focus went completely to mush. I won’t use that combo again. Removing it sharpened everything up again.

I finished up on the very nearly full Moon which looked fabulous. Seeing was pretty stable, although coming and going slowly. As has been discussed elsewhere, Hausen looked brilliant, with its central peaks clearly visible. A number of other craters which I didn’t identify (but others have) were also clear. Nice views!

Comparing the Vixen and Genesis on the Moon was ‘illuminating’. The Vixen was razor sharp, with no CA and a very pleasing view. The Genesis at first glance seems very colourful along the terminator, although the detail is still good. However, with careful focus, and importantly careful eye positioning the CA can be made to almost completely disappear.

So a fun little session despite failing in my main aim, but it was always a long shot anyway and it proved a good excuse to get these two out again. Will repeat again very soon.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Well done Stu having a go. I felt the Moon was just too bright.

[Stu]

34 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Well done Stu having a go. I felt the Moon was just too bright.

How right you were! 🤣

[F15Rules]

Lovely scope pairing Stu..proper "Eye Candy"!!👍😊

Dave