A rollercoaster of an observing day

[Paz]

I saw yesterday that the weather was looking promising today and I thought if that turned out to be true I would make the most of it. It was cloudy all morning but the cloud started to thin from lunchtime. In the early evening I packed the car with a set up for observing white light solar and Venus and drove 6 or 7 miles to what I call a "still sky site", where there a better chance of still air for good views  of the sun, moon, and planets compared to home where I am surrounded by heat coming off roads, rooftops, and driveways.

I make 3 journeys walking from the car to my spot 100 yards away in a field carrying over an EQ5 and tripod, counterweights, observing chair, a case of eyepieces/wedge/bits,  a shoulder bag with solar finder / observing hood / etc, and a 102mm f7 scope. I get the scope roughly balanced and go to attach the wedge, I'm using a T2 quick changer into a T2-2" connector in the scope... except that the T2-2" connector is not in the scope... and its not in the case! I look for any other bits that I could use but I have only packed exactly what I needed (except for the bit I didn't pack). It's game over and I have to pack up and go home!

The skies get clearer as the evening goes on and I decide to go out in my garden later to make the most of it. I take out the C8 this time. I haven't used the C8 in a while and  I admit it's not my first choice of scope. I check the collimation roughly with a laser and it looks ok so I have a look at Venus but it is a bit mushy with tube currents and I think the collimation is actually still off  So I take off the dew shield again and collimate it just by eye, I am out of practice but after a bit of faffing and scope-yoga it's straight (I conclude my laser must have some issue).

Venus looks better but still some tube currents are noticeable, A 17.3mm Delos makes for 118x and a ND0.9 filter does a good job of taming the glare. An 8mm Delos makes for 254x , it looks like the seeing itself is not bad but my scope is constantly lagging slightly in temperature as the air cools.

Although the temperature is dropping it is not very cold, various households on the estate are playing music with their windows open, and the smell of people partaking of dodgy substances comes and goes on the wind, things like this are the backdrop of summer observing.

After the earlier solar observing trip failure I don't feel like trying anything too difficult, so I just check out some doubles and Mars initially and they look nice (although Mars is small). I then try for M66/M65 in Leo. In the 17.3mm Delos they are super tough and I can only see one in averted vision (I guess M66) so I back right out with a 40mm NPL but that turns the background into a bright grey blanket and really I am no better off.

I look over to the east and think I'll do one more Messier and then call it a day. Hercules is up so it's going to be M13. In the 40NPL it is not that good due to the bright background. Going to a 17.3mm Delos is better but I carry on to an 8mm Delos to darken the background more and this is better still and still framed ok. I can see subtle swimming of the view as my scope keeps following the ambient temperature down, but this is a good view I admit, and better than the ED102R (my most used scope by far in the last couple of years). This view on its own was worth the hassle and if I had started on M13 I am not sure if I would have moved on to any other targets, because it's always a good idea to know when you're on to a winner and stick with it. 

My observing is done but the night isn't over yet. When packing up it turns out I trod on a mouse and didn't realise it, then I tread this poor mouse over the floor as I put my kit away initially in the dark. When I get around to putting a light on I finally realise and it looks a scene from a rodent horror movie. I've accidentally crushed plenty of slugs over the years but never a mouse!

 

[John]

Interesting report and I can understand the "rollercoaster" analogy.

Not a good day for the mouse though 🤢

[Franklin]

Sounds like a good night, M13 is always a winner. Just haze here, but I tried.

[Stu]

Nice write up @Paz, the highs and lows of a visual astronomer! Good to post up when things go not so well as well as the good stuff. I’ve done similar, getting to a dark site under wonderful clear skies and forgetting the connector cable for the mount handset 🤪