The Hangover

[Littleguy80]

Twice this week I've set an alarm and got up to try and observe Comet Nishimura. Both times, I've carefully prepared by leaving my 10" dob outside to cool, setting my Tak up with the right eyepiece and having my observing chair by the door ready to go. Neither time was I able to see the comet due to cloud. This morning my alarm went off at 4:20am, I hadn't intentionally set it so was a little surprised by this. Bleary eyed and feeling the after effects of one too many beers enjoyed with friends over a BBQ last night I got up. I took a look out the window and was pleasantly surprised to see perfectly clear skies. I took a couple of painkillers and began bumbling around getting the scopes outside. 

I was able to find Algieba in Leo fairly easily. It was very low down and my initial scans for Comet Nishimura were unsuccessful. With lots of consulting with SkySafari, I moved the dob to the correct location and observed what I initially I took for a fuzzy star. Adjusting focus, it dawned on me that I was actually seeing the comet! Bright and very compact, it was much smaller than I had expected. I recently purchased a Baader Swan Band filter in the hope of trying it with Comet Nishimura. There was a definite contrast improvement with the filter. With some gentle tapping on the scope, I was also detecting a noticeable tail. The biggest benefit of the filter was that it allowed me to observe the comet more easily as the sky quickly brightened. Although this wasn't my first observation of Comet Nishimura, I was thrilled to catch it as it nears maximum brightness.

With the sky much brighter now, I switched over to Venus. A large crescent, reminiscent of the Moon sitting higher in the sky, was seen at 240x in the dob. Really quite superb. I enjoyed nice views of the Jupiter with Tak, the contrast on the belts being impressive. Wonderful to see Jupiter at a decent altitude again. Another look at Venus with the Tak and then onto the Moon. I'm not sure that I've ever observed the Moon at this phase. The rays of Kepler was the first thing to catch my eye. Schrodinger's Valley was superb as were the mountains within Gassendi. Coming up on 2 hours since my surprise alarm, I packed up with my sore head long since forgotten. I had to smile at the way things can work out. Two careful planned sessions that failed to deliver, followed by one completely unplanned and disorganised session which is among the best I've had this year.

Venus in the dob

Edited September 10, 2023 by Littleguy80