A Case of Tak Timewarp - 2 Friday Sessions

[SuburbanMak]

Work and the start of a cold that had me shivering before I even left the building meant me missing out on this week’s clear skies and enjoying others’ observing reports vicariously on SGL. 

Friday’s forecast was showing cloud from mid evening so I was keen to get out as soon as my last zoom call ended.  I was up and running in the garden in five minutes with the Tak FC-100 DC and ST80, AZGTIX and Berlebach report carryable in one careful trip. 
 

Saturn at this point was sliding toward the roofline to the SW but I managed around 15 minutes on it with a 5mm Pentax XW (148x) & Baader Contrast Booster filter, which remained.  Between the ‘scope cooling, atmospheric CA and urban heat plumes, seeing was quite poor for the most part but I always get a thrill from viewing Saturn, it’s just what I dreamt of seeing through a telescope as a young lad.  I was granted a few 2 or 3 second patches of stability which revealed some banding in the Northern hemisphere, the shadow of the planet on the rings and, once, a hint of the Cassini division on the rings’ Western lobe .  Happy with that as it’s probably one of the last views for  a while and when it reappears in the summer the rings will be heading toward edge on. 
 

Slewing then to Jupiter at a much more favourable elevation and dramatically better seeing.  North and South equatorial bands were packed with detail, and I was sure there were two darker areas (barges?) on the Eastern side of the NEB.  
The Southern temperate band (I think) was strong and constantly visible on the Western side and intermittent with seeing to the East.  In the most stable moments the darkening of the Northern area resolved to a polar region and a separate band. Galilean moons, tiny discs, were all to the West, three in a close dogleg that really gave a 3D impression of their orbits, the fourth slightly larger disc further out. 
Attempted a sketch at the eyepiece  (need more practice): 

Turned to the moon, which was a sickly greenish yellow. I swapped the Contrast Booster out for a Neodymium and normality was restored. Superb views of the terminator, the Tak-Pentax combination delivers such crisp detail. The mountains (Apennines I think) looking fully 3D. Many craters displaying terracing and their central mountains.  I didn’t take time to identify individual features, other than the straight wall, which was very prominent, its symmetry looking out of place amid all the complexity. The albedo colour shades due to differing mineral deposits were quite apparent (although came out slightly exaggerated in the iPhone snap I grabbed). 

 

By now it was nearly time for my Friday Dad-taxi run, just as well as my fingers had lost feeling in the hard frost. I sneaked a last, moon-washed view of M42 & enjoyed switching between the wide view of the whole sword area in the ST80/SL 30mm UFF (13x) and the much tighter view of the Trap and central nebula in the Tak/Pentax 5mm (148x).  Still stunning despite lacking some of the contrast of a moonless night. Didn’t spend long but certainly caught a fifth star in the Trap (E I suspect), then headed in. 

Duties, food and TV completed I noticed that despite the forecast we still had clear skies after midnight, so as others went to bed I put my big coat on and headed back out. 
The sky was completely changed, Jupiter and the moon gone from view and Orion dipping West behind houses.  Sirius was quite steady low down, and I lingered there on alignment but can’t definitively say I caught the pup.  
As Leo was high I had an optimistic punt at the Trio, but a vain hope given the light show from neighbours both sides.  M81 & M82 just about visible but basically galaxies a waste of time from the garden. 
Enjoyed a nice split of Polaris while I was up that way though, the Tak rendering the yellow primary and cool white secondary very satisfyingly. 
Algieba brightened my spirits further, two  golden eyes looking back at me through the Morpheus 12.5mm (59x). From there to Castor via a bathe in the Beehive (M44), another target where it’s great to have the widefield side by side with the magnified view. 
On to M35, some high cloud coming in now starting to degrade the view a little but still lovely at 59x. 
Swept through the Auriga Messiers - M36, M37 & M38  all still glittery despite the local LP. 
The gathering high cloud got the better of me, ganging up into bands rolling in from the Southwest rubbing out the stars, the weather had turned, there be a storm brewin’….

Still clear to the East my last target  was Izar, Epsilon Bootes - one of my favourite doubles and although lowish and suffering wobbly seeing, was able to achieve a messy split at 148x - confirmed mainly by that fantastic colour difference again, light orange primary vs turquoise secondary. 
 

By now I was again very cold and it was gone 2 a.m - that Tak time warp striking again, where what started out as a quick half-hour look becomes a happy two hour stint! 

In for a warming glass of red and to slowly thaw out under the duvet. 
 

 

Edited January 20 by SuburbanMak

[AstroNebulee]

Great report, thank you. Fab that you got 2 stints at the eyepiece in, sheer dedication that 👏. What a wonderful tour and descriptions. So pleased you finally got behind the scope to enjoy the clear skies most of us have been enjoying during the cold snap. 

Lee 

[mikeDnight]

I love the experience of a Tak Tme Warp. A great report, thanks for sharing your fun times with us. 

[Nicola Fletcher]

Thank you for sharing such an enjoyable evening - I love the photo too!

[jock1958]

Excellent report, sketches and photo @SuburbanMak this is what being part of the SGL community is all about, love it!! 

Edited January 20 by jock1958

[Epick Crom]

A very well written and concise observing report! I enjoyed visualising your descriptions, thanks for posting 👍