No grand tour

[The Warthog]

The weather report said last night would be clear, so I set up the refractor before the sun went down, and invited my niece to bring her telescope to have a look at a few things in spite of the cold. It was -13ºC tonight, and yes, I do want a medal.

I got Mars in the scope, and messed about for a while with my eyepieces, trying to centre everything with gloves on, so I could use the high power ep which gives me about 230x. That's pushing it a bit, but it's not too bad. Still, I wasn't able to make Mars much more than a pink ball, smaller than a BB would look at arms length. Very little detail, if any, on the disk. My niece said she could see at least two colours, and a little bit of 'green' by which I suppose she meant darker markings. Good for her. I have never had any trouble with the mount at these temperatures, by the way, and I didn't last night.

I next got the Orion Nebula in the scope, as my great-niece hadn't seen anything like it before, we viewed it at low power, about 31x, but she was pretty happy with it.

We put the scope on the Moon last, as she always wants to see it when it's up. Not much to see as it's Full Moon, but I got her to spot and remember the name of Mare Crisium, and gave her some background on it.

Then I let her see the Moon through her own scope, a $30 toy-store horror. It gives the Moon a blue fringe about ¼º deep, and is almost impossible to aim. She thought the fringe was pretty. We got Mars in the scope as well. Then we went inside because her toes were frozen. It was so cold that it hurt to touch the scope with bare hands for more than a second, but sometimes you need to in order to get a grip on a screw or the focuser. Managed not to breathe on the eps, though.

After she went home, I went out for another look, but it had clouded over. This is my first night out in 2010.

As I came in, a brass monkey ran up and asked desperately if it could come in and stay the night, but I told it to buzz off. The cheek!

[yeti monster]

Your medal is in the post, well done, especially to your niece, for braving the chilly temps.

[sheri_barri]

An excellent first introduction to the night sky with a good scope! And the cold makes it all the more memorable Well done to you both!

~Sheri

[Jupiter Martin]

Excellent description of your viewing sesion well done and i'm sure your niece will remember it for along time

[haitch]

As I came in, a brass monkey ran up and asked desperately if it could come in and stay the night, but I told it to buzz off. The cheek!

That brass monkey must have nerve