Last nights soggy effort

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

As the SC3 wasn't getting on at all well I was a bit less than gruntled, but as the sky was clearing I got the HEQ5 out and sat the Mak. on it for a change. Waiting for it to cool I added the O3 filter to the diagonal to see if I could see through it at all (Ha filter just turns it all black). It made the stars a lot dimmer, but M27 and m57 were still there, I imagine that it would work a treat from somewhere dark.

I decided to have a go with the tour of the sky option with the synscan and I found out a lot of stuff. Several Messier objects are kept in my van, one is in the neighbour's kitchen, three in her tree and one in the kid's wendy house. I saw some Messier cluster looking things for the first time and was duly impressed, especially with the double cluster. While I was watching that and waving the 'scope up, down, left and right to see how big it was, the focus went off a bit, then a lot. Twiddling the focuser didn't work so I looked up expecting clouds. No clouds, so whats gone wrong? Bust the mak. as well? Told the GOTO to find VEGA to get the focus sorted and the thing tipped water on me! The front glass was totally soggy and the tube was dripping.

As I was wondering what to do I noticed that the streetlights were getting hazy and fog was arriving, so I stuck it all in the van and went in for a pint or three.

First cameraless night in a long time, great fun.

Captain Chaos

[Albireo380]

Sometimes it's good just to look through the 'scope, CC.

But I'd be careful about looking at the Messier object in the neighbour's kitchen - you could get yourself a reputation.

Tom

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Some of the messier things in our kitchen would also raise an eyebrow.

Captain Chaos