McNaught & ISS

[yeti monster]

Last night I set up the 10" SNT in shadowed area away from the house, where I have an unrestricted northerly aspect. After finding Capella, I set the Telrad to the area I seemed to remember HA showed McNaught to be. About 3 degrees up and to the left of Capella I found the wee green fuzzy blob using the 40mm Omni.

A bright core was clearly apparent within the fuzz, which had a rather spectral effect with a pale green glow. Little or no tail was evident, which I assume is due to the position of the comet in relation to the Sun.

Due to the sky remaining light to the North, magnifying McNaught using anything smaller than the 7mm UWAn proved a waste of time.

Taking a bit of a fuzzy tour around Cygnus, Hercules and Lyra, I stumbled upon a nice bright satellite, which I was able to follow across the sky from east to west, at one point there was another, fainter, satellite heading the other way, I allowed them to cross paths in the middle of the FOV, before contiuing to follow the original.

Whilst out, I had been keeping an eye out for ISS, which came over high and bright at 00:38 ish, I was able to track ISS with the Dob, keeping it with in the 40mms FOV, apart from a short period where I wanted to see the whole vista, but was easily able to pick it up again and continue following its path across the sky until it fell behind the clouds sitting above my eastern horizon.

Back to McNaught for a little longer, M13 and the smoke ring, those open clusters that seem to litter Cygnus. Pretty much just cruising, with no other specified targets other than Jupiter and Uranus later on.

ISS made another pass around 02:10 ish, which didn't appear as bright at the previous pass, although I watched this pass fully unaided.

Shortly there after I caught jupiter clearing the low, eastern clouds. An excellent view, despite the deep atmosphere I was aiming through. The 4 moons were very bright, and the planet was like looking at a full moon! I could clearly make out the Northern band (appearing in the lower portion in the EP, which make it look a bit "pac-man").

After a couple of attempts at Uranus, I decided that I was chilly and tired, so packed everything away. I am now planning a Dob-cart, as it's a fair lump to have to carry around to various areas of the farm.

In excellent nights observing, very rewarding in many ways, and yet more shake down for the Dob.

[callisto]

Nice report there, Enjoyed it

Mark.

[Steve C]

Really nice report, good to read, personally I havent even had the scopes out since early April, getting up for work at 3am can have its disadvantages, like having to go to bed at 9pm the previous night