Light No. 11....on the balcony...

[Debostar]

Well, after a week or so of cloudy skies, strong dusty winds and other desert weather last night was calm and clear....Temp was around 20-22C...

Armed with my new toys, a new Omni 32 mm and a barlow 2x and a LP filter, I had a look at the moon and it was just a crescent...I saw millions of craters, and land features on the dark eerie moon...I think the moon is a mysterious place and it is beautiful when it is just a small crescent. Had a go with my neximage webcam but I wasn't so happy with the results, but I do need practice with the registaxx program.

Jupiter was the best i have ever seen using my 9mm, the barlow and the Lp filter. The bands were clear, but I couldn't discern the red spot. The planet was quite low and I was seeing through the soup.

Next it was the Pleaides and Orion...Last before sleeping was Praesepe...While watching Orion i saw a steady star crossing accross Orion at a steady velocity, i deduce that it may be a satellite, please elaborate....

Rose at 4:30 to see Saturn, and had it in my scope soon after. Again I could make out faint banding on the planetary lower surface...I observed Saturn till 7:30 till it faded in the daylight...

I used Neximage camera to record short videos of both planets, but I am not really pleased with the results...I am sure I need to work on my registaxx program a bit more...Or maybe, I just need a bigger aperture....But everything is so much better visually rather than using the webcam...Maybe I should just get the t-adapters and use my DSLR instead..Or maybe, I should not bother with astro photos for now....

Anyway I am giving it a rest for a week or so, I am off to Bangkok to visit my wife...Our baby is going to be a boy and its almost half way there....My wife is unware of my interest in astronomy, I plan to inform her during my visit.

[xyz]

"Rose at 04:30 .." I wish I could do that !. But nice observing report from you. I keep checking Saturn's position to catch it at night, but so far it is only just appearing above the horizon at reasonable times. I either have to demolish the neighbour's house or wait a month - I guess I'll wait. Good luck with the new baby - after he is born you will either be too tired to observe in the night, or awake at strange times and able to sneak a quick peak at the sky.