Not having the energy for a trip to the Planetarium, Gail and I invited Kerry over to check out our observatory. Kerry is just a short drive from us and arrived at dusk.
Since we haven?t had many observing opportunities, lately, I?d pulled out all the toys and, while we waited for stars to emerge, we started the evening with a look at the 5 day Moon with the binocular box . At an altitude of ~60°, the Moon was well up in the sky and Kerry was impressed with how comfortable the mirror design of the binocular box was to use on objects approaching the zenith.
While Venus was favourably positioned I put a green filter on a Pentax 21mm ep and after looking at the planet ?boil? in the atmosphere for a minute, we pushed our 6? reflector up to the Moon. Seeing was quite steady and the green filter was a nice change to the mundane gray of a regular ?Moon filter?. We upped the power, and spent a moment examining a low dark ridge bordering the terminator on the edge of Mare Nectaris.
The stars were out by then so I removed the filter and let Kerry practice aiming the dob using the bulls-eye sight of the Rigel Quikfinder. In Quikfinder succession we looked at Mintaka and Alnitak in Orion?s Belt, and multiple system Sigma Orionis just below it.
After the obligatory stop at M42 we went in search of some clusters.
The Pleiades were an obvious choice and provided a chance to compare views between our 6? f8 scope and the Starblast which is a 4.5? f4. The smaller, faster ratio scope enabled us to get the entire star field in view, and I showed Kerry how to see the warhorse asterism in M45. We then compared views of M44, the Beehive Cluster, and decided that small scopes with wide field of views are ideal for these kind of targets.
While hunting open clusters, we bagged M35 and its small companion NGC 2158, M67, and the popular NGC 457 or ET cluster. By then, Saturn had cleared the walnut tree and we had nice views of its attractions including 3 of the larger moons.
Disregarding the moonglow, we decided to hunt some galaxies and managed to pull in NGC 2903, M81 & 82, M108, and planetary nebula M97. Not bad!
We finished the night as we had begun, with the binocular box. A last, low-power, look at the Beehive Cluster then a final challenge of picking up M81 & 82. With the aid of my laser pointer Kerry brought them into view and added the laser pen to her must have list.
It was the best kind of informal astronomy night of which, I?m sure, there?ll be many more.