It was a cold and breezy evening as I started to setup my 8? Mak and I began to become concerned as to the comfort level of the evening?s observing ahead. Being an eternal optimist, I set up on the lawn and not on the patio. This gives me the same eastern view but I can follow objects past transit without the house getting in the way. It also requires setting up tarps to block the neighbourhood street and house lights. If the wind continued to gust, I might have to scrub the session.
All the positive thinking paid off and it became quite calm around 10:30. I set up the tarps and started observing Saturn. It had passed transit and I was glad the scope was on the lawn. The seeing was poor; I had trouble seeing the Cassini division all the way around, even with the Ultra Wide 8.8mm. I thought I had found 6 moons tonight, but the interloper on the eastern edge of the eyepiece turned out to be an 11th magnitude field star.
By 11:30, I could make out Jupiter rising above the neighbours? homes and by midnight I moved the scope for a look. At first I had a look with my 52mm Erfle. This gives a nice 1 degree field of view with the Mak and I could see Jupiter?s 4 brightest moons, 2 above and 2 below. I found the view in the 8.8mm was too bright, so I got out a neutral density filter and could see some nice detail in the bands and Io was easier to see as it was approaching Jupiter. I had intended to catch Io disappear, but needed to get warm at the wrong time.
By this time, I could see Vega high in the east and decided to have a look at M57; the Ring Nebula. The 52mm Erfle showed a very distinctive ring amongst a field of stars and the 8.8 mm gave a larger but washed out view. Why? When I glanced over my shoulder, I could see the gibbous moon rising in the southeast.
I next turned my attention to the Hercules Cluster. The moon?s influence was far less while looking at M13. The core of this globular was bright and individual stars could easily be seen. I never tire of looking at it
As the moon continued to rise in the south, the advantages of the tarps became increasingly diminished. You really didn?t need a flashlight at this point and I knew the session would end soon, so I went comet hunting. I had spotted Comet Pojmanski the other morning with my 7×35 binoculars and was hoping for a treat to end the night. Unfortunately, Cygnus was still low on the horizon and sweeping the sky with both the 70mm finder as well as the 52mm Erfle came up empty.
By now, it was 3:30; I was tired, cold and wishing I didn?t have to pack it all up. Still, practice has taught me to be efficient and I had the site packed up and put away by 4. Even our cat, who generally loves to lurk near my feet when I come in the door, scurries at the sight of me carrying the tube through the door!
It was cold, the seeing was less than perfect, but it had been nice to get out with more than just binoculars for a change.
