Monday was a great night here. I took the temp around 2230 and it was down to 67. Seeing was probably 8/10. I played around with the LPI for the first hour or so. Still no luck being able to capture a deep sky object, my pointing is right on but I just don't get the settings right I guess, imagine is all new to me.
Conditions were good enough I decided to take on the central star in M57. Seeing was good and I was able to go up to about 400x and not lose much quality in the image. Sky conditions where good enough that instead of the 'ring' you easily see at low power, I could very clearly see the tendrils that extend out on each side, which make me wonder why it's not called 'the oblong nebula' since a ring
shaped like that would be really hard to wear. I observed the object for about 30 minutes and with averted vision there it was. The sky was very steady, but even then it faded in and out but there were times that I know i was seeing it and not imagining it. Pretty cool. Dark skies, you have to love them.
Then I decided to move over to M51. Oh my, there it is, nice night, look at those spiral arms. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? 8O I'm blinded! Did a bolide just flash across my FOV? I see spots in my right eye but look up to see what I'm sure will be the entry trail of a massive bolide... nothing. Figures! I miss the best meteor of the night. Oh
well, back to observing. THERE IT IS AGAIN! What gives? So I look on the corrector plate and low and behold Mr Firefly has decided to flashbulb me while he rest there. Not very nice of him but pretty amusing.
One thing I have got to start doing is keep a log. I just never have. I know if i could go back and count all the hours I've got watching Jupiter it would be in the thousands. Plenty of nights I'd spend the entire evening just watching that great striped monster. I know, shame on me. 10+ years of no log keeping. Where I used to live in Florida though any paper would usually turn to mush from the high humidity.
Tonights clear sky clock looks decent, hopefully it'll be another good night with fewer fireflies.
Matthew
http://www.deerrunobservatory.com/
Conditions were good enough I decided to take on the central star in M57. Seeing was good and I was able to go up to about 400x and not lose much quality in the image. Sky conditions where good enough that instead of the 'ring' you easily see at low power, I could very clearly see the tendrils that extend out on each side, which make me wonder why it's not called 'the oblong nebula' since a ring
shaped like that would be really hard to wear. I observed the object for about 30 minutes and with averted vision there it was. The sky was very steady, but even then it faded in and out but there were times that I know i was seeing it and not imagining it. Pretty cool. Dark skies, you have to love them.
Then I decided to move over to M51. Oh my, there it is, nice night, look at those spiral arms. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? 8O I'm blinded! Did a bolide just flash across my FOV? I see spots in my right eye but look up to see what I'm sure will be the entry trail of a massive bolide... nothing. Figures! I miss the best meteor of the night. Oh
well, back to observing. THERE IT IS AGAIN! What gives? So I look on the corrector plate and low and behold Mr Firefly has decided to flashbulb me while he rest there. Not very nice of him but pretty amusing.
One thing I have got to start doing is keep a log. I just never have. I know if i could go back and count all the hours I've got watching Jupiter it would be in the thousands. Plenty of nights I'd spend the entire evening just watching that great striped monster. I know, shame on me. 10+ years of no log keeping. Where I used to live in Florida though any paper would usually turn to mush from the high humidity.
Tonights clear sky clock looks decent, hopefully it'll be another good night with fewer fireflies.
Matthew
http://www.deerrunobservatory.com/
Matthew
http://www.darkgeorgiaskies.com/
