A Look at Cassiopeia

It was clear, not too windy, and not too cool tonight (64°F) so I thought I'd set up the ETX-70 in the backyard observatory. I picked weeds and swept the dirt off the bricks, set up my rickety pedestal, leveled it, set up the furniture, and set down to business. I decided to try for the double Eta Cas which was featured in Oct S&T. Cassiopeia is in a nice position for my backyard right now. I thought for awhile that my neighbor's new satellite dish was going to block Polaris and ruin my ability to find north but Polaris was well above the obstacle. I got lined up ok and used Shedir as my alignment star. A little hunting around and checking star fields convinced me I had the right bright light in my eyepiece so I centered up on Eta Cas. Next I put in my 10mm ep and recentered. Still just one star, so I added the 2x barlow. It takes quite a bit of turning of the focus knob to bring things into focus. I need to get a focus extender or electric focuser! I got it all working together which gives me about 70x ((350/10)*2) and thought I had Eta split into a red and blue pair but decided later that it was just an artifact of my eyeball's fancy multifocal lenses. Any bright star looked like a double! I may have to resign myself to not being able to observe doubles very well, other than really wide pairs, at least with the ETX. Things are a bit better with my dob. While I had 70x installed, I decided to slew over to Jupiter and almost gave up trying to find it. I discovered that I can insert my 25mm ep, get the fuzzy blob image of Jupiter centered, then put the 70x assembly back in the tube and voila! A nice big, clear Jupiter! Both storm bands were crystal clear and all four moons (3 on left, one on right) were plainly visible. I played around a bit more with Cassiopeia awhile before it got too cool and I went in about 8:15. All in all, a nice night without too much frustration.

Finally Jupiter

Jupiter has been calling my name, begging to be observed, for the past several nights. Tonight was cool and clear with NO WIND (amazing), so I decided to dust off my ETX-70 and setup in the front of the house, street lights and all. At least I had plenty of light to get things level and check out everything. When I finally turned on the power, the comedy of errors began. I had made a mental note to myself to be sure and change the Site setting from Rolla to GGG. Of course I forgot. I also forgot to snug up all the leveling bolts on my pedestal contraption, soooo... after guessing which way was north, I aligned on my favorite fall star: Capella. The scope was clearly way off, mainly too low. Did I say that I also set the time wrong? After noticing that the base was wobbling, I snugged up the rest of the bolts and made sure things were level. A couple more tries and I finally remembered to set the time and Site correctly. Finally got Capella with a minimum of searching. Aligned more or less, I next slewed to Jupiter, burning bright above the garage. A bit more searching and I had it in the crosshairs too. I spent probably the better part of the next hour admiring the view through various filters, my 10mm and 2x barlow. All four moons were clearly visible in the 10mm, kind of hard to make out with the 26mm. I was able to see two storm bands pretty clearly.
Next I tried for Uranus. No luck, it was behind a palm tree. On to Neptune. I thought I had it but the star field wasn't quite right. I tried lining up on Delta Cap but never was able to snag Neptune for certain. It may also be a bit dim at almost mag 8. Uranus should be ok if it comes out from behind the palm tree (or I move the scope). All in all it wasn't too bad for a first night out. Oh, and I also banged away and cursed the speed button before I realized it wasn't the Enter key! How soon we forget.
Now I'm trying to decide if it is worth hauling this thing down to the park when and if I ever get to do an astronomy outreach program there. We'll see.

Back in The Valley

We've been back in El Valle for a couple of weeks now and I have yet to haul out the little scope. I have been enjoying the near horizon views in the west at sundown and managed to snag Mercury several times, shining through the murk below Venus. Jupiter is nice in the east just after sundown. Need to keep better track of the ISS. Here is a photo I took at Sandcastle Days on South Padre Island right after we got here in October. We're headed back tomorrow for the SPIKE monthly kite fly.