The moon is getting bigger so tonight I decided to set up in the front where the view of the moon and jupiter is best and the light polution greatest in hopes of snagging a 'walk-by' or two. There weren't many walkers out and the ones that were seemed to be more interested in their dog's business so I was left to my own devices. I aligned on Vega and Altair which were both bright in the west and had no problem. I was set up on my Workmate which gives a good solid base but is a bit too high and not perfectly level. No matter, it worked just fine. I used the car to block some of the light from a nextdoor street light and that worked good too. The moon was nice with my 10mm with or without a 2x barlow. I used a green filter to cut some of the light. The trio of Theophilus, Catherina, and Cyrillus were most apparent. It took a bit of getting used to the LR shift between my ETX and my guidebook but it worked out ok. I was also able to make out Posidonius. Several much smaller craters were also visible but I did not attempt to identify them tonight. I also checked out Jupiter and was able to see all four moons with my 10mm ep at 35x. There were no other stars nearby in the FOV.
All in all I called the night a success and quit as the moon was slipping behind a palm tree across the street.
Last night we were driving back from Zapata through McCook and stopped just north of McCook. We were able to see the milky way and make out most of Perseus but the entire southern sky was washed out due to skyglow from McAllen and Mission lights.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment