My Equipment

Thought I'd add this while I'm at it and figure out later how to make it easier to find. I'm always trying to remember the specs on my equipment!
1. Orion Skyquest Classic Dob 8" 1200mm f5.9
2. Meade ETX-70 70mm 350mm f5
3. 27mm 25mm 10mm 2x barlow

Washed out

We've been washed out in more ways than one lately. It has been rainy or cloudy almost all of May so far and now the moon is coming on strong. Tonight (and last night) it is passably clear but a first quarter moon is just too bright. Arcturus and Ursa Major are high overhead and quite visible as is Spica in the South but dim stars are invisible. I did manage to snag a satellite traveling fast from S to N in the vicinity of Arcturus about 10:51 but heavens above didn't have it listed. I could see it easily with my 7x50's but not unaided. I may try for Scutum's treasures later tonight after the moon sets... and then again I may not!

Fun with the ETX70

The last few nights have been clear with no moon but the last few Messier objects I'm missing aren't visible yet so I decided to see what the ETX could do with a dark sky. It does better than in Texas but galaxies are still a challenge. I was able to see a couple of globular clusters ok but even M83, the brightest galaxy I tried, was visible as only the slightest smear in my eyepiece. M3 and M92 GCs were fine.
First off, I had to find north and found out that 75 degrees of altitude is the right setting for the north star at my latitude in Rolla. I used a small wooden stool from the shop as a table and after leveling it was off and running.
Limiting magnitude is about 9, even at my Rolla home. I checked this by sketching the field around Alchiba, Alpha Corvus, and comparing to CdC.
The ETX works fine with my pocket sky atlas. I could easily see all of the stars in the atlas and then some. I found out though that there is quite a limit to the ETX's database. It seems that some entirely useless objects are there and other brighter objects are not. For example, guided tour tries to point out several galaxies which would not be visible but NGC5466, a globular cluster, was not. I'll need to find the RA,Dec for the NGC's and other objects I want to look at and have them ready next time. I also need to get the ETX70 working with CdC.
Both nights were dry with about 55% humidity, temp in the 60's, light breeze.

M83 down, four more to go

Finally after weeks of either bright moon or rainy skies, a dark clear night. Hydra was up in an almost perfect spot for viewing M83 at 9:30 tonight so I grabbed my 7x50's and pocket atlas and headed for the deck. On a line between Menkent and Gamma Hydrae, there are two small asterisms: one a group of four mag 4 stars (1,2,3,4 Cen) that look to me like a satellite dish on a pedestal with the dish pointed at M83, the other is an arc of three mag 6 stars with a group of two stars off toward the dish. M83 forms a triangle with these two just to the west. It's big and almost covered half the field of my 10mm ep. I thought the view was a bit better in my 27mm ep though and was able to clearly make out the bar and at least imagined I saw one of the spiral arms.
Leo was chasing Mars tonight and Saturn is the olive in Virgo's martini. It was getting a bit damp from the dew so I quit early at about 10:30.