Astronomy Journals
  • Journal
  • Photos
  • About
  • Journal
  • Photos
  • About

September 8, 2020

9/8/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Another morning with the Moon (and Mars).

To say I was tired after my last morning out is an understatement. There's nothing like 16 straight hours of work and childcare after a three hour night's sleep. Yet when the forecast called for better-than-average seeing and transparency on another clear morning, I had to go out again. After all, it'll be a while before Mars looks this good. This time, however, I took my Takahashi FC-100 DC and my lightest tripod; I was still a little sore from hauling the APM. 
Picture
Doesn't it look like the telescope is falling over in this shot?

Conditions were just about the same this morning as they had been on the sixth, and that provided a nice opportunity to test how close the view through a good 4-inch refractor can get to that of a 5.5-inch (the APM). In a word (okay two words): pretty close! The Moon dazzled with detail, although I definitely saw finer features - especially those rilles - with the APM. Mars was wonderfully clear, with dark albedo features obvious but maybe a bit less dark than they had been through the APM, and the south polar ice cap much dimmer. Orion and the Trapezium were wonderful, but I could only clearly see four stars in the Trapezium - with a hint of the fifth, "F" star. You could drive a truck between Rigel A and B, but maybe a slightly smaller truck than you could with the APM. The Takahashi is just a fantastic telescope. 
Picture
Another attempt to remember the view.

I set out to observe Mars, and indeed I observed the planet for a good long time. Two years ago, during the last opposition, I dreamed of exactly the views I've had this year. Once again, I tried sketching the view on my phone, but it's become clear that I've reached the limit of what's possible with that technique. Next time, I'll bring sketchpad - but still, it's nice to know what I've seen.
Picture
You could lose yourself in the lunar landscape.

I found that the steady atmosphere easily permitted a magnification of around 250x, which is rare in these parts - and better than I enjoyed on the sixth. Although I spent a lot of time on Mars, I found I kept returning to the Moon. There's nothing like the gloriously detailed lunar views a fine refractor can reveal in good seeing. Features visible around the terminator were especially interesting tonight, with plenty of tiny craters glinting at local sunset, and some really interesting, rectilinear scarps (or so I decided; I'll have to look this up later).

So, another great morning - but it'll take me a few days to recover this time. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    December 2018
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All
    APM 140
    AR 102
    Binary Stars
    Binoculars
    C6
    C8
    C90
    Canon 12x36 IS Binoculars
    Comet
    Edge HD 800
    Emission Nebula
    EVScope
    EVScope 2
    FC 100DC
    FC 100DZ
    First Light
    FS 60Q
    Galaxies
    Globular Clusters
    Jupiter
    Mars
    Meteors
    Mewlon 180
    Moon
    Omni XLT
    Open Clusters
    Planetary Nebula
    Ranking
    Saturn
    Skywatcher 100ED
    Spacecraft
    Stars
    TEC 140
    Travel
    TV 85
    Uranus
    Venus
    Vixen ED115S
    Zenithstar 81

    Picture

    RSS Feed