2006-01-12

Finally! Some observing!

Finally, after been stuck in the observing doldrums for ages, I managed to get out and do some observing last night. That's a whole month since my last observing session.

The main focus of the session was Saturn — this was my first view if it in the 'scope since May of last year. I know everyone says this but you just can't get fed up of observing it. Over the course of an hour or so I had some terrible and some not-so-terrible views of it. I also spent a fair bit of time trying out various filters to see what effect they'd have.

The other highlight was viewing Saturn and M44 in the same field of view with my binocular. After having spent some time viewing Saturn in the 'scope this view somehow made Saturn appear very small and insignificant.

I've not had time to type up the log of that session yet — I'll probably get the chance in the next day or so.

Things don't look so good for tonight. Although it was clear enough for me to see the Moon when I stuck my head outside earlier there was a fair bit of mist about. Chances are it's only going to get worse by the time I'm free to do any observing.

File Under: Saturn, M44, Beehive Cluster, Praesepe.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was cloudy here earlier so I didn't set up, now it is clear. Moon is washing everything out.

Dave Pearson said...

Is this the bit where I say something really unhelpful like "the Moon isn't washing everything out, the Moon's a good target too"? ;)