[AZ-Observing] Cool!
- From: "Mike Spooner" <spoon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 13:05:53 -0700
Yes it is getting colder in Page.
I took a break from optics work and all to do a little observing tonight. I
set up the 18" today and dumped water off the primary mirror where it had
been soaking for the past couple of weeks (the cover was torn and leaking).
I washed the primary and then used glass cleaner to finish wiping it clean.
Looked pretty good when I was done so I'm pretty impressed with the Spectrum
coating on my mirror.
It's 45 deg and a slight breeze is blowing and it feels cold! I used to
observe at -25 deg F when I lived in Maine - youth and hot blood I guess,
seems I've lost both. :(
M31 - WOW! I've looked at it so many times with so many scopes that I guess
I didn't expect to be treated special tonight. Don't know if it's the clean
mirror, the new vitamin regimen or what but I've never seen the details I
did tonight and I'm still in town in my back yard. The dust lanes were
cupped along their edges but I've seen that before. What I haven't noticed
were the clumps surrounding the glow of the core out toward NGC206. I also
have seen the small dark patches on the opposite side of the core and they
were there tonight. Zambuto wrote about seeing these in one of his high
contrast scopes and they are pretty cool. I was using an old 13mm Nagler at
about 180x and this eyepiece delivers contrast that amazes me. I tried
several others but this was the combo for M31 tonight. I'm more amazed as
the seeing isn't what I consider very stable and I can see the glow of the
airport light as it rotates by.
I went on to the double cluster and it was delightful as usual. I like using
low power to get both sides in the FOV but using the 13mm revealed many
faint stars in the brighter member that are missed at low magnifications.
Looked at the Pleiades and the Merope nebulosity. Also noticed a brighter
star SE of the major members and when I looked I could pick it up naked eye
about 20% of the time. Probably old hat for many folks but new for me.
Finally zoomed into M33 - this is the first time I've been certain I saw it
naked eye (I put the Telrad right on it). I've tried many times from
supposedly much better sites; I don't know why it happened tonight. Lots of
detail and several of the HII regions were evident. Lots of fun just
cruising the big bright stuff but a little too cool for me to go for faint
fuzzies. I'll go out later and get an eyeful of M42.
Just so I'd feel productive, I did star test an 8" f/7 mirror. It wasn't as
much fun. <g>
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