Telescope Time
Jan. 24th, 2003 12:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
major_clangerWe've had so much cloud, for so long, I was beginning to forget what a star looked like. Tonight though, as we got out of the car after picking ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bugshaw up from a Female Fans Red Wine Evening in Cambridge, I looked up to see a clear, dark sky. Bed was tempting - I was tired, and have a bit of a cold - but my telescope has been sitting in the cupboard for months waiting for a clear night, and it would be daft to pass up an opportunity like this, or why did I buy the thing.
On with a bit more warm clothing, and time to find all the bits and set the scope up. It's a very nice little beast; a Meade ETX-125 5" Maksutov reflector with autoguidance and a nice set of accessories.. I got it last spring off Ebay at about half list price, from a chap who had used it only twice before getting bored. For serious observing I've found a spot in a secluded wood a couple of miles away, but I don't quite feel like another drive tonight, so I bolt the scope to is tripod, remove the optics covers and carry it out into the garden. After a couple of false starts I realise I've forgotten the alignment procedure for the autoguider, but seeing as my first target tonight is Jupiter, blazingly bright to the right of Leo, I decide that manual pointing will suffice for now. Line it up in the finder, look through the eyepiece... there it hangs in space, a tiny striped ball, four brilliant star-like moons in a perfect straight line around it.
The 'seeing' - the typical turbulence of the atmosphere - is excellent (i.e. minimal) and I move straight to my higher-power eyepiece, an extremely nice Tele Vue Radian 14mm, giving 135x magnification with this scope. The detail is excellent: the north and south temperate belts are clear and dark, with the south belt clearly showing visible structure, like knots in wood grain. No sign of the Great Red Spot, but it's not as prominent as many people think, and anyway may well be on the other side of the planet at the moment.
On to Saturn. Again, the view is superb. Saturn is at its best at the moment, high in the winter sky and at a phase of its orbit where the rings are about as wide open as they ever get. They are clearly delineated against the light tan body of the planet, with the Cassini Division visible as a fine black line just inside the rim. The planet itself shows a broad belt, not as dark as those of Jupiter but quite distinct. What looks like a star hangs off to one side; Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
Slowly, Saturn dims and fades from view. I look up to see clouds rolling in. Well, as I said it's late and I'm tired, so I pack up and head for bed (via LiveJournal). But tonight's little taste has whetted my appetite for more - next time the clouds deign to part for a little.
MC
bugshaw up from a Female Fans Red Wine Evening in Cambridge, I looked up to see a clear, dark sky. Bed was tempting - I was tired, and have a bit of a cold - but my telescope has been sitting in the cupboard for months waiting for a clear night, and it would be daft to pass up an opportunity like this, or why did I buy the thing.On with a bit more warm clothing, and time to find all the bits and set the scope up. It's a very nice little beast; a Meade ETX-125 5" Maksutov reflector with autoguidance and a nice set of accessories.. I got it last spring off Ebay at about half list price, from a chap who had used it only twice before getting bored. For serious observing I've found a spot in a secluded wood a couple of miles away, but I don't quite feel like another drive tonight, so I bolt the scope to is tripod, remove the optics covers and carry it out into the garden. After a couple of false starts I realise I've forgotten the alignment procedure for the autoguider, but seeing as my first target tonight is Jupiter, blazingly bright to the right of Leo, I decide that manual pointing will suffice for now. Line it up in the finder, look through the eyepiece... there it hangs in space, a tiny striped ball, four brilliant star-like moons in a perfect straight line around it.
The 'seeing' - the typical turbulence of the atmosphere - is excellent (i.e. minimal) and I move straight to my higher-power eyepiece, an extremely nice Tele Vue Radian 14mm, giving 135x magnification with this scope. The detail is excellent: the north and south temperate belts are clear and dark, with the south belt clearly showing visible structure, like knots in wood grain. No sign of the Great Red Spot, but it's not as prominent as many people think, and anyway may well be on the other side of the planet at the moment.
On to Saturn. Again, the view is superb. Saturn is at its best at the moment, high in the winter sky and at a phase of its orbit where the rings are about as wide open as they ever get. They are clearly delineated against the light tan body of the planet, with the Cassini Division visible as a fine black line just inside the rim. The planet itself shows a broad belt, not as dark as those of Jupiter but quite distinct. What looks like a star hangs off to one side; Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
Slowly, Saturn dims and fades from view. I look up to see clouds rolling in. Well, as I said it's late and I'm tired, so I pack up and head for bed (via LiveJournal). But tonight's little taste has whetted my appetite for more - next time the clouds deign to part for a little.
MC
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