redshifter
01-June-2008, 12:52 AM
Finally got a clear night out here, and had good stability and transparency as well, so I had to share my observing session! I took my 10" Orion XT dob up to near Easton, WA last night (Easton is about 20 miles east of Snoqualmie Pass and about 70 mi. east of Seattle up I-90) and had a pretty good night of observing. I could make out spiral arms in M51 with averted vision. M51 usually looks like a double smudge in this area of the country, only on very good nights can I see spiral structure in M51, which does not happen very often in this area. Saw lots of galaxies in Virgo that I hadn't seen before, and NGC 4565 looked stunning. It looked very nice in my 17mm Vixen lanthanum superwide eyepiece, I don't think I've ever seen it as extended, or with such a pronounced dust lane. Saturn held up well even at 140X - again, somewhat rare for this area.
Anyways, it was really great to finally get out and do some observing, it's been several months since we've had clear skies and no moon (it did rise at around 2:30, but I was home by then).
It was a bit chilly with temps in the low 40's, though the only issue I had was my 17mm eyepeice kept fogging up since it spent a lot of time in my focuser. I need to figure out a way to be able to warm it up.
Thanks for reading!
Anyways, it was really great to finally get out and do some observing, it's been several months since we've had clear skies and no moon (it did rise at around 2:30, but I was home by then).
It was a bit chilly with temps in the low 40's, though the only issue I had was my 17mm eyepeice kept fogging up since it spent a lot of time in my focuser. I need to figure out a way to be able to warm it up.
Thanks for reading!