--- In OAFs@y..., r.prevost@h... wrote:
Sess.#291 8:15-11:30 lm=5.3(at best) s=7/10 Very Hazy!
... [snip] ...
Polaris - nice double to split. One bright and one much fainter star.
It can be a challenge sometimes to get your scope to point to polaris,
depending on your polar alignment accurary. Still, one of my
favourite doubles.
I had been wondering about looking at Polaris, and you probably heard me
muttering to myself as I tried to get Polaris into the FOV. I'm pretty sure
I was polar-aligned properly, but I think there's more to it than that. Let
me explain, and please tell me if I'm off-base.
I could just see a bit of the off-focus diffraction disk of Polaris when I
looked in the scope with the 10mm EP installed. Now, Polaris is roughly
3/4 from the pole, and according to your Eyepiece Calculator, my 10mm EP
has a FOV of about 1/4. So that means I cannot see Polaris in the EP if I
aim at the pole - I have to do a proper job of setting the RA. I didn't
know the RA of Polaris last night, and arbitrarily flopped the scope over on
the east side of north, which turned out to be opposite to the true RA of
Polaris. It seems to me that I was lucky to see anything at all of Polaris.
Does this make sense? Did I just describe the typical newbie experience
trying to aim at Polaris for the first time?
... [snip] ...
If you can find targets on a night like this, then you'll find it easy to
do
in a clear night where the target actually shows up in your viewfinder.
Ah, that explains it. Last night felt to me like the typical murk at
Armstrong Rd.! Well, maybe a bit worse. That's why I found it so easy at
Mike's - I already had a bit of that experience. No wonder you sounded so
surprised when I found M3, M13 and M92 so quickly.
What I actually enjoyed most was the company...
Ditto. Your enthusiasm is infectious.
Bruce McGlashan
