Sess#296 8:15-11:15 b.y. lm=5.0 s=ranged 7-9! Clear Cool
Janice and I had an observing session in the b.y., for her to try out
the new tripod she purchased for the Short Tube Scope while I took in
a few veiws with the SCT8". It's nice to be working in tandem with
both scopes. As a bonus, the wind calmed down after 9pm.
Moon - was fantastic. People looking through scopes at various public
star parties held by Ottawa region groups must have had great views.
Since the scope got a finer collimation on the previous night, I could
see all kinds of great detail. There was even the "String of Pearls"
effect near the tip of the Moon's crescent. Janice could make out
quite a few lunar details in her small scope.
In Short Tube ( f/5 80mm ) scope:
Jupiter - showed 4 moons & 2 stripes, and a bit of the polar caps.
Saturn - was really low ( ALT 5 degrees? ), so showed the rings but
not Cassinni div or moons on this occasion.
Epsilon Lyr - the double double was split in the small scope after
using ridiculous magnification. Two Barlows plus a 7.4mm ep for a
magnification of 213X ( way beyond this 80mm refractor, but the stars
split cleanly into pairs of small points with darkness in between.
Closest was 2.3".
Castor - split cleanly and easily.
Gamma Leo - also split cleanly.
M3 - looked like a tiny fuzzy ball with very few of the stars
resolved on the outer periphery. Very different than an 8" view on
this one.
Quiet relaxing session.
