Gracious host, and sharer of the finest astro-toys, Mike Wirths,
invited us out to his observatory last night. Only Terrence
Dickinson and I were lucky enough to take up Mike on his offer.
Mike and I had fun reminding Terrence that he's been aperture
deprived for so long. Terrence is fine company and an interesting
person. The fame and glory of owning a magazine has not ruined him
for the company of mere guys like Mike and me.
We yakked a hell of a lot. We spent a lot of time discussing
binoviewers, intensifier eyepieces, Terrence's 18" still on
order, how many telescopes Terrence has had (33 total, 8 now),
why you _need_ four refractors, what Markus Ludes is like in person,
the joys and anquish of being a magazine publisher, the esthetics
of just plain looking through the eyepiece, why a N31 isnt
necessarily better than a Panoptic 35, the expletive scale of
seeing, tube currents vs seeing, the Wirths test, how dark
the sky is, Terrence's frozen-shut observatory roof, Sky&Tel vs
Astronomy magazine, why Ontario has better seeing than it gets
credit for, the irony that some people who don't like astronomy
can seen 1.5 magnitudes deeper than us, wives and girlfriends, the
problems with contractors, accomodations at TSP, the horrors
of camping, TMB vs Astro-physics, why Roland Christen
is a cool guy, the importance of a warm-room, dislike of ladders,
why Discovery Channel guys are so much cooler than CTV guys,
why TLC sucks, the joys of owning horses, why its good for Terrence
for lots of people to buy ETXs, how to deal with annoying email,
mirror cooling, secret places with excellent seeing (a certain
back-yard in san-diego), why NGC891 is pretty but hard to see,
why one telescope isnt enough, good starparties to go to,
and the joy of observing.
Oh yeah, we also looked at at stuff.
Seeing was only so so. But we spend a fair time looking at jupiter --
mostly because it seemed like it would be one of our last chances.
The only unusual detail was a dark thickening, sort of like a huge
barge, at the edge of the north tropical band and north equatorial zone.
Saturn was just plain pretty. There seemed to be more than the usual
number of satellites visble. However, I really think Saturn does not
have three Titans. So those two bright things to the south of
Saturn were probably field stars. I havent checked yet.
M51 showed spiral structure even in the lightdome of Perth. I could
find IC434 but not B33. (Lately i've been trying to see the
horsehead (b33) without a filter.) Hubbles variable nebula in the
binoviewer was really pretty. The IC open cluster near M35 made a neat
contrast. The pup, raspberry and sombrero were all too low to see. But
(Dont we have cool jargon in this hobby?) But M3 and M42 were welcome and
familliar treats. M94, M95 and that nearby NGC thingy
made a very pretty trio that just fit in Mike's 22 nagler in
his 18". NGC4546 was just plain cool.
Fairly soon, the air cooled to dewpoint and the eyepices began fogging.
M104 is "interesting" to find with a fogged eyepice.
Then Terrence and I wimped out. It was quite early (21:45). Bloody day-jobs.
They intrude on our true and honorable calling of observing and shooting
the sh*t with friends.
To good company under clear skies,
-ad
