Tonight we had a bit of a star party at my place...not all could make it, but those who did got a treat. It was windy all day-40 mph sort of windy, and when darkness fell, stars weren't twinkling so much as dancing around the sky. But as often happens, an hour later, it was one of the best nights of seeing I can remember in ages.
No cameras tonight; this was a night for eyepieces and viewing. After all the non-scope fanatics got to see the usual views of Saturn (who, as usual, did not disappoint) the seeing improved enough that objects like M65 and M66 were not only there easily in my 8" Newt, but in Mark's 80mm refractor. For a short while, even NGC3628 was visible in the Newt. We we did the quick tour of globulars as well, and M4 was especially brilliant; many bright stars with that lovely glowing ball behind them.
Sometimes I just forget to look at plain old stars-not binaries, not the odd stuff, just stars. And as a result, I had forgotten how incredibly striking Antares is. As the home star of the cat that lives with Mark, it was especially poignant for us.
I have been so utterly focused on photography the last few months that I have neglected the eyepiece. But much of the last two weeks has been spent fine-tuning my scope itself, not just the mount-all the hardware used to collimate (align) the mirrors was redone, with larger screws with finer threads for adjustment, and the reward was tonight; much of what I could pick out has never been seen from this site with this scope before.
Hope you're feeling well soon, Scott.
Thanks! Still bummed I missed it.
ReplyDelete