Saturday, March 17, 2012

Dark Skies - Mk 1 Eyeball

14 March, 2012. 2230.
At Apollo Bay, Victoria.
Fantastic to see a proper dark sky again. Wasn't able to fit Dobby the scope into the car along with all the luggage, so had to just enjoy the.night sky (on the clear nights) with the Mk1 eyeball - standard issue. The first night we were still surrounded by some street and house lights, but it was still about a 2 on the dark sky index. Spotted Mars, Crux, Orion, a fantastic Milky Way, the large Magellanic Cloud, a few meteors (just short streaks), and a sky full of stars I hadn't seen in a long time. The next night we stopped out of town on a rise beside the road and enjoyed an even darker sky. Fortunately the Moon was not up at this time. Additionally spotted the small Magellanic Cloud, the Pleiades, and was generally overwhelmed by the majesty of it all. Soon to be added to the equipment list, a set of binoculars.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Quick look

Thursday, 1 March , 2012. 2345.
Took advantage of a decent breeze blowing away the day's cloud cover and revealing a beautiful moonless night. Looking at Orion, about a 4 again on the dark skies chart.
Wasn't planning a long session, so straight to showing EllBee Saturn. Beautiful! (The planet is too!)
Orion now had dipped below the big tree, so we missed the nebula tonight.
Back to Carina to find the nebula there - now identified as (NGC 3372).
Checked out the double star that is Alpha and Proxima Centauri in the Southern Cross. (Crux)
Found I can jam the smartphone in its case between the finder scope and the eyepiece mount, and it stays there! Fired up SkyEye on the phone and calibrated on Hadar, Sirius, and A Crux. Practised searching around for a few clusters, but they may have been a bit too faint for the conditions.
Another good night. Off to bed.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6