Lousy viewing, but good Lessons Learned Tonight

Well, the DSC said lousy Seeing and poor Transparency. The only thing
they missed was the scattered clouds.

But, I hadn't had the telescope out for a good viewing session for
over 2 weeks and, even though I'm headed for the desert with the Boy
Scouts this weekend, I needed a fix.

So, I headed out to set up the telescope about 1830 and was ready to
begin Polar Aligning by 1850 when....dad called. Well, telling dad
(who doesn't call very often), "Hey, I'd love to talk but I really
need to Polar Align before Polaris disappears into a cloud bank"
sounded kind of rude. By the time I was done talking, Polaris was
gone for the night (I still had hopes of Polar Aligning but they
turned out to be wishful thinking).

So, I fired up the Telrad and found Venus manually (didn't even turn
the power on the telescope). Surprise surprise, I put Venus right in
the center ring and it was well within the view in my 32mm eyepiece
(about 35" real FOV). I could make out the phase, barely, through the
haze and really bad seeing. The moon was shining through the thin
clouds so I switched to it, turned on the power, told the scope
"thanks, but I don't want to align", and turned off all tracking. I
used the finder scope to put the crosshairs right on the terminator
and...the eyepiece was RIGHT on the terminator.

This was the first time I had turned my telescope on the moon (hey,
I've only had it a month!) and I had fun even though the edges of the
craters shimmered badly even with the 32mm eyepiece. I had to put on
the Moon Filter to cut down on the brightness and finally found it
after enjoying a green and blue moon (darn but those filters all look
alike in the dark). I didn't pay much attention to what I was looking
at but did try both the 8 and 15mm eyepieces. 8mm was fun because
everything was so big but the view was lousy so I largely stuck to the
15mm. There was a wonderful crater complex just comming out of the
shadows. It was spectacular as it was but I can only imagine what it
would have been like if the seeing had been even decent.

The clouds were starting to get very bad so, after only about 2 hours,
I packed it in.

So, my lessons learned:

1. The scope doesn't need to be aligned, or even powered up, to have
fun. I pointed it manually and only eventually turned the power on
because I found it more convenient to keep the scope pointed where I
wanted using the hand controller. I had no problem at all pointing it
where I wanted it manually.

2. A little extra care putting the telescope away pays off big when
you set it up next. I have been aligning both the Telrad and Spotter
Scope when I Polar Align. Since I never did Polar Aling, I never
aligned either spotting device tonight. However, I'm careful when I
put the telescope away and tonight I was able to use both the Telrad
and Spotter Scope to accurately point the telescope. That made all
the difference in my viewing session.

3. Label my filters. Yes, I know that they all have the numbers on
the side. I didn't bother to learn the numbering in 30 years of
photography and I'm not likely to start now. A sharpie on the back of
the cases and the problem will be solved.

4. Seeing is more important than Transparency, at least for viewing
bright objects. Heck, I could easily see both the moon and Venus
through the thin clouds, but they were shimmering like a mirage in the
middle of the Sahara at noon.

Not great viewing, but not a bad night overall. And I got rid of the
shakes. I'll be OK until Friday now.

Hi Edward,

You can add another to your very good list:

5. With a little improvement in seeing, increase magnification on the moon.
Then set up under a light so your eyes don't dark adapt. After all, you can
either go for DSOs or the moon, but not both. The extra light can be used to
bring out a sketch pad and lunar atlas. Then, because your eyes don't fully
dark adapt, you don't need a filter.

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try the Lunar Observing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/
Lunar Picture of the Day http://www.lpod.org/
************************************

"Edward Smith" wrote in message
...
Well, the DSC said lousy Seeing and poor Transparency. The only thing
they missed was the scattered clouds.

But, I hadn't had the telescope out for a good viewing session for
over 2 weeks and, even though I'm headed for the desert with the Boy
Scouts this weekend, I needed a fix.

So, I headed out to set up the telescope about 1830 and was ready to
begin Polar Aligning by 1850 when....dad called. Well, telling dad
(who doesn't call very often), "Hey, I'd love to talk but I really
need to Polar Align before Polaris disappears into a cloud bank"
sounded kind of rude. By the time I was done talking, Polaris was
gone for the night (I still had hopes of Polar Aligning but they
turned out to be wishful thinking).

So, I fired up the Telrad and found Venus manually (didn't even turn
the power on the telescope). Surprise surprise, I put Venus right in
the center ring and it was well within the view in my 32mm eyepiece
(about 35" real FOV). I could make out the phase, barely, through the
haze and really bad seeing. The moon was shining through the thin
clouds so I switched to it, turned on the power, told the scope
"thanks, but I don't want to align", and turned off all tracking. I
used the finder scope to put the crosshairs right on the terminator
and...the eyepiece was RIGHT on the terminator.

This was the first time I had turned my telescope on the moon (hey,
I've only had it a month!) and I had fun even though the edges of the
craters shimmered badly even with the 32mm eyepiece. I had to put on
the Moon Filter to cut down on the brightness and finally found it
after enjoying a green and blue moon (darn but those filters all look
alike in the dark). I didn't pay much attention to what I was looking
at but did try both the 8 and 15mm eyepieces. 8mm was fun because
everything was so big but the view was lousy so I largely stuck to the
15mm. There was a wonderful crater complex just comming out of the
shadows. It was spectacular as it was but I can only imagine what it
would have been like if the seeing had been even decent.

The clouds were starting to get very bad so, after only about 2 hours,
I packed it in.

So, my lessons learned:

1. The scope doesn't need to be aligned, or even powered up, to have
fun. I pointed it manually and only eventually turned the power on
because I found it more convenient to keep the scope pointed where I
wanted using the hand controller. I had no problem at all pointing it
where I wanted it manually.

2. A little extra care putting the telescope away pays off big when
you set it up next. I have been aligning both the Telrad and Spotter
Scope when I Polar Align. Since I never did Polar Aling, I never
aligned either spotting device tonight. However, I'm careful when I
put the telescope away and tonight I was able to use both the Telrad
and Spotter Scope to accurately point the telescope. That made all
the difference in my viewing session.

3. Label my filters. Yes, I know that they all have the numbers on
the side. I didn't bother to learn the numbering in 30 years of
photography and I'm not likely to start now. A sharpie on the back of
the cases and the problem will be solved.

4. Seeing is more important than Transparency, at least for viewing
bright objects. Heck, I could easily see both the moon and Venus
through the thin clouds, but they were shimmering like a mirage in the
middle of the Sahara at noon.

Not great viewing, but not a bad night overall. And I got rid of the
shakes. I'll be OK until Friday now.

5. With a little improvement in seeing, increase magnification on the moon.
Then set up under a light so your eyes don't dark adapt. After all, you can
either go for DSOs or the moon, but not both. The extra light can be used to
bring out a sketch pad and lunar atlas. Then, because your eyes don't fully
dark adapt, you don't need a filter.


Now I don't know why I didn't think of that last night. It would have
been easy to turn on the porch light and keep my eyes from dark
adapting. It wouldn't have mattered a bit for looking at the moon.
You really don't realize how bright it is until you glance at it in an
unfiltered telescope.

Edward Smith wrote:

3. Label my filters. Yes, I know that they all have the numbers on
the side. I didn't bother to learn the numbering in 30 years of
photography and I'm not likely to start now. A sharpie on the back of
the cases and the problem will be solved.


A plastic labeler can be put on each filter case, then do as the blind do
and feel
the number or word with your fingers, in low light... they tend to come
off
in cold weather however so you have to redo then from time to time but its

better than fumbling around and messing up good filters..
Jerry