observing report 3/20/07

3/20/07
New Hartford, NY
20:00-23:00 local (3/21/07 - 0:00-3:00 UTC)

First clear night in upstate NY in ages, so I took out the Ultima 11 for
a little test drive, and to check out the NGC-MAX connected to it.

Seeing was around 2/5, which is unfortunately pretty good for this time
of year up here, and while the transparency started out around 4/5 it
deteriorated to around 2 or 3/5 by 10:00 PM local.

The NCG-MAX works pretty easily, but there's a learning curve and I need
to work on familiarizing myself with the various features. Pretty neat
having digital setting circles, though.

Hit a few easy targets. It's been a long time since I've been able to
observe.

M45 - Impressive in this telescope. At 66x (6.3 focal reducer and 26mm
rke) appearance fluffy and mottled, more so in this scope than in my C8.
More greenish, too. With 12mm UO ortho effects of mediocre collimation
apparent. "E" component just visible. May also have been the
deteriorating transparency.

Castor - Double neatle split even at lower mags, perfectly white.

Saturn - The Cassini division was easy all the way around the planet at
around 120x, though the seeing wouldn't permit the c ring. Nice banding
easy also on the planet. Cloud of little moons - more than I've seen in
smaller aperture scopes.

Need to recollimate when seeing is a bit better.

NGC 2244 (rosette) - Had high hopes for this one with the extra aperture
but was disappointed. No nebulosity apparent in the cluster, but this
was likely because the haze was getting thicker.

Called it a night at that point and hauled the big beast back inside.
I'll tell you, I'm not used to the cold up here, but it was nice having
at least a partially clear night. And no snow in the forecast! Hurray!