Thought I'd post a (very) short observing report from this weeks hardship post in Maui.
The weather down here has been partly clear/partly cloudy all week. I brought down my latest travelscope, a Criterion 4000.
I spent an hour or so getting used to the somewhat larger southern sky. It's interesting. The extra 15 degrees or so does bring in a few more stars, and a couple of new constellations, but the major effect seems to be adding clarity to constellations that are (just) visible from our latitude. Grus is all of a sudden clearly visible (and quite pretty). Pheonix too is all of a sudden an easy constellation. Sculptor is downright high in the sky.
After setting up the scope, I managed to just track down NGC55 before clouds moving in from the south took away my view. It subtended about 1/5 of the width of my 22mm eyepiece, and was quite easily visible, with a prominent central bulge.
Before getting clouded out for the evening I also discovered that the little tripods on the Criterion (and similar Meade and Celestron scopes I guess) are pretty uncomfortable when using from a field! About 15 minutes in to observing from the ground, my legs were asleep with pins and needles.
To my surprise, the Ritz-Carlton (where I am staying) has and Astronomy program tomorrow evening. It will be interesting - I'm guessing few attendees bring their own gear.
More later (clouds allowing).