As you can imagine, not much observing was done this month, but here's what I did:
Early in the month I had chance to do some detailed comparisons of the performance of a 9mm Nagler and an 8 mm Brandon in my C9.25 for planetary observing. This was to see if the Brandon was any better. After several nights I concluded it was. The color contrast between Saturn's ringds and disk and the fractal nature of the weather systems on Jupiter was better seen in the Brandon.
I was paid a bonus this month and rather than buying the 15" Obsession I limited myself to a new 2" diagonal, Vol. 2 of the Night Sky Observers Guide and the 15x70 binos from Orion. This last purchse was followed by a new tripod.
President's Day weekend found me in Pajaro Dunes at someone else's condo. This area seems to have real promise for observing. Its S of Santa Cruz and seems just far enough from Watsonville to be relatively dark. It looked good through the sucker holes, but my observing was nada due to weather, except to confirm the owner's claim that you could easily see Jupiter without getting out of bed.
The last few days I've finall gotten a chance to try out my toys. The 14x70s can be handheld, but the tripod really helps. The views of M42 (with full doubled winged stucture visible at 15x); M41 (fully resolved); and earthshine on the crescent moon were particularly lovely. I can see Saturn's rings, but only with the left eye. Galilean moons relatively easy to see, but better with both eyes as this helps correct for glare.
Finally last night I got some real deep sky observing in with the C9.25, but only from my yard in Palo Alto. My first goal was NCC 2169, the open cluster in N Orion. I noticed that NGC 2194, another OC' was in the area and decided to drop by. This is a hard one to see in the suburbs! I could make it out as a hazy partially resolved area but only at 150x and above.
NGC 2169 was a trip. I switched to the 2'' diagonal with Orion Optiluxe 40mm EP. The diagonal is Orion as well. This combination is a very good "wide field kit" for an 8 or 9 inch SCT. The total cost, with SCT thread adapter, is about $350, less than many wide 2' EPs alone. I'm seeing a field of about 70' or 75', much larger than the 40' which was the best possible for the C9.25 with the 1.25 inch diagonal. I know it ain't TV or A-P but I see no optical problems and the views are fantastic. Anyway, I had forgotten that NGC 2169 was the "XY Cluster" but was quickly reminded once I got there. An oustanding sight.
Next up was NGC 2301, an OC in MOn, a first time sight for me, like NGC 2194. This is a nice bright one, and quite elongated. Sort of suggested what a "pillar of creation" might look like after it evolved into a more visible cluster.
Next hopped to M46/47. M46 is better at lower powers. M47 fit in the wide field of view.
Next up was Cancer's M67, near culmination. This was invisible in the finder and looked very different in different eyepieces. At higher powers "lumpy darkness", presumably unresolved faint stars, was obvious, but at 60x only subtle hints were present -- the brighter stars made it look like a normal cluster. This is one of my seasonal favorites.
Ended the night with the Beehive, which was obvious in the finder and almost fit in the field of the Optiluxe. All these clusters were quite different. It seems like the old and/or rich ones (M67 and NGC 2194 are thought to be very old) make the best viewing to my eyes.