by Rashad Al-Mansour
I went to the Peak and had a very good night. I was going to go to Coyote Lake but as I approached the exit for the Lake I thought, "900 feet compared to 2700 feet" and went with the elevation.
I was the first one to arrive by dusk there were about 14 scopes setup in the SW lot including Peter N. & Jamie D.
My scope for the evening was Tobor the Great, my LX90 8" SCT plus a new accessory, a Lumicon Bino Viewer.
Seeing was very good, the best I've had all season, (nice split of Antares and a nice figure 8 on Porrima) the transparency was good but not outstanding. I spent the dark time chasing Galaxies in Serpens and Ophiuchus. We had no fog to speak of so it didn't get as dark as I would have liked but still a good night.
Last weekend I and a few other TAC'os went out and observed at Michelle's place in the Sierra Foothills. While there Michelle let me try her Lumicon Bino Viewer on my scope. As it was "New Moon" and all the Planets had set the brightest object I could think to look at was M13. Unfortunately we had pretty bad seeing so my view of M13 was not that impressive but it was very relaxing. I've wanted Bino Viewer for a while but thought the cost outweighed the benefits but I found what I thought might be a good deal on Astronomy Mall and bit the bullet.
Mark, you might want to go take a nap now: I'm going to start talking about the Moon.
I said earlier that I questioned the price vs. benefits of Bino Viewers, and I think for many this is a concern. But let me say if you own an SCT and can fit them in your astronomy budget, you might want to consider getting a pair! The Sun was about 2 hours from setting and I was seeing more detail inside the crater Theophilus than I've ever seen.
It's really hard to describe all that I was able to see! After dark the first thing I noticed was that my floaters were gone! Michelle told about this but I'd forgotten about it. Not once with the Bino Viewers did I notice any floaters unless I closed one eye, and as soon as I did they were back. For deep sky work floaters don't bother me but on bright objects like the Moon and Planets and Solar viewing they are a real distraction for me, and limit my ability to see fine detail. With the Bino Viewers that's all history now.
The mountain peaks inside Theophilus stood out in high relief, Theophilus B was bright and crisp very well defined. Cyrillus with it's disintegrated walls looked like a train wreck, it's central peak casting lovely shadows across the crater. The many riles and gorges, many of which were new to me were striking. Cyrillus B was so bright it looked as though there were fluorescent work lights were illuminating the top edge.
Rimae Hypat looked like a forked Hi-way with its A & B craters acting as truck stops along the way. Contrast was excellent causing the many craterlets in the area stand out boldly. Can't wait to get a look at craterlets inside Plato.
The Bino Viewers gave me a surprisingly good view of Jupiter even though it was very low on the horizon I could plainly see 6 bands even the moons appeared as tiny disks.
M13 on this night was to die for! The 3D effect was amazing as was the view of M4, M3, M5 and M15. I will go after the bright Galaxies next month when we go north.
I packed up and said goodbye to the Peak at 3:00am, went home with a big smile on my face.
My only problem now is trying to figure out where I'm going to get the money for more eyepieces! They only matched pair I have are two 26mm Meade eyepieces. I also used a shorty Barlow. I thinking of getting a pair 17mm and 20mm eyepieces to round out my set. I don't think I need the high end types I'm thinking Orion's Sirius Plössls.