by Ralph Aguirre
The Kendrix dew heaters really make the difference. I didnt experience any dew at all on my TV-85 finder scope, or my Telrad. My C14 doesnt use a dew heater, but I have a very long Just Chaney insulated dew shield which always provides enough protection against dew.
At times we struggled to see even some of the stars which make up the constellation Canis Major, so it was difficult trying to locate Thro's Helmet, something I had hoped to see Sat night.
Nevertheless, myself and Jim Edwards stayed up till about 3:30am, and saw Herculese come up, in addition to Vega, Lyra and even Cygnus rise over the eastern skies.
The seeing conditions started out excellent. The trapezium was brilliant, and the E and F stars really jumped out at us, easy to see at about 150x. The star patters were very sharp and crisp, so I was hoping this would remain through out the night, but it didnt. My first look at Saturn told me that there was plenty of moisture in the air, unable to get its usually sharp crisp details into focus. Nevertheless, there was plenty to see for a night of viewing, dispite thin clouds coming and going as the night progressed.
Some of the objects we were able to view with success in my C14 were the following:
We also tried but couldn't make out Markarians Chain or the Virgo Cluster, maybe better luck under darker clearer skies on this one.
One object I wanted to view but forgot to was Comet Temple. Although its at Mag 12 now, I wanted to give it a try and see if I could see it.
Although we had to dodge some thin clouds, it was still a nice night of viewing, and although there was dew present on the chairs, it never became a factor in slowing down our viewing fun.
Posted on tac-sac Mar 07, 2005 12:55:36 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 12, 2005 10:13:19 PT