IHOP (2), 2/24/06

by Shneor Sherman

There was no snow, although the ground was damp in spots, and there was a small puddle between where I parked and the shell of the barn. I arrived around 5:15 and was set up by 6. There were clouds to the west and also to the east, but the clouds to the west moved north during the early evening. Afterward, high clouds ramained over most of the sky, cutting transparency to below average, but often tolerable.

Equipment:

22" f/4 Sayre Monocular, on equatorial platform
30mm Widescan II with Visual Paracorr
24mm Panoptic
6mm Expanse
2.3mm X-Cel
2" DGM Optics Narrowband filter

Conditions:

Transparency	3-5/10
Seeing	6-9/10
Temperature	Below freezing
Wind	None to moderate
Humidity	More than expected; dampish. My secondary and eyepieces never dewed up, but a book or two on my table got a damp cover; my chair dewed up several times.

I recently purchased a 2.3mm X-Cel, and after some very good views of Saturn with my Widescan and a 6mm, I moved to one of my favorte planetaries, N2371/2. It was nice at 375x, but I decided to be bold and inserted the 2.3mm. Fortunately, seeing was excellent and I had a magnificent view of the Peanut, with the central star prominently displayed with space between the twin nebulae and the central star. I tried a couple of times later on to use this eyepiece again, but to no avail - that momement of truly excellent seeing did not duplicate itself.

Some time ago, I acquired a pair of 24mm Panoptics for my binoviewer. I had never tried to use one just as a solo eyepiece, and so after viewing a number of tried-and-true objects that all appeared dimmer than they ought to, I tried a 24 Pan. I was impressed; it's an excellent eyepiece. I had been unable, for example, to see the usual pink in M42 earlier, but with the Pan it was quite obvious - as well as some extended nebulosity that I have been unaware of. And Thor's Helmet (N2359), which while visible with details in other eyepieces (using the same DGM Optics Narrowband filter) showed the "beard" quite clearly with the 24 Pan. It also provided a much clearer view of the little planetary (a thick ring) in M46 than other eyepieces. Same with a number of other objects, with the exception of Markarian's Chain - maybe because transparency was not good at all in that part of the sky.

Rounded out the night with several trios in Leo, looked for but did not find Copeland's Septet, but I believe I did see one galaxy of the nearby Abell cluster. Had reasonable views of 7 or 8 objects (all galaxies, except for the Owl) in Ursa Major, also the nebula in Corvus (can't be bothered to look up the designation, I couldn't sleep more than 5 hours).

I viewed Saturn again with the 24 Pan - very impressive. Cassini was easily visible, as well as three moons close to the ring.

One of the main reasons I wanted to be out viewing was to check out the 4.8mm Nagler I recently acquired on a closeout. Turns out that my habit of keeping eyepieces in plastic bolt cases caught up with me - I placed the wrong eyepiece in my case.

Around 11 I noticed that my car windows and windshield had frosted over, despite a pesky wind that had picked up over the past half hour. And they sky seemed to be getting a bit worse, so I soon began to pack.

Posted on tac-sac Feb 25, 2006 14:57:09 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 02, 2006 19:32:43 PT