by Lance Boehm
I think the decision for Coyote was the right one. I'm guessing we had better conditions than Coe. Anyone from Coe want to chime in?
In attendance:
Michael Schwartz with his 18" Plettstone sooper dooper dob. He had some friends stop by later on and I didn't get their names. They brought a Meade ETX.
Greg LaFlamme with his 15" home made dob.
Larry (don't think I got his last name), a first timer out with his new 8" Meade Lightbridge truss dob. Pretty neat scope. If they made one larger than 12" (I think that's the max size for them right now) I'd really think hard about getting one if the price was right.
Me with the "we can rebuild him...make him better, faster, and stronger" six-million-dollar man born again 12" Orion dob. Since it was out last (Sep '05), several upgrades - completely flocked the inside of the OTA, replaced stock focuser with a MoonLite CR2, and replaced the spider with a curved 4-vane. Optics were cleaned (they didn't need it too much, but I had the whole thing apart anyway), various sanding and applying of teflon to improve motion. A few other minor tweaks I can't remember as I type this.
I'm amazed at how good the Orion performed tonight. The upgrades made it feel like a much better scope than it is. I think everyone commented about the quality of its performance.
The story:
I was 2nd to arrive, Greg was already mostly setup by the time I got there.
We had some high clouds just before sundown, and it was looking iffy. A couple times there was quite a bit of cover, and we were looking through the sucker holes. But the majority of the evening skies were clear and quite steady. Optics stayed dew free, but other surfaces were damp on and off. No real wind to speak of.
The highlight of the evening was Saturn @ 400+ power through Greg's scope shortly after sundown. Rock solid and gorgeous! I had a similar view in my scope at 300x.
A runner up would have to be M51. We all looked at this several times throughout the evening and near the end got a beautiful view through Michael's scope. Spiral structure a-plenty!
Various others were viewed: M42, M46, M37, Iota Cas, M3, M13, M81/82, M64, M104, and some others I've forgotten.
For me it was a night with new perspective: I had LASIK in both eyes in mid-December, and this was the first time out post surgery. I still have some glare around bright objects which continues to improve as time passes, but no halos and everything is nice and pin-pointy. What a sheer pleasure it is to observe without glasses! I had severe astigmatism in one eye and moderate in the other, so unless the exit pupil was around 1.5mm or less, I was pretty much stuck with my glasses :( Not anymore!
To continue the thought about my new eyes...binoviewing is *SO* much easier and more comfortable now without glasses.
All in all a wonderful night with friends, good photons, and cold pizza (thanks Michael!). It's been too long since my last outing...I'd forgotten how nice it was to bask in the comfort of the inky-black night. Hopefully the approaching bad weather won't stick around long. I could do this again real soon.
Heading for the pillow and some REM time...
Posted on sf-bay-tac Feb 25, 2006 03:51:09 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 01, 2006 23:53:32 PT