Past weeks the weather kept on changing. From bad to worse and back. So I had not seen the clearance coming. An hour before going to sleep I noticed it. I looked out the backyard door like I often do and saw the cristal-clear mighty constellation of Orion. It always takes my breath a bit away; the sudden encounter with the legendary hunter. So I was in doubt: Binoculars, grab-and-go or main telescope? Being a bit tired of the day ( recordings at my local observatory by a local educational vlogger)I decided for the grab & go.
It is a 102 mm
f/14 maksutov, who's cooling issues had been tamed by insulation. Mounted on a good
alt-az mount, provided with a
RDF and a finder that had been adapted to my urban skies. A 18,5 X 50 RCA, with a 11 mm Nagler in it for 4.4 degree fields. Ideal for finding bright Messiers under
Bortle 8 skies.( Moon!) The Baader Hyperion 31 mm eyepiece gives 45X and a ( vignetted) field of 1,3 degrees. My Leica zoom picks up at 78X and zooms to 157X with a 0.5 degree field. That is approximately the maximum the Mak can handle. Total weight 22 pounds, just enough to pick it up with one hand and give it a swing to the backyard, 20 feet away.
Orion was as beautiful as always. The Nebula stood out fierce, Trapezium neatly separated ( nicely done for a Mak 120 seconds after being put outside, in a minus 24 degree Celsius drop).The wings of the nebula widely spread out. 10 minutes later Rigel's companion was seen at 120X. Being so close to the Pleiades one would be crazy not to pay them a visit. Apart from their mythological story, that group gave me an extra dimension after reading Lucinda Riley's books The Seven Sisters. I came as deep as magnitude 11,7.
Eeehhhh......Sirius B? Nice bright, even an airy disc visible, but no Pup, of course.
On to the Charioteer, where three open clusters were waiting for me. A bit of a challenge finding them under my light polluted skies. Happily the finder did its work properly, they were detectable. No way a 8X50 finder would have shown them. They were all quite nice through the Leica eyepiece. In a small
aperture I prefer M38 above M37. More brighter stars.... In a larger telescope I find M37 more impressive. Especially with the red central star in it. Final
DSO object of the hour was
NGC 2392, the Eskimo nebula. I admit, couldn't find it at first attempt and had to look in SkySafari how the star pattern under Delta
Gem looked like again. After checking it was not a problem any more. The bright central part was hardly visible. I forgot all about M35...
Finally the Moon. I remembered the words of one of my fellow observers once: "On the Moon one can see more details in one glance than you will ever see in all your
DSO's."
I think he is right.
