Simple pleasures

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rocdoc
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Simple pleasures

#1

Post by rocdoc »


Hi everyone,
I have been largely MIA for a long time. Lots of personal changes, even preceding the whole, you know, apocalypse thing...
One of the changes included moving into a new house, so I had to explore the new settings for star gazing. It's not great, but the more I go along in this hobby (hobbled as that forward progress may have been recently), the more I enjoy simple, easy observations. Which is good too, because my main viewing site is now my deck, with a small zenith to NE field, dogged by lights from the adjacent townhomes and a big LP dome right on the main open area.
A couple of really neat things happened yesterday though: first, my first true daytime astronomy experience. I had previously looked at the moon and the filtered sun, but not at anything else. Yesterday, lying on one of the zero-gravity chairs on my deck while my kid was making a sandy mess around me, I gawked at the moon with the Celestron 8x56 binos hand-held (alternating with looks at birds in the nearby trees). After enjoying that for a bit, on a lark I panned over to where I knew Venus would be. I immediately found it, and it looked very impressive! Super-bright in the FOV, making it surprising that it was not at all visible to the naked eye. I could see that it was roughly half-lit, so I was getting a really nice view. I really enjoyed that.
Later in the evening, I set up the Oberwerk 25x100s on the parallelogram, with the tripod low, to see how it feels to use them reclining in the zero-gravity chair. It's pretty neat, once I figured out the ergonomics and the way to move my head laterally for x-axis panning. Not much to be seen in my target area in the strong LP dome, but I got a beautiful view of Cor Caroli, which splits well at this magnification, and shows off its gorgeous colors nicely. I panned around a bit, enjoyed the Coma cluster - although it doesn't fit fully in the relatively narrow FOV, that's one for smaller binos. I looked around aimlessly a bit more, then went back because I had finished my bourbon, and found it inappropriate to work under those conditions :)
Hope everyone is well and safe!
Properly collimated cornea-lens-vitreous optical apparatus, projecting on retinal sensor slightly limited by deuteranomaly, feeding through stock optic nerves into functional primary cortex, processed through frequently misfiring and buggy integrative cortex.
Other instruments: Skyline 8" Dobsonian, on a dob pod; Celestron Omni XLT 120 w GSO crayford focuser and Meade 5000 diagonal on Stellarvue M2C mount and Meade LX70 tripod; Oberwerk Binos: 25x100 Deluxe IF on Benro tripod with Oberwerk 5000 head or Farpoint parallelogram; 10x50 Ultra, usually on 3 Legged Thing Punks Trent monopod with Dolica trigger grip head; 8x42 Sport ED hand held. Main EPs: ES 82º 24mm and 11mm, Celestron Luminos 19mm and 10mm, Meade UWA 14mm, Meade HD-60 6.5mm. Filters: UHC, 13%, blue. Finders: RACI, Telrad, RDF, reticle.
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Lady Fraktor Slovakia
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Re: Simple pleasures

#2

Post by Lady Fraktor »


Hello rocdoc, good to hear you are well and congratulations on catching a view of Venus.
It seems a lot of people are discovering daytime planets lately :)
See Far Sticks: Antares Elita 103/1575, AOM FLT 105/1000, Bresser BV 127/1200, Nočný stopár 152/1200, Vyrobené doma 70/700, Stellarvue NHNG DX 80/552, TAL RS100/1000, Vixen SD115s/885
EQ: TAL MT-1, Vixen SXP, AXJ, AXD
Az/Alt: AYO Digi II/ Argo Navis, Stellarvue M2C/ Argo Navis
Tripods: Berlebach Planet (2), Uni 28 Astro, Report 372, TAL factory maple, Vixen ASG-CB90, Vixen AXD-TR102
Diagonals: Astro-Physics, Baader Amici, Baader Herschel, iStar Blue, Stellarvue DX, Takahashi prism, TAL, Vixen flip mirror
Eyepieces: Antares to Zeiss
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The Happy Parrot
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Re: Simple pleasures

#3

Post by The Happy Parrot »


+1 on "but the more I go along in this hobby... the more I enjoy simple, easy observations."

Very much my case in these times of news and information overload.
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Bigzmey United States of America
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Re: Simple pleasures

#4

Post by Bigzmey »


Some quality time there Rocdoc! Last Friday I had daytime binos views of Moon and Venus, and was also surprised how is to see the phase even in small binos.
Scopes: Stellarvue: SV102ED; Celestron: 9.25" EdgeHD, 8" SCT, 150ST, Onyx 80ED; iOptron: Hankmeister 6" Mak; SW: 7" Mak; Meade: 80ST.
Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
Diagonals: Baader: BBHS mirror, Zeiss Spec T2 prism, Clicklock dielectric; TeleVue: Evebrite dielectric; AltairAstro: 2" prism.
Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.

Observing: DSOs: 3106 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2180, S110: 77). Doubles: 2382, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 255
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helicon United States of America
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Re: Simple pleasures

#5

Post by helicon »


Thanks for the report rocdoc and glad to hear from you. I know moving into a new place can be unsettling, and astronomy is surely impacted. Sounds like you had a nice session though.
-Michael
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
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NGC 1365 Australia
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Re: Simple pleasures

#6

Post by NGC 1365 »


Thanks for sharing your report.
Ivan
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