Last night (Tuesday) was a window of clear conditions with clouds beforehand and more clouds predicted afterward for the next week.
C-Nine-Two-Five on GM-8/Berlebach Planet combo (non-
Borg 90FL on Vixen Porta for quick panning around:
Waiting for darkness:
Had everything set up by 1800hrs, which is when the above photos were taken (floating ISO makes it appear much brighter than it actually was) and I took a peek through the
Returned to the
Moved on to Jupiter, as the
Went over to the Moon, and perhaps because of the larger canvas, or greater light throughput, found the seeing here not such a hindrance. The day-short-of-first-quarter phase was pleasing to view: Aristoteles and Eudoxus both having a portion of their floors still shadowed; rills and wrinkles winding their way across Lacus Somniorum and Mare Serenitatis; further south along the terminator the oh-so-battered highlands.
My neighbor returned near 2030, so we retraced my earlier steps beginning with Saturn. By now, it was a complete mess, as if a jet engine was sending its exhaust across the scene. We quickly moved on to Jupiter and found the seeing beginning to improve in this portion of the sky. We spent some time examining the cloud patterns displayed, and as the seeing improved into the fair/good range, more was revealed as the
Next, on to the Moon, as Mars had not yet achieved the altitude I wanted to begin with. My neighbor was floored with the view, and spent considerable time exploring this body.
Finally, it was time for the red planet. Ten days earlier, my neighbor came over to get his first view of Mars during the current apparition, and it was not a terribly impressive one. Last night was far different, with Syrtis Major prominent at three-quarters of the way across the face, moving toward the limb, and the North Polar Hood becoming more prominent as the globe climbed higher. This was my most favorable view of Mars since the 2003 close approach, viewed through my C-14, which has been passed on to a new owner. We swapped positions and compared our views on Mars for some time.
By now, it was 2300 and everything was soaked with dew, my neighbor had reached the limits of his clothing's insulation, and I was tiring, so I bid him adieu, and began carting everything except the
Primary magnifications used were 195x and 261x, with 335x proving too much.
The Borg was never used this evening.
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