Radar
February 9th, 2010, 02:03 PM
Decided I was going to do some AVI's of Mars before she slips away. Put my C14 Lymax cooler into the scope and ran it for five hours on 18volts. Went outside just before ten, the sky was pretty steady, the mirror was steady. The views of Mars were amazing. I could easily see the ice cap and dark regions across it's surface.
Did some AVI's and then decided to slew across the night sky using Starry Night Pro.
Saw some open clusters, then slewed to Regulus, then to the Leo Triplet. Even without a barlow with light pollution I could see two faint ellipticals.
From there I slewed to Saturn. Wow! She was awesome. The rings, four moons, shadow of the rings were all easily visible. Can't wait for this thing to get closer.
From there I went to the Sombrero. Only managed to get a faint fuzz using averted vision.
From there to Omega Centauri. Wow! Even though she was right above the city lights and still low, she didn't fail to impress.
From there I packed up and went to bed.
I'm going to repeat these objects again but with a barlow and light pollution filters. I can see there is a lot more to view here.
Ray
Did some AVI's and then decided to slew across the night sky using Starry Night Pro.
Saw some open clusters, then slewed to Regulus, then to the Leo Triplet. Even without a barlow with light pollution I could see two faint ellipticals.
From there I slewed to Saturn. Wow! She was awesome. The rings, four moons, shadow of the rings were all easily visible. Can't wait for this thing to get closer.
From there I went to the Sombrero. Only managed to get a faint fuzz using averted vision.
From there to Omega Centauri. Wow! Even though she was right above the city lights and still low, she didn't fail to impress.
From there I packed up and went to bed.
I'm going to repeat these objects again but with a barlow and light pollution filters. I can see there is a lot more to view here.
Ray