Summer interlude

When I went to bed it was still damp and dull despite a passing thunderstorm. But when I awoke at 3 am it was dazzling and I got in an excellent hour of observing. I had put all my scopes in the house with no plans to observe, but it was easy enough to get out the 80m Orion ED - wonderful little scope - and using a laser mounted on it as a finder, plus a simple alt-az mount from Universal Asronomics, I had a great time greeting old, familiar friends under winter sky conditions, but with summer temperatures - first stop the Pleiades using the 30mm ClearVue - 20 X dazzling - 50-plus stars easily visible. Moved on to the double cluster in Perseus, then M31. Popped in the 9 mm Nagler (66X) and easily picked up both M32 and the fainter companion - M110. And this with just 80 mm!

That encouraged me to try to find M33 - no problem! In fact later, with the Milky Way faded due to the approaching dawn, I was still able to find M33 in 10X50 glasses! So transparency was at its peak.

I tested the seeing by switching to another old favorite, Gamma Andromeda. This blue/gold double is, if anything, a tad better than Albireo - especially in this scope - simply because the stars are closer together - and this morning, very steady. In fact, I tried the double double and could just barely split it at 120X with a 5mm Ortho. Did some more prowling about the Pleiades - the 21mm Denkmeir frames this best in this scope - 28X. Then I did drop in on Albireo and M27. Interesting - at 66X the dumbell shape seemed more prominent in this scope then it does in my 15-inch - has to have something to do with the amount of light grasp.

Oh - and meteors! Saw three very nice - very fast - Delta Aquarid meteors, all taking roughly the same path from southwest to eastnortheast. The first and last were the brightest - close to mag 1. The middle one was a bit fainter. I wasn't looking for these - just happened to appear when I was looking up and not using scope. Had I just settled back and looked I would have seen two or three times as many I suspect.

Anyways - after months of dull weather and murky skies, it was nice to be reminded that the universe is still there and there are better nights ahead ;-)