first observing for year (Blue Mountains)

I was at the Carr Astronomical Observatory for an overnight visit to affect computer repairs. But, fortunately, I had made some good progress during the day. And the skies were clear. And I had brought my winter coat. It looked like I'd be able to do a bit of observing.

I went out in the late afternoon to try to spot Venus. But the telescope was not aligned so no joy. Still, it was good that I popped out. The objective covers were not on the TV101 and finder scope and they were rather close to the Sun. I covered them.

I returned to the Geoff Brown Observatory in the early evening and rolled back the roof a little more. Searched briefly naked eye and with old smelly binos for Venus. No luck. Tried to tag it with the telescope. Tony reminded me that he had found the mount to be slightly off (but once sync'ed with TheSky6, it was fine).

I tried to sight some bright stars to align or sync the Celestron 14-inch. The obvious choice was Sirius. But it was in the dead zone for the Paramount, near or on the meridian. I had to wait a bit more to find some other stars. Tony was outside at this point and he helped me sync it up. And while he looked to the west, he noted Venus. What? Yep, there it was, very bright, and a few degrees above the horizon. Cool. I thought it was already set but was happy to be proved wrong.

Stunning, Venus, through the refractor and the SCT. The size of the planet was impressive, about a week away from inferior conjunction. The disk was incredibly large in the C14, but the atmospheric distortion was amplified too. The view was actually more pleasing in the smaller 'scopes. We tried to gauge the limb illumination, if it was more than 180°. Wow.

I looked at λ (lambda) Orionis again briefly.

Grace and some of the boys visited the GBO. We looked at The Great Nebula in Orion. We were able to split the Trapezium into 5 stars easily.

I suggested Rigel as a double star target. Very cool (to me). It was not obvious in the TV101; but in the C14, it was fantastic. Rigel, β (beta) Orionis, is incredibly bright, overpowering the scene (it's 500 times brighter). But we could easily see a fainter companion nearby.

We looked at Saturn. It was spectacular in the C14. We could see Titan, Rhea, Tethys, and Iapetus! I think I could even see Hyperion, between Tethys and Iapetus!

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When I was operating the C14, I felt a little out of sorts. I wasn't sure what to show. I didn't have any of my notes with me, I had not intended to do any observing, or even if I had, I wanted to pack extremely light for the hike in. I should have a "top ten" list for each season, good stuff to show people, nebula, globulars, a double star, etc. I could keep that on the network up there...

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My pre-programmed ISS flyover alarm in my palmtop went off 5 minutes before the predicted 9:01 PM local start time. We headed to the front yard of the CAO where Trevor and Tony had a good bonfire going. It was cold out. I noted the Andromeda constellation standing straight up.

I spotted the International Space Station early on. It was low, I estimated less than 10° up. It was fairly faint, not a negative magnitude initially. We watched it slowly move below Cassiopeia and Ursa Minor and through Draco. It brightened considerably in the later half of the long pass. That was a good one. Ten people up there!

There were a couple of shooting stars spotted. Overall, I saw 4 this evening.

It was very cool to see the Beehive naked eye. It was satisfying to be able to resolve the Pleiades into 6 separate stars, naked eye.

The highlight though was seeing Zodiacal Light! Woo hoo. I forgot this was a good time to see it. Tony confirmed it. I saw a faint glow climbing high into the sky, not unlikely skyglow from light pollution. It was a thin triangle, canted about 10° to the left, underneath Aries, ending near the Pleiades. A career first!

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While taking in the whole dark sky from the front lawn, I suddenly remembered that we should be able to see comet Lulin! So, as we warmed up for a short time in the house, I looked up in aerith.net where the comet was supposed to be: between δ (delta) and ζ (zeta) Gemini, also known as Wasat and Mekbuda, respectively.

When I returned to the GBO and reconnected the software to the homed Paramount, I was pleased to see it was still in sync. But when I turned the mount to δ, the TV101 'scope started to slide out of the dovetail. Noooooo! I called Tony to come quick. He helped me secure it! Whew. Almost had a major disaster there!

Tony got out the 11x80 binos. Wow. Beautiful view. But heavy. He tried scanning but couldn't see it. I tried for a few seconds and spotted it. I put the 'scope on it now that I had my bearings. Bingo! We could even see the tail in the big 'scope.