Sunday, May 09, 2010

tested Dob (Toronto)

Waited for the housemates to go to bed...

Tonight was the first clear night, I think, since I collimated the RASC Toronto Centre's loaner telescope. I had tuned the Dobsonian in daylight. But I needed to test it with stars. Particularly before I handed it off directly to Sharmin, the next person in line.

I put it on Arcturus. It and the nearby stars looked pretty good. Better than before, better than the last time I used it, that's for sure. The faint stars came to razor sharp focus. Despite no cool down time. Despite me not being dark adapted.

I then target Saturn. Thin rings. First at low power; then high. Saturn looked good. I could see the lighter white colouring of the equatorial belt. Hey, hey, look at that: two moons very close together. I knew one was Titan. Stellarium told me the other was Rhea. Tried to spot Enceladus in between without success. The view was good, with brief moments of clear seeing and clear eyeballs.

It is satisfying to note that I did not break the society's Dob.

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