not for one night

Manuel called me. We caught up on a few things. He asked me if I was planning to do some observing tonight—the skies were looking very good. I hadn't noticed. Look at that...

Tempting. But, I pointed out, from home, my options are pretty limited, now that the trees are full of leaf.

That said, I fired up Stellarium on John Charles and took a look. Huh. Ursa Major would fly directly overhead. A few Messiers in there. Some double stars. And the Moon was only 38% lit... Very tempting.

Then I looked around me. The mount is not ready to go. The declination motor is on my desk. On the parts of my desk not covered with paperwork. The mountain. Still.

And, as usual—the big challenge: the "one night effect." I am completely uninterested in setting up The Beast for one night.

Pondered one of the little 'scopes. The Celestron 3-inch. Or the Questar. Or the Meade ETX.

Pondered photography. Trying to capture frames of a galaxy. I so wanna try that. Hmm. How about with a telescope?

Tripod? Limits it to wide field.

Equatorial mount? I've wanted to try piggyback without the OTA. Could be done without a dec. motor...

But then there's all the computing equipment.

Ugh. Just not in the mood.