I think the gods were conspiring against me tonight. The skies were mildly clear until just after I had the scope set up. At the point clouds rolled in, the transparency went to zero, and I spent the evening chatting with a friendly astrophotographer. It was mild out and the company was good, but the closest I came to seeing something interesting was aligning my finder scope on Sirius (which disappeared about 10 minutes later).
Note to self: Clear Sky Clock is more accurate than I gave it credit for...
Showing posts with label cloudy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cloudy. Show all posts
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
3/11 - A Mildly Successful Night in Seton Park (M44)
I give up, the Clear Sky Chart is pretty darn accurate! The sky was pretty unfriendly tonight, but I went out anyway at 9:30pm, lugging my telescope around 1/2 mile to a nearby park. Fortunately, the city replaced the infields of one of the ballfields with astroturf, so the ground wasn't too wet to work on. I unpacked to a pretty cloud-covered Moon. Once things cooled down a bit, I set my sights on the lunar surface, checking out the Sea of Tranquility (Apollo 11 landing site), craters Plinius, Copernicus, and Kepler, and a few other things that I found interesting. The clouds frequently obstructed my view, but those times proved welcome as breaks because I didn't bring a chair.
Once the clouds started to break a little, I was able to make out Alhena in Gemini but not much else. As the clouds broke a bit more, Castor and Pollux became visible and I split Castor cleanly at 240x.
I then set out to see the M44 (Beehive Cluster) for my first time. It took me a few minutes of hunting before I found it. Forget about naked eye in NYC... 12x25 binoculars (which admittedly are not good for astronomy) didn't pick it up, and it was faint in my 9x50 finder scope. At 48x through the XT8, however, it really shined!
The story ends with the wind picking up a LOT and the cloud cover returning. Tomorrow is another day!
*Also, I was reading a star chart by a red LED flashlight when an unmarked police car pulled up to find out what I was doing. The officer who was driving seemed a bit disappointed that it wasn't "a bunch of kids hanging out" that they could kick out of the park. Once I explained what I was up to they went on their way and left me to my (cloudy) sky.
Once the clouds started to break a little, I was able to make out Alhena in Gemini but not much else. As the clouds broke a bit more, Castor and Pollux became visible and I split Castor cleanly at 240x.
I then set out to see the M44 (Beehive Cluster) for my first time. It took me a few minutes of hunting before I found it. Forget about naked eye in NYC... 12x25 binoculars (which admittedly are not good for astronomy) didn't pick it up, and it was faint in my 9x50 finder scope. At 48x through the XT8, however, it really shined!
The story ends with the wind picking up a LOT and the cloud cover returning. Tomorrow is another day!
*Also, I was reading a star chart by a red LED flashlight when an unmarked police car pulled up to find out what I was doing. The officer who was driving seemed a bit disappointed that it wasn't "a bunch of kids hanging out" that they could kick out of the park. Once I explained what I was up to they went on their way and left me to my (cloudy) sky.
Monday, March 9, 2009
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