Last Nights Session!

Sat evening cleared up very well and despite the near full Moon in the NE i had a few things on the agenda. However tonight i had the company of Mark Stronge who arrived down for a visit and a quick observing session. We set up 2 instruments in my front garden..

Meade 8" LX10 F/6.3

EAAS Home made 10" Dobsonian.

We attempted to track down C/2005 E2 Mc Naught which is located low in the SW in Aquarius however clouds in this sky sector combined with intense moonlight destroyed any chance of success. We observed M31, M32, Polaris, Castor, Moon, Mars and we noticed that the naked eye variable star 'Algol' (demon star) was going into one of its eclipses which was really cool to see. The ISS appeared over the rooftops in the SW and we tracked through the eyepiece as it crossed the sky heading east.





We also seen a nice 22* Moon halo sporting a faint Moondog 22* east of the moon as a large bright white patch. The halo itself had blue and red colours which were very soft and subtle visually however the camera picked them up no problem..







Mark thanks very much for your work on the motor drive of the 8" and for discussing the new rocker box issue for the 16", a plan which i hope comes reality in the near future. The scope needs a make over as you can see from this image..



Thanks very much for the observing session and astro chat!