astro

I took a very quick peek at Jupiter tonight.

Firstly, the setup and finding Jupiter was the easiest by far, remarkable since it’s been so long. I even had the 10mm lens in by mistake but Jupiter was almost perfectly centered.

My polar alignment was very rudimentary, not using a compass just pointing more or less south. But it was good enough for manually tracking.

Jupiter was at about 30° when I looked, so reasonable viewing, but it would have been better later in the night.

It was so bright I used the moon filter, but I couldn’t make out the bands or the great storm. The four visible moons very clear.

There seemed to be a little heat refraction, but it could have been the very wobbly tripod and mount, I really must upgrade at some stage.

Overall it was a very pleasant session.

After what seemed to be a wonderful and clear winter and early spring, summer has been very cloudy. For the first time in ages there was an opportunity to get out the reflector.

The scope had a pretty good layer of dust over it, as did the operator. I found Hine-i-tīweka/Kopu Nui (Jupiter) at dusk – even in the light we all saw three moons.

The difference in viewing from winter was incredible. While still literally breath-taking, there was much less detail visible.

I let out a gasp when I first saw it, but ultimately Comet Leonard was frustrating. It eventually turned up and was a wee smudge in the sky through the scope. To me it was not visible with the naked eye, despite it being moonless and at the time mostly cloudless.

I did not want to disappoint the kids so told them it was not a ‘good comet’. I have yet to see a comet that lived up to expectation (Halley ’86 set the standard).

It was time to find something else to look at.

Since we’ve had the scope Orion has not been in view in the Southern Hemisphere. I got a major thrill a few weeks ago when I glimpsed it through the cloud, and was excited that I might get the chance over the next few months to attempt to photograph the famous nebulae.

I flipped the scope to the east to take my first look at Orion. I was amazed by the nebulae; sure you can’t see the horse’s head, but I wasn’t expecting that. I wasn’t expecting to see the fuzz of a nebula, and yet, there it was. Seeing these incredible sights is always viscerally life affirming, and to use the cliche, awe inspiring.

Saw the usual suspects, the Moon, Jupiter and 4 moons, Saturn and Titan. The moon is a waxing crescent, about 9%, so very beautiful to observe. Even though it was a warm night, the conditions were excellent.

The Astronz camera adapter arrived, and attaching the Nikon Z 6 was too much for the poor little mount. While declination balance was good, I could not get the RA balanced at all. I attempted to shoot anyway, but with no luck. I will try again as soon as the conditions are good, and see what I can do in terms of increasing the counter weight.

I tried out the new Astronz Moon filter, by jingos the moon was extremely bright and very difficult to look at without it.

I had a heck of a time getting my first target of the night, the very large and bright moon. I eventually realised I had the 10mm eyepiece in, not the nice wide 20mm. A good lesson though.

I once again was able to make out a faint band of colour on Jupiter, but the seeing was no where near like it was last week. I think this was because it was considerably warmer tonight than it had been previously.

It was a promising evening, but unfortunately thick cloud rolled in. I got a quick view of the moon (about 73%, waxing gibbous) and Jupiter, but unfortunately the kids missed out.

Jupiter’s moons had moved again, although I only got a glimpse of three of them.

Setup was quick. The placement of the moon, Saturn and Jupiter was awkward in terms of the declination fine tune adjustment handle as the counter weight was right in the way. I presume there’s a technique for avoiding this, my homework is figure that out

I am tempted to get a Nikon Z t-adapter and see how bad the photos I can take will be, but I should be able to use it should I get a better mount and scope in future.

I brought the scope up to Te Horo, and we got a brief view of the moon, Saturn, Jupiter and its four moons.

When the clouds broke the seeing was good.

Saturn was as clear as the other night, despite how bright the moon was.

Jupiter’s moons had moved, and were even more visible than the other night.

The moon was half full, and even without a moon filter it was viewable without eyeball discomfort.

The kids loved seeing the moon, alas only one waited to see Jupiter, however they seemed to be amazed by it.

The big takeaways were:

• It was easy to realign the finder scope, something I’d been concerned would be tricky.
• The scope is definitely portable (relatively). Not on-a-plane portable, but definitely in-a-car portable.
• My lessons from my first session worked again: start wide, gradually zoom in, be extra patient.
• Overall time: less than an hour. Not too cold, not much light pollution, and I was close to did and drink.

Once again, I was so thrilled to see what I was seeing.

After a few weeks of keeping an eye on Trade Me, a pretty cheap Nova 114/500 Newtonian on an EQ-1 mount popped up. I grabbed it with pretty low expectations.

I do not expect to use this for astrophotography, but I will probably attempt it to see what I can learn.

Using the scope has already taught me so much (all of these things I am doing poorly). I have realised:

• the importance of even rudimentary polar alignment;
• how hard it is to find stuff – even large and bright planets;
• I have learnt to love the EQ mount. My clumsy attempts at tracking some of the planets was ok, and it got better on the second attempt.
• the conditions were excellent and are likely to have raised unrealistic expectations for future viewing.

I am also very fortunate to have had such incredible seeing conditions, and Saturn and Jupiter in excellent positions for viewing. My kids will be bummed next time they look at those planets.

This was my second time out with the scope, but conditions were absolutely perfect: clear, cool, crescent moon setting. We got great views of the moon, Jupiter and four moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto), Saturn and its rings (possibly Titan). Venus was a little hard to see well due to how bright it was. Jupiter and Saturn were high up in the sky which I guess also helped with what we could see.

I could make out a band of colour on Jupiter.

I also realised how easy it was to align the finder and then use that to find planets, so the second attempt at seeing the gas giants was much easier than when I first tried to find them earlier in the evening.

Also starting with the 10mm eyepiece, focus and centering it, then inserting the 20mm eyepiece, repeating the process, and then finally zooming up with the 2x barlow with the 20mm eyepiece. Just amazing.

The equatorial mount was gradually demystified throughout the session, although I am sure I would have committed some cardinal sins with it.

I also spent a lot more time observing than I expected, nearly an hour and a half.

I was really blown away, but then, the conditions were ideal and conditions that good will be rare.