13 August 2022 Observing Log

Set up at about 23:00 MDT. Didn't bother with exact level, just approximated. New Celestron red light flashlight works great.

Saturn was up, Moon wasn't above the Sapphire Mountains yet. This is 2 days after the last "super moon" for 2022, called the "sturgeon moon". The sky was still bright enough to wash out most stars. This made getting the telescope aligned difficult. Trees block a significant part of the northern and northeastern sky. The hillside blocks below about 40 degrees of the sky from WSW to NNW. This adds to the difficulty, since some of the bright stars start to disappear behind the hill fairly early. I originally picked this spot because of the southern view and the access to power from my wood shop. I definitely need to try a different spot.

I manually slewed to Saturn. With a 25mm eyepiece I could see Saturn ,its rings, and 2 of its moons. No detail or color,couldn't make out any bands on Saturn or divisions in the rings. Seeing was still not very good. Lots of unsteadiness in the atmosphere, probably residual heat off the mountains. Tried the 17mm and 8mm eyepieces. 17mm yields approximately 119.5 power (25mm gives approx. 81). The view was steadier, but still unable to pick out any real detail. The 8mm Eyepiece yields 254 power, but at that magnification the image was so unstable the I couldn't get a good focus.

Jupiter came up after the moon, so I moved to it. Had the same issue as with Saturn. I then used Saturn and Jupiter to do a Solar System alignment.

Jupiter effectively just looked like a large unsteady white ball. I came back to it a little later using the 17mm eyepiece and was able to make out 2 very faint bands. At all times the 4 Gallilean Moons were visible.

Last, I spent quite a bit of time on the moon. I used the moon filter for the first time and it made considerable difference in the glare. Spent time going around the outer edges of the Moon to get the most contrast and shadow definition. With the 25mm the entire moon almost fits in the field of view (FOV). With the 6mm you get a magnification of 338.7. This brings you close enough that in areas with little detail like some of the mares, it is easy to lose your orientation. Was able to make out striations and details in areas with craters and other features. Highlights the fact that I need to get familiar with and use a moon map. I also need to try out the 32mm eyepiece, since that will give a wider FOV.

I also learned that in this mode the slew speed is automatically reduced once the telescope automatically slews to a chosen plane/object. The control button directions are also reversed.



 

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