12th February 2010 - Report

I was full of excitement as I knew the night was going to be crystal clear with very nice conditions and no wind so Bragan was my obvious choice of destination. I also had a phone call from one of my customers, a few nights before, asking about Mars and asking if he could accompany me the next time I was out observing so I brought him along and it was hist first time looking through a telescope, so I was also thrilled at giving someone new the chance to see some of the wonders we all enjoy looking at.
The night didn't disappoint for either of us. It all started off with stunning views of Mars and ended with a fairly okish view of Saturn.
I was freezing cold, at -4, though I was feeling fine because I had all my thermal clothing and all weather boots on but my guest was feeling the bite near the end of our session but he really enjoyed himself. He was thrilled at seeing Mars and it's polar caps showing up nicely in the eye pieced, and seeing Saturn really something he found amazing to see. I was really pleased he enjoyed himself.
Overall it was a brilliant and memorable night with great conditions, it was a real shame that no one from the club could have taken advantage of such a good night at the site.

Location = Bragan

Seeing = 4
Trans = 3/4

Equipment = EQ6 Pro and Orion 10"

Start Time = 20:10

The observations for the night are as follows: 

Mars = Another excellent view with fine details showing even better with AV. I really do believe Mars to be a brilliant use of the UHC-S filter for planets.

M41 = A lovely large open cluster that fills the FOV of the 20mm 2" EP beautifully. It's been many years since I got to see this and I had forgotten how lovely it is.

M93 = My first time getting to see this very low open cluster and a fine view it is too. Faint but beautifully vast with stars spread out in nice asterism like shapes and some lovely star colours could be picked out too. Certainly and object I hope to get again soon. This was also the first time in my life I was able to clearly see all of Canis Major - no doubt thanks to the really dark skies of Bragan.

M42 = A fine sight with great detail at all magnifications and even better contrast under UHC-S

M1 = A very poor view with little detail and also unusually faint looking. UHC-S couldn't even do anything to help the view.

Aplha And = Stunning.

Eta Cas = Magnificent, the sharpest and best colour contrast I have ever seen from this glorious pair.

M81& M82 = A decent view with good detail to be had in M82.

M51 = An average view tonight, though with AV some spiral structure could be visiable for a few moments. This clearly wasn't a night for galaxies.

Saturn = Considering how low Saturn was in the sky at the time the view wasn't bad at all. Even at  480x the image was surprising steady but details were completely washed out. Reducing power to 150x really improved the view.

Finish Time = 24:51