I have not looked at the Pleiades through any of my scopes in a couple years. It was nice to see it again. I might have benefited from doing a collimation first but while a bit low in contrast, the bands were visible on Jupiter in my 35mm eyepiece (57x), the 25mm (80x), and the 18mm 2" eyepiece (111x). Slight averted vision seemed to help on Jupiter's detail.
I have toyed with the idea of putting an observatory at the north end of my property. It is a bit farther from my neighbors to the south. So I walked up there in the comparative dark. The improvement was either minor or non-existent. Beta canis majoris (the star just west of Sirius; magnitude 2) was visible from both locations. M42 (Orion Nebula; magnitude 4) was visible in both locations. I might have been able to barely see magnitude 5 stars if I had been looking carefully. For being so close to Caldwell, this is not bad. The house I had the hill was better (magnitude 6) but the Boise light dome was already beginning to degrade it when we moved.
I only spent a few minutes in the north area, so I may not have my eyes enough time to do rhodopsin regeneration. This gets worse as you age with 30 minutes sometimes required. Thirty minutes there in the dark sounds pretty boring.
No comments:
Post a Comment