October 14, 2007 Observing Report

Whohoo!! It has been nearly a month since my last session. This one was short, about 50min, but sweet. I have been really tired lately, lots going on at the home. The skies were super clear, Andromeda could be seen with the naked eye, as well as several open clusters.

Here is the list from last night with comments.
11:00PM - 11:50PM
M45 (Pleiades): This looked superb. Lots of stars were apparent, with some faint nebulosity.
Alderbaran in Taurus: Was fun to look at. The star was superb, but was eclipsed by the amount of stars in the area. When I get a long session, I would like too spend some more time here.
NGC869/884 (Double Cluster): Excellent at 30x. More stars than any other time viewed.
M31 (Andromeda Galaxy): This was my best view ever. Got alot of detail even at 60x. Need to spend more time here as well.
M34 (Open Cluster): This I ran into again. Was a great site and had to look at the Pocket Sky Atlas to confirm.
M27 (Dumbbell Nebula): Looked nice. Got rare detail at 60x. Would like to get a UHC or OIII filter to try on this.
Mars: The red planet was in a tough spot. At 11:45PM, it was just rising over the neighbors garage. Another month and it will look great around midnight.

After a month of clouds, the moon and sick children, I was happy with the quick session that I got. I am still not happy with the mount, but c'est la vie. When funds permit, I will be upgrading.

Another Day, Another Cloudy Night

The last couple of weeks have been sad around here. We have had about 70% cloudy skies with zero opportunity to use the telescope. Some nights the skies look promising, but as soon as the sun sets, the clouds follow. Sometimes, fog has actually rolled in and added another layer of depression. I have checked the long range forecast and it seems that this will continue for at least 4 more days. Oh well, hopefully this will be made up with countless starry nights in a row.

Oh to view through the scope again!!!

Seems like forever since my last session. The moon can do that to you, but couple that with bad weather and some aches and pains and it's been over 2 weeks since my last long session. Hopefully the weather changes soon here while the new moon shows up. I have a few Messiers I would like to check off before they leave for the year.

Update on the BO/TMB Eyepiece Sale

It seems that this is not a sale, but an actual reduction in price. The new retail price is $59. Here is a link to the High Point Scientific price list.

Great Eyepiece Deals

Seems like the holiday season has started early for eyepiece lovers. Televue and Baader have some great sales running and it seems BO/TMB has joined them, well at from one vendor.

To start, in honor of the newly released Ethos, Televue has commissioned a 13% of sale on many of their eyepieces and some barlows. Radians that were selling at $249 are now $212. The Naglers and Panoptics are also on sale. Here is a link to the Televue sale at Oceanside Photo and Telescope which runs until December 31, 2007.

Baader Planetarium has a $30 off sale on their Hyperion series. Normally these run at $129 and are now $99. The series ranges from 3.5mm to 21mm in focal length, while the FOV is 68 degrees with 20mm of eye relief. Here is a link to the Baader sale at OPT which runs until December 31, 2007.

The BO/TMB sale is not well advertised. It seems that Highpoint Scientific has them on sale for $59, which is $40 off their normal price. This would make them the bargain of the year. I have the 4mm abd would love to add another to my collection. Here is a discussion over at Cloudy Nights where I first heard about the sale.

Of the sales so far, the BO/TMB fits right in with my budget, or lack there of. I hope the sale runs for a long enough time for me to decide.