Second Night Out - Dark Sky and Freezing to Death

[ScottF]

I took the club loaner scope to central Wisconsin and viewed the heavens from the family farm, something I've dreamed about doing for years. The skies were very dark with a lot to view. I set the Celestron 8SE up, aligned to two stars, and viewed planets while experimenting with the 2X Barlow lens and various Plossl lenses. The results were fun and interesting. I saw the moon of course, then Jupiter, and I was most delighted to see Saturn! It was amazing! I was surprised the planet size was so small. I am still learning about magnification. Because of my inexperience with aligning the telescope with two stars, I wasn't able to take advantage of the higher magnification of 8 or 13 mm lens, sticking with the 25 mm Plossl because I couldn't find the planets with the higher magnification.

While being blown away with the view of Saturn, I was struggling a bit with focusing the 8SE. I'd turn the focus control and the view would jiggle for several seconds under it settled down. Somewhat difficult to fine tune the focus. Is this normal?

When viewing planets, what lenses or magnification do you use to yield the largest size? I went nuts and used the 2X Barlow with a 9 mm lens, and couldn't find Saturn.

I was impressed with the scope's ability to track Saturn over on hour. I was freezing to death, and went inside to warm up and eat dinner, then came outside, and by golly, the scope with still tracking Saturn just fine.

Several people asked me what I was planning to do with astronomy long term, I didn't know. I think long term I would like to work with astrophotography and capture larger imagines of what I'm seeing, with greater detail and color.

I have a friend in Florida who sends me photos of the heavens with his 8" scope, and I'm blown away at the colors and the beauty of heavenly objects that would never be seen with the scope and live eye. This is inspiring to me.

The temperature was in the low 20's. I would have stayed out later to view the cosmos beyond planets, but I was too cold. I WILL implement cold weather gear, scarf, hat, gloves with hand warmers for the next viewing. I was bummed to go inside but my fingers were hurting from the cold. So you astronomers do alot of winter gazing or is it more of a Spring, Summer, Fall hobby?

Seeing Saturn was exhilarating! Regards, ScottF

[Dick Jacobson]

I pretty much forget about stargazing during the winter except to tinker with my equipment. I've occasionally tried to observe down to zero degrees Fahrenheit but it's impossible to keep my fingers warm and the eyepiece free of frost. I try to dress for 30 or 40 degrees colder than the predicted temperature. Congratulations and best wishes on acquiring this fascinating hobby!

[FF2Rydia]

I'm afraid that we all failed to mention a key item with magnification. You start with the lowest power eyepiece, center the object in the eyepiece, and then go to the next higher power eyepiece, and center that view in the eyepiece, and repeat with progressively higher powers until you reach your target magnification.

The wiggle while focusing depends a lot on the sturdiness of the mount. I also suspect that the focus knob built into catadioptric scopes (such as Schmidt-Cassegrains and Maks), which physically move the objective, take more time to settle than drawtube focusers, such as those found on the catadioptric scopes at the club observatories. But I would need someone who has used that focuser knob to confirm my suspicion.

Regarding winter observing, most of us here in Minnesota generally don't observe in winter, unless we have specific reasons, such as going after items in the Astronomical League observing programs (the Herschel series is infamous for this), or we are doing an astrophotography run that can be done mostly inside. Solar observing is another thing that might be done in winter, simply because it's usually not quite so cold in the day, and visual solar observing is often done fairly quickly.

[SEmert]

... I also suspect that the focus knob built into catadioptric scopes (such as Schmidt-Cassegrains and Maks), which physically move the objective, take more time to settle than drawtube focusers, such as those found on the catadioptric scopes at the club observatories.

Actually, that hasn't been my experience with my SCTs and Mak. The settling period is still dependent upon the rigidity of the mount. But SCTs do also exhibit image shift when focusing in and out, as the angle of the primary mirror shifts ever so slightly as you reverse from focusing in to out or out to in. Some very little, some much more noticeably.

... Regarding winter observing, most of us here in Minnesota generally don't observe in winter, unless we have specific reasons, such as going after items in the Astronomical League observing programs...

All the more reason to take winter vacations down south! You also get the additional benefit of being able to view objects that are farther south in the sky!

[KSeverson]

True, clear winter skies generally correlate with cold weather. I have a snowmobile suit that gets used primarily for winter astronomy! Hands remain an issue, I keep heavy mittens on until there is something fiddly that required greater dexterity, them pop them off for a while. Unfortunately, set up and tear down often are full of fiddly tasks and touching cold things.