Tonight was the first night in a long while that it was clear. That has been extra frustrating, because Mars has been just passing opposition. This year’s close proximity won’t be matched until about 2018 or something like that. Of course, it’s been just clear enough to offer glimpses of Mars, or clear during the day and cloudy in the evening.
I pulled out the telescope despite the haze of cloud and set it up on the nice grass out back. That’s a bit of a first: all previous viewing sessions had been on the sand, which was a big mess when traipsing in and out of the house with equipment.
Tammy came out, too, and we looked at the moon first. It was waning gibbous; Mare Crisium and Crater Cleomedes were on the terminator and in stark contrast. It would have been better without the haze, but it was neat nonetheless. I put the telescope end cap on minus the small hole to cut down on the brightness. Even with that in place the moon was very bright.
Then we shifted to Mars. First we tried with the 25mm eyepiece, but Mars was more of a dot than a disc. Even with the 10mm eyepiece, the disc was quite small. We played with the focus for a while, but there were no discernable features on the surface. I think I need to borrow Dad’s barlow lens to magnify better. There was no problem with light-gathering: we put the telescope cap on like we did for the moon. Just need more magnification.
Finally we looked at the Pleiades. They were in the hazy cloud, but bright enough to see. With the 25mm lens in, almost the entire cluster was visible at once. Tammy observed that the stars looked farther apart through the telescope. That’s true, since they are points, and the telescope doesn’t magnify them. In effect the only thing magnified is the gaps in between the stars, so they look more spaced out.
All in all, pretty successful. Maybe tomorrow I can team up with Dad and use his barlow.
