Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jun 10, 2007 1:04:49 GMT -6
Chicago Astronomer Site #2
08 June 2007
08 June 2007
Chicago Astronomer Bill called and encouraged me to come out in the cool spring evening and conduct a mini star party to test out eyepieces he recently got. I had contemplated a venture out too as I also wanted to put a new Mak spotting scope I got thru it paces.
Originally we had planned to set up by the South Lawn of the Adler Planetarium, but Cheryl Crow was performing at the unwanted Northerly Island stage just a few yards from the Adler, and with it, heavy traffic and congestion. We decided on an old stand by, Chicago Astronomer site #2, just off downtown.
We set up about 8:00 pm and with the whole field before us, had plenty of room. The sky was still rather bright, but Venus and Saturn were punching thru the twilight.
I got this 3.1 Lb Maksutov-Cassegrain mini spotting scope recently and had hoped to use it as a telephoto lens for the Canon Powershot S3 or a finder scope for my 8" sewer pipe Dob.
It's a C65 Mini Mak - 65mm Spotting Scope from Celestron with a non-removable zoom eyepiece and 835mm Focal length. I had high hopes for the scope, but it was not to be.
The performance of the scope was rather poor. The focuser is a knurled knob on the side with not to smooth of a focusing action. The field of view is small, (1.5"-5"), and at higher magnification, quite dim. It's hard to aim the thing, with the best efforts of sighting over the top of the short tube...which was hit and miss.
It didn't show any of the phase of Venus, Saturn was a small oblong object, and although Jupiter's Satellites were visible, no detail on the planet was discernible.
It was agreed that this scope is sub par and I shall return it early next week. Too bad.
With that, we continued our observation session. Bill brought along his 10" Antares dob, which provides very nice bright views.
Views of Saturn and Venus were nice, but Jupiter was odd looking this evening. Missing were the two clear cloud bands and smaller banding. What I saw was only one strong band, whereas I always have seen both in direct contrast. I thought perhaps it was just me and my poor eyesight, but Bill concurred with my observation. Even the use of filters did not bring the second band out.
I took advantage of the opportunity to do some handheld astrophotography thru his scope.
Taken with the S3, the camera confirms what we both observed. A band has faded.
We then continued with exploring the evening sky. Bill is the master in picking objects out without hesitation. Observed M57, M13 and alberio in both my modest 4.5" and his dob.
With city glare interferring, binoculars were put into use to help locate.
We were picking out various objects talking astronomy and catching up on personal things in our lives. We stayed well past 12:00 am. The cool air quite comfortable, but dew started to form on things and we called it a night.