[Chaos-l] Observing Session last Saturday

[Stewart-Taylor, Jon]

 Hi all.  Based on the Sky Clocks for both Oxford and Jordan Lake sites,
and our desire not to drive too far or stay too late, last Saturday's
session was relocated to the Farrington Point boat ramp.  As usual we
met at the ECHHS bus lot then caravan'd to the site.

Once there we had 4 people and 3 scopes: Robert's 10" SC, my 10" dob,
and two folks with newly purchased 4" short-tube Newtonian (hi, guys!).
Conditions varied from mediocre to good as bands of cloud crossed over,
but on the whole it was a pretty good evening.  There was even less car
traffic than usual.

I spent a short period helping out with the new scope, drawing on my
memories of suffering- er, i mean, _using_ a Tasco 4" reflector during
the 70s. It's often the case with these type of scopes that the optics
are pretty good, but the mounts tend to be marginal, and the finders
generally suck eggs.  That appeared to be the case with this one.  The
mount is a typical small equatorial, and needs careful balancing.  The
finder is a typical 5x25 stopped-down to about 10mm, and the finder
mount was difficult to adjust.  I advised getting a unit-power finder,
or even one of the Daisy BB-gun red-dot sights.  You can read more about
adapting these for astro use at various places on-line, including
http://www.astronexus.com/gatfaq/finders.php.  Still, once you do find
something, these scopes do give a nice view of the objects in their
range, especially the moon, planets, and the bigger open clusters.

After that i spent most of the night getting reacquainted with the
winter/spring open clusters, and getting a preview of the spring
galaxies as Leo, Ursa Major, and Canis Venatici rose.  Probably the
highlight of the evening for me was Saturn.  The shadow of the planet is
falling on the rings, giving the illusion of a sharp cut just before
they go behind the planet.  It's something i haven't seen "live" before,
due to a combination of planetary geometry and a tendency to use low
power while observing.  Pretty neat.


The low turnout for observing sessions is a bit disappointing.  Quick
survey: why were you unable to attend last night's observing session?

   [ ] Prior non-astronomical commitment.
   [ ] Attended Morehead session at Ebenezer instead.
   [ ] Uncertain about observing conditions.
   [ ] Basketball.
   [ ] Didn't know whether there _was_ an observing session.
   [ ] Other (please explain).

I've talked to a couple of people who don't have web/e-mail access, and
they aren't able to get last-minute notification of changes to
dates/times/observing locations.  I'm probably opening a can of worms
here, but...

How many people would be interested in telephone notification of
observing session updates?  Would dial-in answering machine message
work, or would you want someone to call you?

Thanks.

J.
-- 
Jon Stewart-Taylor
jcst at tripod.net