Yes i need to look at the front lenses from the side to see the colors on my eyepieces, not directly.

The white sheet test? I am not sure I understand how to do it.

 

I don't quite understand the white paper test either.

 

I am planning an observation for tonight.. it's full covered right now but supposed to be 100% clear tonight but with very high RH.. unperfect conditions but I will take advantage of it.

It's going to be a low power red and blue stars hunt (((; I am identifying targets right now with Stellarium for the red carbon stars at least, for the blue stars, i want to find them at the eyepepiece mainly and look them up at home to see if my eye was right.

So much things to look at, tonight is going to be all about stars and colors. Your favorite theme @Dave In Vermont, stars!

Also, using stellarium I am identifying O spectral class blue stars! the bluest super giants.

 

After something like 4 days, the sky if FINALLY clearing up, I've never been so happy like that in a long time..

Look how beautiful it's getting for tonight.

 

Rising at 20:30 it will be at approximately 17 degrees elevation from the ground at midnight... Weather is not good here, it's 85% humidity and high risk of mist formation.. I wait at the last minute to make a move, it's 20:50 and I already see some mist above the ground at the other side of the field..

Weather forecast is changing every 15 minutes.. not surprising with a temperature drop from 30 to 17 and 85% humidity..

If i can get 1 good hour of astronomy, I'll be happy.

 

Temperature was weird here too but i had almost 4 hours of observation with a good amount of that time spent on Mars. Even with the difficulties I had managing dew with more then 85% RH, views of mars were surprisingly impressive with a clean disk and not too bad surface features.

6mm orthoscopic and that premium little Celestron Mars filter were used almost all the time. Pfff thats a pretty good magenta filter.

Perhaps tomorrow will be better yes, with less humidity i hope, tonight that was a serious bummer with the dew heater and everything..

rain came down by the bathtub-full!

Lol

 

yep I know for the next 4 days rain and bad weather.... thanks for reminding me

My observation last night was so good @Dave In Vermont, you know it was a hard one so start with many difficulties but once I started to find targets, slowly, it became a memorable experience for the next 4 days minimum.

I found the astreoid Vesta it took some time to get to the correct spot but the target itself was easy. I had to get the barlow 2x out of my tool chest for the task of observing it at 425x with my 4.7mm. There was a small disk visible (i think) with beige hue including a very bright spot in the middle... not too much details were visible except for the disk and the strange light reflection.

But it's my first asteroid!

 

These are my to latest log sketches of mars.. The second one is more accurate with the position of the ice cap. Inverted images, I tried to keep some shades under the dust too but it was not exactly easy to see the exact position but I did my best to capture the right darker region.

It was quality time spent at the eyepiece again. For a plant that low, i was still impressed by the resolution, and definitely think my latest collimation exercise was a total success. I am amazed at the eyepiece..



Both sketch were done with the surprising Celestron Mars Filter.

 

My logs of 2018! I tried to pick up some things but the shades were unstable (or the stability of me eye) I think some of it is close to reality! Thanks for watching and hopefully I'll do more sketches of mars soon.

I noticed at lower power 42x, , the shades of the maria (has Reggie suggested), are also visible with a bit more punch.. at less power.

 

Oh great that's nice, there was the option!! on western, thank you very much @Dave In Vermont

 

2018-08-07 - Observation failure.

NEGATIVE PART
After a day looking at the forecasts the sky was finally clear but @ 24 Celsius with 80% humidity. IT took the time to install the gear outside the house.. I didn't went to far because my level of confidence was very low... I have to face extreme mosquitoes, it was so hot and I had nets in my face, long sleeve sweater, pants I had difficulties to bread the 24 Celsius 80% humidity. Then a neighbors dog started to barking non stop.. I gave up after 10 minutes.. with a bit of frustration this time.

The time it took to install the dew heater seemed like forever.

POSITIVE PART
BUT I saw something wonderful, close to Daneb in Cygnus. My goal was to find the "U Cyg" a carbon star. I was not able to locate it but there was an incredible trio of stars there, I am talking about 30 Cyg, 31 Cyg and HIP 99676.



Especially 31 Cyg, fairly yellow, a "k" classe and companion HIP 99676 ,close to it, which is cold blue, the contrast of the 2 was worth all the pain I had to endure especially with my new 24mm ES, incredible resolution in all possible comfort. Without forgetting star 30 which is also a blue star.

2 obvious bright stars close to Deneb.. but with 42x of power, it's something else then the naked eye observation.

YES!

Thanks for your time reading this.

 

I don't know what,s happening to me today, I studied and read many threads about Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes and for the first time, I clearly understood vignetting.

Good threads on Cloudy Nights but this bellow helped me understand many interesting things.

https://www.petersonengineering.com/vignetting.htm