Horrified to see the last entry was the 1st of last month, (well, not horrified, just surprised). I was very busy with work and stuff late Dec and over Xmas, but I’ve managed to do some observing since then. I’ve been to the observatory four times this month already. I’ve stopped faffing about trying to set the go-to up, and I’m using it like a normal scope. It’s going well apart from the misting up of the main lens. I may need some advice on this. I was out there tonight for an hour and a half. It seems that only ten minutes after taking the lens cap off, it mists over. I feel a question to Stargazers Lounge coming on.
No ‘new’ DSO’s to rave about, but this 8″ SC really has some fine optics. A few visits ago before the seemingly inevitable ‘mist up’, I looked at M37 in Auriga and it was the most stunning sight. More like a globular cluster than an open cluster, the contrast was superb and for ages I let my eye wander around the streams of stars, and dark lanes. It really did look amazingly rich. The line of open clusters through Auriga down to Gemini are a delight.
Venus is back! A bright beacon, surprisingly high in the West. Hiya!
I saw Leo tonight, rising in the east, and despite the sky flow from Wolverhampton over seven miles away, I had a lovely view of the Beehive Cluster through th e10x50 Opticroms.
I Need my Space 