Friday, August 26, 2011

1479e 2011/08/26–27

1479e 2011/08/26–27 22:40–22:55 EDT Foxmead S deck 9–3 8cmrr 10x50b ne

I discovered tonight that a lightning strike last week has knocked out the motors in my Celestron CPC1100. I'll have to have a look inside tomorrow in daylight, but for now I've set up my little Orion 80mm GoScope achromatic refractor.

Comet Garradd (C2009 P1) in Sagitta @ 18x. Right next to M71, and almost identical in brightness. M71 is slightly "twinkly" and the comet has a slight tail, but otherwise the two are almost identical at low power.

Deep sky: Besides M71, I observed M27 and M11 with the GoScope. Clouds had moved into Andromeda and Triangulum, but earlier I had observed M31 and M33 with 10x50 binoculars. In binoculars, M71 and Comet Garradd formed one indistinct blur.

Once again, the GoScope has proven to be a delightful little telescope, quite amazing for $100. I now have it mounted on my Manfrotto tripod which is very handy because I can crank it up and down to match my sitting eye position. All the DSOs were bright and clear in the stock 20mm eyepiece, and the mini-Dob mount and red dot finder make it really easy to use.

Temperature: 15°C

Here is an image of Comet Garradd in Sagitta made by Rick Fienberg the same night:

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