2 clear nights in less than a week? This must be some kind of record for this year! The Kelling Star Party is only a couple of days away and it seems like almost the entire astro community is going! The site is fully booked, people are chatting excitedly on forums and you just know the weather is going to play up. No matter though, half the fun is meeting like-minded people and generally having a good time. So it's a bit of result that a clear night a few days before I'm due to go has come up so I can get my eye in and get ready..

So after the usual setting up with the WO ZS110, I thought it'd be nice to do a mix of some new objects and a couple of the old favourites and compare them to what I remember how they looked in my C8N. I'm a bit tired so it's not going to be a marathon session, just a few and off to bed. 

First up, the coathanger. Not seen this before for some reason. It's an easy object to see but I've got a bit of a cluster thing going on (I know it's an asterism and not a true cluster!). Hm, it would appear that even with my lowest power EP (Meade 4000 series 40mm), I can't get it all in. Almost all of it, but not quite. Another good reason to get a wide angle low power eyepiece..... Looked good from what I did see though!

I thought it'd be good to see Rasalgethi before disappears until next year. Lo and behold, the red and green beastie looks cracking in the WO scope. The colours look definately more vivid in it and obviously being a refractor, the contrast makes a difference too.

 M27 - The dumbell is one of the few nebulas that doesn't disappoint when observing it visually. With my C8N, a fairly high power EP and a UHC filter I'm able to make out a fair bit of detail there. In the WO it's there, no problems but the smaller aperture makes a big difference. You do lose quite a lot of detail and some of the basic shape and using the UHC filter does more harm than good. Still, I'm using a scope with just over half of the aperture of the my newt and it still looks pretty good so I'm happy with it's performance.

 Then it all goes pear shaped. I don't normally use my laptop while I'm out observing but I did tonight and something electrical goes. That's not good but it's no biggie as long as the scope is ok. Then the scope starts playing up, bugger. I'm not in the mood to faff about so I turn everything off, sit down in the chair and just look up. Even though the seeing isn't great, I can still make out the Milky Way, plenty of constellations and whatnot. As the title says, it's nice just to sit down and drink it in without any optical aids.

 Anyways, clear skies all, especially over the weekend! 

Tony.