I noticed the sky was ok and decided to check with cc if CSN was activated.
However, he feedback it was hazy at Dempsey area, so I arrange with Chris Yeo instead to meet me at my multi-storey car park for a session after 11pm.
The evening was marred by strong wind which affected focussing as well as a less than great seeing condition. It would seem it was only suitable for viewing brighter objects and planets. Got down to viewing with Chris Yeo and my colleague who lives 2 floors below me! We had my ETX105EC as well as Chris' ETX90RA.
It was the usual Saturn (my colleague was sleepy but thrilled at looking at its rings at x230.) , Jupiter, Orion, M44, M41, M45, Jewel Box and a string of open clusters read off by Chris whose NGC numbers I cannot remember. Omega Centauri, unfortunately was a lost cause, as was the Virgo clusters which was near zenith...it was simply not dark or clear enough.
The highlight of the night HAD to be the Jovian transit. I've seen it a few times but this was the best one I saw.! (Pardon me for forgetting which moon was which, hope that Chris Yeo can help me here!)
It started with us seeing the shadow of one of the moons slowly moving out of transit and the approach of another. This was more difficult to see as the shadow was on the equatorial band. Then the moon broke surface and emerge just exactly as another was about to enter on the opposite side. The result looked like a head with 2 ears! Very neat. As as the second moon entered, I could VERY CLEARLY make out the whitish moon against the jovian equatorial band and its shadow on my 4" ETX105. . Have never seen it so clear before. About 5-10 minutes after this transit, another approaching moon also threw its shadow on Jupiter. Awesome! I plonked my scope at the wrong place where the wind was strong and the scope shook alot but I still managed to catch the jovian transits clearly. If only I had my camera set up to cature it!
Overall, I also managed to do a simply comparison between the ETX90RA and the ETX105EC with UHTC. The 105 clearly could handle higher magnification much better and the transit looked obviously better on it.
(x210 - 14mm Radian + x2 generic barlow). That got me thinking what an 8" will do....Aperture fever again!!!
However, at lower mag (x 160+) , the etx90 held its own with razor sharp images of Jupiter. Its compactness and portability meant that Chris was highly deployable, anywhere anytime ( as long as he is not stuck with a glass of beer with his friends!
)rich
