Southern Sentinel Observing Report

Hazy early, then Clear. Very Cold.

Limiting Magnitude 6.0, transparency 3/5, seeing 2.5/5

No Moon

13.1 Inch Dobsonian, TeleVue Paracorr & Eyepieces & Lumicon Filters

What looked to be more hopeful observing for this Winter Waharau, I decided to head down to Waharau for some observing if the weather cooperated.

I arrived at 2:30 PM and Dave Brock, Jethro & Alan Kane were already there. After a good chin wag, I got the telescope out and setup under very overcast skies. Well at least the telescope would cool down and be ready if it did clear. Many other people arrived all afternoon and evening, but we were less than optimistic about the cloud clearing.

However just before dusk, the cloud lifted to a haze, enough to do an inital alignment on the PalmDSCs and wait further to see if the cloud would clear further. By about 8PM there was large areas of the sky clear enough for observing. Conditions were very cold.

No plan tonight in regards to new objects, just a whizz round all the old favourites.

Observations as follows;

A nice nights viewing was had, despite the very cold conditions, down to about 3 degrees. Wind was not really a factor. Cloud was basically gone by 10 PM and I had unrestricted viewing for the next 2 hours.

Palm was a bit off all night, despite a few realignments. The slope of the carpark at Waharau is less than desirable for good pointing. Otherwise no issues.

As I said earlier, no real plan. Nice to catch up with a few nice bright objects and some objects not observed for awhile, especially some Messiers not seen for at least 3 years. This weekend was going to be the best opportunity to see some of those Virgo and Coma Berenices galaxies not observed for awhile. From where I was setup, Canes Venetici objects were not visible. A few dark nebulae were observed as they got in the Zenith region. Detail was good, but I have seen better.

Jupiter was nice and high but the seeing limited the ability to coax out any detail.

Mainly stuck with the 17mm Nagler, however I did use the 22mm Nagler briefly. The seeing was very poor, so low power was the order of the day...sorry, night.

Packed up and was in bed just after midnight, to manage my ongoing fatigue condition.

Tomorrow night, if clear, I plan to hit some real logging.