Post by dobsonian on Mar 4, 2007 14:16:00 GMT
Hello again mes amis,
Last night's total lunar eclipse was perfect weather wise.The Association's event at Cultra was well attended by the public, and I would estimate that the numbers would be in hundreds. I had my 130mm APO on display for the viewing of the eclipse, but a lot of people wanted to see Saturn, and the gasps of surprise on seeing it were rewarding. The view was enhanced by using a 7mm Nagler which gave a power of 160. The seeing was good to very good and dotted around the planet were at least four satellites. The eclipsing Moon was viewed by using a 20mm Meade eyepiece ( X55 ) which gave a nice full disk view, with generous eye relief. The eclipse its self followed the usual lines, and the eclipsed moon was easily visible to the naked eye.The insidious cold began to take effect around midnight, and by then only the die hard astronomers remained, and I packed up and left with the car heater at full blast to thaw out my frozen limbs. We could have done with more scopes to help with showing the public
Best
Dobsonian.
