February 17th Astronomy Observations

Spring time is astronomy time! I have two telescopes, a Meade ETX-90 and and a Celestron Newtonian reflector. The ETX is what I'm using currently, as the Celestron is sitting in the basement of my parents' house in St. Louis. Anyway, I can't remember if the Celestron is 4.5 inches or 6 right now, but that's neither here nor there, because it's not being used.

Anyway, my ETX setup is pretty nice and portable. I like it because I can throw it in the trunk of the car any night that the observing looks to be potentially good and head out.
Here's the lowdown on my setup:

Meade ETX-90, with an Autostar computer and aluminum field tripod. (I use it primarily in Az/Alt configuration)

Rigel Systems Quickfinder

DewZapper Dew Shield

Meade 4000 series 12.4mm Plossl, 26mm Plossl and 32mm Plossl.
TeleVue 40mm Plossl and 3X barlow

Orion UltraBlock Nebula Filter

I have a Celestron 26mm Plossl, 2x Barlow and some various filters back is St. Louis with my other telescope.

Meade erecting prism for terrestrial viewing.

So, back to the main subject of this post, I took my telescope out last night for some observing at Perry Lake State Park here in Kansas. With little regard for the Clear Sky Clock that predicted horrible observing conditions, I made the 30 mile drive out to my favorite observing spot. Having recently updated my Autostar computer, I felt the need to try out the new and improved features, and it was nice out anyway so I figured why not?

Well, it was beautiful out. I haven't seen so many stars since I was out to sea years ago, and it was the first time I've seen the Milky Way in that long too. Saturn was very nice and bright, a perfect target for using my new Barlow. I could really see the shadow of the rings cast across the face of the planet. The Orion Nebula was awesome as usual, as were a few star clusters I randomly came across. I guess if I'm going to document my observing sessions, that I'm going to have to be more specific, but this is really only preliminary.

The UltraBlock is pretty interesting. It's not really designed for a scope with as small as an aperture as mine since it diminishes alot of the light coming in. But I used it while observing The Great Orion Nebula with the 40mm Plossl, and though it takes some getting used to, it really helps to show how huge that nebula is. Without the filter, the nebula appears to look like a small white fuzzy cloud surrounding some stars. With the filter, a huge green smear filled the eyepiece. It really does do what it's advertised to do, though I'm going to have to wait a while before I can utilize it to it's full capacity by using it in conjunction with a larger aperture telescope.

The TeleVue 40mm Plossl eyepiece is also absolutely amazing. It costs quite a bit more than similar offerings by larger telescope manufacturers, but in my opinion, it's worth every last cent. Absolutely sharp images from center to edge, it's like I'm not even looking through an eyepiece, but rather straight into the depths of space itself.

I ended up leaving early though, since I heard something walking around in the field next to me. It sounded bipedal, not the scurrying sound of coyotes or deer, so I figured better safe than sorry and packed up my gear and got the hell out of Dodge. I figured at worst that someone was taking a night stroll in the woods or something, but I really wasn't in the mood with dealing with anyone if it was. It was probably an animal I'm sure, but when you're out in the middle of nowhere without anyone knowing exactly where you are, the last thing you need is some sort of drunken surprise stumbling up on you.