09th October Observing report

Managed to get out for a couple of hours tonight.
tracked down uranus again and had a look in the dob. Its small. After uranus I got to see neptune also for the first time, small also.

I must say the colours were not particularly noticable. The contrast between uranus and lambda aquarius was more noticable in the 20X80's but it was not striking. must look at these again in a dark sky. I was going to try for Ceres, but it was less than 10 degrees from the horizon so I gave it a skip.

I then moved onto the moon and spent an hour or more in and around the Crisium and Cleomedes area. I was using "discover the moon" by lacroux and Legrand to show me the way. (It was my first night using this and makes observing the moon much more interesting.) The wrinkle ridges and old craters which have been half covered by lava in crisium were particularly prominent. I then watched the sun set on Endymon to the north. The walls were projecting into darkness and the sunlight portions got noticable smaller over the time I was looking at the moon.

I also moved further south along the terminator and stumbled across what I think was cook crater (or it could be mcclure) which, with the low angle of the sun looked like a dome ending in a steep cliff.

The dew monster got the better of me at that stage so I called it a night.

Trevor --

Nice report. I never see a lot of color in Uranus either. Perhaps it's due to the low altitude (and attendant atmospheric refraction) we get from Ireland?

I did get a view of Oberon and Titania at the end of September, though. I should be able to draw out Ariel as well (and perhpas even Umbriel), but they were too close to the planet's disk at the time.

I took a quick look at the moon last night. I still don't get much joy from it. Perhaps I need to try out the book you mention....

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

Nice report Trevor, It was a beautiful night last night. Done some variable star observation myself, waiting for things to 'blow up'

I then watched the sun set on Endymon to the north. The walls were projecting into darkness and the sunlight portions got noticable smaller over the time I was looking at the moon.

I've seen this myself with other craters over a period of even an hour or so, you see shadows getting longer, and bright peaks getting smaller. It's a nice sight.

Keith..