Yesterday evening I travelled over to the Derbyshire peaks, to Pyms Chair which is a local beauty spot above the Goyt Valley. This site is very exposed, but does have one advantage, it is high up and has a good horizon all around.
I arrived with a friend at 22:30 to find one of my Macc AS observing buddies waiting for me, and I was soon joined by another good friend from Macc AS, Paul C. We had arranged to meet at the Pyms chair site to observe comet C2009 R1 McNaught. This comet is now quite bright, m5.6 and was seen visually and imaged, by Paul last Wednesday morning. What a pity the comet isn't visible later in the year when the skies are darker. I am sure it would be an easy naked eye object.
We soon had all out gear set up. My Dob is so easy to assemble and to use, it only takes a minute before I have an eyepiece in the focuser and I am ready to observe.
Last night I was fortunate to get my first views of a wide gibbous Moon, together with Venus and Saturn. Despite a howling gale buffering the telescope, the Moon looked exquisite.
I was delighted to show one of the group her first ever look through a telescope, she had never seen the Moon before, until last night. To say that she was gob smacked is an understatement. Of cause she now wants a telescope so you can guess what hubby will be saving for.
By midnight the wind was getting worse and so was the cloud. As for the temperature, well that was ridiculous; is it really the beginning of Summer?
Despite the forecast of clear skies all night, the cloud was gathering in the North east alarmingly fast shortly after we began observing, and it wasn't too long before we had total obscuration.
We called it a night at 12:20am and thawed out on our way home.
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