I had seen a dip in cloud cover forecasted for the morning hours, so I got up about 3am AKST and went outside with the AZ60-M (60mm refractor). There were a few (altocumulus?) clouds moving through, and a wispy cirrus cloud, but at least 2/3rds of the sky was unobscured, so I gave it a try. The moon is still very bright, but with the current weather patterns, I have to work with whatever God gives me.
I took a look at the moon for a few minutes. I didn't want to spend too long on that (I needed to start getting ready for work by 4:30am) but made a quick sketch of the interesting crater on the west side, which was emphasized this morning by the arrangement of the shadows.
- similar Stellaris screenshot
I proceeded then to take a look at Mars, which at this time was about 1.5 degrees south (equatorial) of the moon. My H6 eyepiece has not arrived yet, so I used the H12.5. It is still pretty small in that view (no detail) but large enough to look like a disk. I saw a dot nearby which I hoped might be a moon, but it was actual actually a 7 magnitude star.
- similar Stellaris screenshot
The constellation Canis Minor was conveniently positioned at that time, so I did drawings of the 28x and 56x views around Procyon.
- similar Stellaris screenshot (28x)
- similar Stellaris screenshot (56x)
Here is an overview of the sky in that direction:
- overview screenshot of southern sky
Following some advice I got on IRC, I ordered a set of 1.25 Plossl eyepieces (25mm, 12.5mm, and 6mm) along with a 1.25->0.965 adapter. I also took a gamble on a somewhat expensive Baader Moon and Skyglow filter which had generally good reviews.
