Friday, November 30, 2007

Early morning indoor viewing

Just woke up to cover the kids again, it's pretty cold these days. That's around 4:00am, the mighty hunter Orion is hanging outside. Took my Canon 10x30 IS out to have a quick look.

Very nice view, M42 shows a distinguish fan shape, the transparency is so good in terms of Hong Kong sky.

Next, I turned to Sirius, this bright star is very attractive in a small bino, very bright and better than any diamond on earth, maybe that's why it's hanging in the sky so that everyone can see it for free.

I tried to scan for M41 but failed. Then I put on my eye glasses, and let myself know where it should be, then I pointed my 10x30 there, after 1 or 2 seconds, it's right there! Stars are resolved partially, which is a great view. Believe it or not, a fully resolved cluster is not as nice as viewing a partially resolved cluster. That's because it gives a dynamic sense, some stars popped in and popped out randomly if it's partially resolved. A very nice view.

So, I ended my 2-3 minutes of viewing and headed back to sleep.

Again, the IS button is magical! Without pressing the IS button, I can never be sure if I have seen M41 or not, IS didn't only let me detect it, but to let me see it partially resolved! So nice!

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