2012-03-02 Very brief sunny period

The sun finally comes out with poor seeing.  Thin cloud floating around and the high humidity is no fun at all.  When I pulled out the solar filter after observation, I can see a thin layer of moisture on the corrector of my Maksutov.

Despite the poor weather, I really want to try out my Maksutov with Baader 3.8, centering the target is not too hard and I managed to do it even at 3000mm and focusing is okay as well even without using a motor.

This is taken at prime focus, i.e. 1500mm focal length at around f/11.  Given a green filter, shutter speed keeps fast and it's good to freeze seeing.  I've also tried to do at 3000mm but then the seeing was just too bad to give any detail, even accurate focusing is impossible.  I shall try again whenever I have chance, see if I can get something with white light.