Details

• Scope: Greening 12" Dobsonian
• Eyepiece: Pentax XL 10.5
• Lens: Televue Powermate 2.5x
• Magnification: 285x
• Filters: None

Notes

Sketched with white and black charcoal on black paper at the eyepiece over 30 mins between 20h and 21h UT. Again, the sketch was started before the fall of darkness which makes the initial outlining of the main elements on the paper somewhat easier. It was a dramatic sight in the low, slanting light at the Terminator. The terraces on the the crater walls were visible at times though no detail on the surface of the central plain was evident in the conditions.

The seeing was poor, though not as poor as the previous evening when I abandoned observing shortly after setting up. The advanced phase of the Moon (85%) meant that other observing was restricted to double stars. Castor was beautiful with its two equally-sized components (the third was not visible due to the seeing and its small size). Polaris was also lovely high in the sky with the two components clearly separated at their vastly different magnitudes.

M13 was visible but washed out. The benefit of these Bortle class 4 skies away from the home observatory is unfortunately diminished by the brightness of the nearly-full Moon.

Seeing: Poor/Average (2/3)
Transparency: Good (4)