Observation session

By arun; Published 21 Dec 2007

The three of us ,Dr Suresh, Vijayakumar and myself planned to go to mahabalipuram for an observing session but after seeing large clouds moving in on the horizon we decided against it and went instead to Veera Reddy nursing home( close to Dr Suresh`s place). Our equipments were Dr Suresh`LX 200, his new 25*100 Celestron binoculars and a 20*80 binos. It turned out to be a surprising night with the clouds clearing out and making way for a clear night.Dr Suresh took amazing pictures of Mars and Moon.I tried spotting objects with the 25*100 but found it extremely difficult to hold them in place.They weigh over 4 kg and my advice to anyone buying those is to first make a tripod for it as Dr Suresh is fabricating one now. Even easy to spot objects will become difficult since the bino can never be held in position for more than 15-20 sec( Your neck starts paining ). The best observation of the night were Mars and Moon through the LX 200.The photos were stunning too with the Polar ice cap on Mars visible and another detailed photo of the Lunar Surface makes you feel as if you are walking on it.