Sky Tour

Guess what?

I managed to get out the Bresser and put tit hrough its paces for about an hour of the night yesterday, after some months lying around idly in my room! This time round I had some company along and had a great time getting ourselves acquainted with the late winter sky.

It was a little after 10pm (Sat, 9th Nov 2008) when Fr Nicholas Stephen (M'sia) dropped by and helped me carry out the grand scope into the night, and quite cold, air by the balcony landing of the Collegio that separated the eastern and western block. Fr Paul Ranee (Shillong) came by a little later. When all was set up, we scanned the skies that offered us Orion the Hunter where we proceeded to direct our attention towards its grand Orion Nebula.

After that it was a hop to the planet Saturn with her magnificent rings that never fail to take the breath away from any first time onlooker. Varying the magnification helped to see just how awesome that planet really looks, even through with a minor scope like the Bresser! Then it was off towards Mars with its red-orangey look that shone through the scope's optical lens. Pleiades was also high and prominent in the sky as she showed off her jewel box sparklies.

All in all, it was quite an enjoying night out, despite the cold that crept in later (this was essentially a little detour for myself to unload whatever anxieties that came from the exams currently going on). We left when our fingers became a little numb...