Observatory was not open today

We had a little key mixup that prevented me from opening up the observatory. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. I was tired anyway, but went by a friends house to chat about astronomy and perhaps look a bit at the sky.

I took my little nexstar 4 se and the little 4.25 inch homebuilt newtonian telescope with me.

At Harold's house we chatted a bit and I pulled out the small f4 reflector to see if we could view mars and the beehive in the 40mm eyepiece. Last week I could see them both but now they are farther apart and can't be seen within the same field of view.

I was able to see them both with an old pair of 10 by 50 binoculars. But thereis some astigmatism in my eyesight or the binos aren't that good. I could see them both but Mars and the beehive were not all sharply focused. Looked like coma triails for one or the other. I have not noticed coma in the binoculars before. Maybe I dint really look for it with most viewing.

Here's a picture of the nexstar on the floor as I'm bringing it inside. Didn't use a celestron at all tonight. Conditions are some thin cloud cover over parts of the sky.





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