Venus, Saturn and Handful of Frost

Hello!
Last night I and my Friends we have a great observation night in Oderne, in south Poland – beautiful place among Beskid mountains. We have very good, clear sky but there was very chill. We have very low temperature at night. About -20Β°C (about -4Β°F). In central Europe during the Winter, it is nothing strange. But it is necessary to be a tough to make all night observations in this conditions πŸ˜‰
After many hours of the good observations we take a little nap. We have resumed our observations at 4 AM to get the first Venus and Saturn since few months.
There was intense, severe frost.

Object: Planets Venus and Saturn
Scope: SCT 5″ with SW UWA58 9mm
Time and date: December 5th, 2010. About 4:00 AM
Place: Oderne, Poland
Weather: Clear, dark sky. Heavy frost.
Technique: Graphite pencil
Tooling: Some correction with PhotoShop
Observer: Aleksander CieΕ›la (Wimmer)

I have a interesting foto from that observations.
There was really heavy frost. After all my equipment was operating quite good πŸ™‚ There was strange noise from motors of my Celestron SLT mount, like howling πŸ˜‰ But all night long it was operating correctly. I have little problems with corrector plate of my C5 SCT too, but dew shield works not bad. Most problems we have with the eyepieces. Puting the eyepiece to the poket at several minutes – that was an easy solution of this problem.
During that night my equipment looks like that: πŸ™‚

Thank You, and sorry for my bad english.

9 thoughts on “Venus, Saturn and Handful of Frost”

  1. Wimmer,

    I know Jeremy Perez had an article in the November issue of Astronomy Now magazine on how to dress up for the cold winter nights but I don’t think he had this type of blistering cold weather in mind. I would’ve given up if my telescope’s motors and gears started howling and making strange noises. You my friend are very determined and passionate and to that I’m going to drink some hot chocolate. Your sketches are impeccable as if you were under some balmy weather out on the countryside.

    Wishing you dark,clear and warmer weather ;D

    Juanchin

  2. Wimmer:
    It is very difficult to draw with temperatures below zero. Congratulations on the sketches.

    Es muy dificil dibujar con temperaturas por debajo de cero. El frΓ­o inmovililiza las manos. Enhorabuena por los bocetos.

    Mariano Gibaja

  3. Wimmer, respect!
    Great sketches as usual.
    Now, we may call You: “Frost King” πŸ™‚

    Kasia

  4. @Juanchin, @Mariano, @Kasia, Thank You a lot!
    I made this sketches in half hour. It was difficult to draw with thick gloves but after all there was not bad. πŸ™‚

    That strange noises from my mount, I heard it last winter too. And my mount still working good πŸ™‚ I know, it is risky. I have no other way out and i must to expose it from time to time to this heavy conditons.

    Aleksander

  5. The sketches are very nice. I especially like the realistic haze in the Lunar sketch. The story that goes with them is even better. My hat is off to you, Sir. On second thought, I am cold just looking at that photo. I am putting my hat back on.

  6. Aleksander,

    Observing under these conditions is one thing but sketching. You must have hot blood. Great post and the sketches are wonderful.
    Love the hoarfrost on the scope.

    Frank πŸ™‚

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