Observation/Cold Weather Gear Test Report

I haven't been able to get out and observe with my refractor since early
November, right about the date of the Mars' opposition. The weather has
been either terrible in terms of cloudy skies, or just downright COLD.

Tonight, we have one of Cleveland's rare clear winter time nights, so I
decided I would test a bundle up for the cold weather approach, and see if I
could find a couple of things.

My cold weather gear for the tonight was as follows:

Two layers of athletic tube socks, gym shoes, rubberized knee brace to keep
my severely arthritic right knee warm, jeans that were covered with a pair
of sweat pants. For my torso I wore a tee shirt, a heavy cotton long sleeve
shirt over the tee, a Cleveland Indians hoodie, a heavy wool cap for my
head, the hoodie's hood up over it, my heavy fleece-lined winter coat and
its hood over the other hood, and gloves.

I set up just outside of my garage. I've a terrible home observing site,
with a freeway directly across the street and way too many trees obscuring
the horizon up to about 25 degrees. There are a few blank spots that I can
take advantage of, and of course there's always the zenith.

I went out about 8:45. My first target was the Moon. I used my Telrad to
sight on it, and spent a few minutes observing through my 25mm Celestron
X-Cel e.p., both with and without my Moon filter. I get a 40x magnification
with this. Except for a little bit of wind blowing from the North across my
face, I was fine.

My next target was Betelgeuse, which at this time of night is the most
visible of Orion's stars from my location. Nice color. I tried for
Belatrix, but for some reason couldn't find it with my Telrad, even though I
could plainly eyeball it.

My final target was Mars, some 60 degrees high. This is really too high to
observe without a special observing chair, or sitting on the ground, which
I'm not about to do at this time of the year. I'm getting an observing
chair for Christmas, so that will have to wait. :)

Anyway, I was out for about 45 minutes, and felt fine. My feet weren't
getting cold, my knee stayed warm, and I was losing little, if any heat from
my head. Considering that it is currently 23 degrees outside, this is
pretty good. I decided to pack it in for now, and possibly go back out in a
couple of hours when Orion and Saturn are both higher in the sky and not
obscured by trees.



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