Observing - More Milestones, Some difficult finds, and a Major Problem

From: Mark Smith (emarksmi_at_san.rr.com)
Date: 07/26/04 

Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 05:57:52 GMT

Another amazing weekend for me. That makes 2 in a row. The
preliminaries

Celestron C9 1/4
Tierra Del Sol (just east of San Diego) CA
Seeing: 5-8
Transparency:8-7
Darkness 5-9 (Visual Magnitude 4.5-6)
Dates: 7/23/04 (2010-0140)
7/24/04 (1958-0235+)

This is a my second weekend where I made significant advances in my
observing. My Milestones:

1. My 2 longest observing sessions, 5 1/2 and over 6 1/2 hours!
2. I'm over 70 Messier Objects, making me eligible for my first
Astronomical League Certificate.
3. The first nights that I strayed significantly from the Messier
List.
4. The first object that wasn't on any observing list but that was
"in the area" that I decided to find (the Saturn Nebula).
5. My first find of Uranus (first attempt) and my find of Neptune!
6. The first two nights where I really started observing well before
dark!

Night 1:
 Beautiful weather Shorts and a t-shirt all night! Goal: Work
through some objects on the Astronmical League Universe Sampler list,
pick up any Messiers that were in the area, and track down Uranus and
Neptune.

2010: The moon is up but the sky is still very light, at least half
an hour before alignment will be possible. Manually aimed the
telescope at the moon to view Crater Aristotle. Found with 32mm just
above the Sea of Serenity. Bumped up to 15mm then 8mm Radian. Crater
is about 3 diameters from teh terminator and find shadow structures
are visible on the wall. Constant adjustment is necessary with the
8mm eyepiece.

2041: Align.

2049: Jupiter for an alignment check. The 4 Gallilean moons are
nicely arranged to the sides of the planet. Seeing highly variable.
Edges of planet are indistinct but hints of detail in the central
bands is visible with the 8mm Radian.

2059: Crater Aristotle. 8mm Radian. Looks to be an oblique impact.
Once side wall is sharp and steep with the opposite is low and folded.
Lots of impact debris off in one direction, extending about 1.5 crater
diameters. Small interior features. Not really central peaks, but
doesn't appear to be cratering either.

2106: M40 - 35mm Panoptic. I think I'll call this one Messier's
Mistake. There appears to be a double star in the area, but nothing
that could be mistaken for a comet. There is a parallelogram of
moderately bright stars in the area measurein about 15' x 10'.

2120: M102 - (NOTE: I was really looking for NGC 5907. I didn't
think I'd found it, but it took getting home and checking on the
computer and generating some detail star maps of the area to figure
out what I'd actually found.) 35mm Panoptic. A tough galaxy to find
under these conditions. A small, edge on galaxy with a hint of a
central dust lane. Perhaps 7' x 3'. Nicely framed on the end and to
1 side by stars. Sketched for identification.

2151: NGC 6441 - 35mm Panoptic. Easy to find if a bit faint.
Right next to the first bright star south of M7. Fuzzy and
unresolved, about 3' in diameter. Neighbor star is a pretty, golden
yellow.

2203: NGC 6624 - 35mm Panoptic. Another small globular. Only about
3' and unresolved. Sketched.

2210: M57 - 35mm Panoptic + UHC filter. The Ring Nebula. Too small
with 35mm Panoptic so I switched the filter over to the 17mm Nagler.
Bright donut about 3' across with a narroy right and a lightly glowing
central region.

2250: Break to socialize and view through other telescopes (got into
a comparison of M13 between two different telescopes).

2350: M57 is still in the eyepiece (good tracking tonight). Right
width is perhaps 30". There aren't many stars within about 15' of the
nebula.

0012: M56 - 35mm Panoptic. Globular in a rich star field. About 6'
across with a rich, sugary texture and partially resolved edges.
Appears slightly n-s elongated, but that may be an illusion of the
star field.

0023: Uranus - Found with 35mm Panoptic. Had Aquarius misplaced at
first. Blue-Green dot. A small, bluish disk appeared in the 15mm and
a definite disk with the 8mm Radian (about 294x). A tiny, steady blue
disk with 6mm Radian (just under 400x).

0100 - Neptune - First a note. I posted earlier that I had tried to
find this but the object that I THOUGHT was Neptune didn't show any
disk even under nearly 600x magnification (4mm eyepiece). I asked if
it should. Got my answer tonight. Found a bright, Bluish object with
35mm Panoptic and started zooming in. with 8mm Radian, I started to
see diffraction rings. Rings were definite with 6mm Radian. I
decided that this couldn't be Neptune. I zoomed back out to the 35mm
Panoptic and did what I should have done to begin with, I resorted to
my carefully prepared charts of the starfield. I quickly realized
that this wasn't Neptune. My second object was MUCH fainter, but
matched the starfield. No discernable color in 35mm Panoptic.
Stellar with a faint blue tint with 15mm and the barest hint of a disk
with the 8mm Radian. A definite, TINY disk (about 1/2 of Uranus) with
the 6mm Radian.

0140 - Bed Time!

Day 2:

Weather and goals (except for the planets) the same as Day 1.

1958: Used 32mm and moon map to examie the moon before alignement.
Found and identified Archimdedes, Aristotillus, Autulycus, Pt5olemeus,
Alphonsus, and Arzachel as well as getting a fantastic view of the
Montes Appeninus.

2040: Align.

2045: Jupiter - Alignment check. Low on horizon. Polar banding
evident with 8mm Radian, but edges are roiling.

2102: Moon with 8mm Radian. Rexamined above noted features along
with looking ar ripples in the floor of the Mare Imbrium. Threw the
4mm in just to humor a guest. View better than expected.

2118: NGC 5907 - 35mm Panoptic. Really found it tonight, although I
had to resort to my specially prepared star charts. The moon is
murder on it. Long, very skinny edge on galaxy with no discernable
central bulge. Looks to be about 10' x 2'. Visible only with averted
vision. Neighbor with 11" liked the view and we called it up on his
scope. A little better, but not as much as expected. Went to the
club's 23" scope. Visible without averted vision, but the improvement
wasn't what I would have expected. Must be the moon.

2139: M27 - 35mm Panoptic with UHC filter. Easy find in a rich
starfield. Bright square about 8-10' on a side with an hourglass
shaped brighter area within. Made a poor sketch.

2235: Beta Cygni (Albiero) - 35mm Panoptic. Very pretty double,
easily split wven with 35 Pan. One golden star, one bluish white.
About 2-3' apart.

2314: M71 - 35mm Panoptic. Another small (about 6') globular in a
rich star field. Looks to be partially resolved with a sugary
background. There appears to be two small sub-clusters, each about
30" to 1' in diamater and about 2' south.

2338: M29 - 35mm Panoptic. Very small open cluster in the milky way.
Only 8 main stars with maybe as many fainter ones. 8-10' across.
Made a poor sketch.

0020: M15 - 35mm Panoptic. Large globular about 10' across. Edges
are resolved but appeared flattened. Swithed to 17mm Nagler for a
better view. Core almost stellar. Edges resolve well but the cluster
condenses to a sugary texture before the bright core. Appears
flattened on teh SE side and almost gouged to the NW. Made Sketch.

0038: M2 - 35mm Panoptic. Brigth globular about 7' in diamater.
17mm Nagler resolves the edges. Center appears sandy and birght, but
diffuse. Appears slightly elongated to the N.

0057: M72 - 35mm Panoptic. Dim and unresovled, even with 17mm
Nagler. About 3' across. Doesn't grow with averted vision.

0134: M73 - 35mm Panoptic. Another Messier Mistake! A small,
elongaed triangle of 4 stars not more than 2' on a leg.

0142 - NGC 0142 - 35mm Panoptic + UHC. Saw it on the star chart in
the neighborhood so I took a side trip. Very much resembles it's
namesake with 35mm. Elongated and slighly bluish. Pushed to 17mm
Nagler with UHC and, eventually, to 8mm Radian (no filter). Estimated
at 1' x' 2'.

0158: M30 - 35mm Panoptic. Small globular about 5' across.
Partially resolved wtih 17mm Nagler. Bright, sandy core with cleanly
resolved edges.

0211: NGC 7293 - 35mm Panoptic + UHC. Helix Nebula. Large (12-15'),
circular nebula. Somwhat PacMan'ish with the mouth opening west.
Made Sketch.

0235 - Quit looking throgh my telescope.

There was a lot of socialization this evening and lots of view
sharing. I got my first view through binoviewers and somebody had a
really cool (and I'm sure REALLY expensive) eyepeice that was
essentially a night vision scope for the stars. Really brought out
Clusters, but the Swan Nebula was very cool in it as well. Stood
around a 12" dob taking turns pointing at various objects until nearly
0330. Venus was rising by the time we left

Which brings me to my major problem. I didn't get home until about
0500. Good thing my wife was out of town and I could sleep until
noon. I think I need to bring a tent next time.

Relevant Pages

  • Moon to Sweep Through the Pleiades (Forwarded)
    ... That evening, if the sky is clear, you can watch the waxing Moon ... And if you have a telescope, now is certainly the time to get it out. ... the edge approach a star until the star seems to hang right on the edge, ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • Moon to Sweep Through the Pleiades (Forwarded)
    ... That evening, if the sky is clear, you can watch the waxing Moon eclipse, or "occult," a number of stars in the Pleiades cluster in the western sky during and after dusk. ... And if you have a telescope, now is certainly the time to get it out. ... Eventually, with a little luck, you'll see the edge approach a star until the star seems to hang right on the edge, like a tiny white fire on the Moon. ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Sky & Telescopes News Bulletin - Jul 30
    ... Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. ... ASTRONOMY DAY 2004 EFFORTS LAUDED ... LENSING STAR WEIGHED ... DOES CLARISSA HAVE A MOON? ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Sky & Telescopes News Bulletin - Jul 30
    ... Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. ... ASTRONOMY DAY 2004 EFFORTS LAUDED ... LENSING STAR WEIGHED ... DOES CLARISSA HAVE A MOON? ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: How far Can A 100w Bulb be Seen in Space?
    ... >large distances to resolve a disk. ... The "combined images of two large telescopes" reference is probably ... real shape of the star, I have a few other magic beans that I can sell them. ...
    (sci.astro)