Lost in Space (Obs.Report)
- From: Willie R. Meghar <NoMail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 03:16:29 -0600
Observing sessions come in many forms. Some involve the recording of
meticulous notes. Others are less formal and more relaxed.
The session just ending was of the latter type. All paper, pencils
and atlases were left inside -- intentionally. I simply wanted to
enjoy the night sky without any distractions.
Using alt-az mounted 25x100 binoculars I swept through a small section
of sky including parts of Perseus and Andromeda (OK, so I wanted to
hit the double cluster and M31-32-110) followed by a large section of
sky in the southern direction. Horizontal sweeps began low in the sky
at tree level. Each succeeding sweep climbed a little higher in
altitude.
An advantage to this approach is that the eye sees only star light.
Not even a dim red light, typically used for reading charts or taking
notes, is turned on.
A disadvantage is that objects seen don't get identified and recorded.
Several familiar objects were swept up along with a multitude of
objects that were left unidentified. In addition to the traditional
observing targets, several interesting asterisms (such as linear
strings of stars) as well as some truly awesome Milky Way fields were
swept up.
Sometimes I would hit a Milky Way field that was so bright and evenly
illuminated that it would (big exaggeration here) remind me of day
light. Other fields consisted of a multitude of bright and dim stars
seen against scattered bright Milky Way glows interrupted with a
generous serving of dark nebulae. Some of these fields were quite
spectacular.
Naked eye limiting magnitude at the zenith was a little better than
6.0; but I didn't bring out any magnitude charts that would have
allowed me to arrive at a more precise value. Trees on the horizon
appeared as silhouettes that were *much* darker than the background
sky -- reminding me of some of the photos from Burnham's Celestial
Handbook. Actually, some of the astronomical 'show pieces' looked
very much as spectacular as their (old) black and white photographs.
Tomorrow night, weather permitting, I'll most likely return to
telescopic viewing (including the recording of notes) of objects on my
observing list. There's so much to do and life is so short . . .
Willie R. Meghar
.
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