Aparna's @ School and that means... :-)

Date: 10th March 2011, Thu
Observation Time: 7pm - 8pm (1hr)
Location: Archstone Apts, Mission Valley, SD CA
Weather: No clouds, lil windy. Moon 6th day.
Instruments: AT102ED f/7, 7x20 Finder.

Pan 35 - 20x
Nagler 17 - 42x
Xcel 10 - 71x
Nagler 7 - 102x
Nag 7 x2 - 204x

Rigel -
35mm Pan : Can not split it.
17mm Nagler : when switched from 35 to 17mm, can not see the split, but when switched from 10mm to 17mm, then can sort of see the companion star, but its lil hard.
10mm Xcel : Not very clean split, but can see the companion star just below rigel.
7mm Nagler : Clear split. The magnitude difference is clearly visible. Rigel is not that bright and doesn't emit rays like Sirius, hence can observe the brightness of the companion. After previous dark night observation from Jon's place, can get the feeling of 10" seconds separation. Its very close at this magnification as well.
7mm x2 : Not a sharp image. 7mm was the best image.

M41 - Can locate it from the finder. Pan 35 and Nag 17 shows the best view. C shape and 2 V shapes of bright stars should be the distinctive mark for this one. (TBD: older observations)

Tau CMa -
Can not see the cluster in the finder. Hence Possible to get confused with the wrong star.
Pan 35 : barely shows the cluster, you can see very faint stars around the brighter Tau CMa, but nothing distinctive.
Nag 17 : Shows better view of the cluster. Can see around 10-12 faints stars in the vicinity. no distinctive shape. but all stars are well surrounding the brighter Tau.
Xcel 10 : More fainter stars visible. Total star count is 20-25.
Nag 7 : More fainter stars. ~35. Probably this is the best view.

M93 :
Don't remember much about this one. (Write the observation immediately. I am writing this one 4 days later.)

M46-M47 : From dark sight like Jon's place, M46 is very impressive and better than M47. But from polluted place like our mission valley home, M46 is totally washed out. M47 shows more brightness.

In M47, k shape visible, with arcs instead of straight lines. As magnification is increased, more fainter stars are visible. M47 clearly visible in finder as well.

M46 is totally washed out. Finder doesn't show it at all. Very hard to see in Pan 35 as well. It needs to be located based on M47 and nearby two brighter stars, as mentioned in the star map. Nag 17 shows some fainter stars.

NGC 2423 Near M47 : Quickly tried NGC above M47.. but nothing impressive at all. In Nag 17 barely 5 stars visible. Proabaly better from darker sight.

M48 : is out of reach. APO is almost going vertical form the patio.

M42 - M43 with UHC : M42 visible from finder.
Pan 35 shows M42, lil bit of saucer and then dark pillar is visible. two stars in trapezoid are resolvable. M43 not visible. Pan 35 fits in other two stars of the orion belt as well. Apparently each star is a small open cluster in itself.

Nag 17 magnifies the image well. Trapezoid 4 stars visible. Saucer and dark pillar visible nciely, 3 stars in parallel to the pillar are visible nicely. When added UHC filter, stars turned blue. Can only resolve 3 stars in the trapezoid. but the nebulosity increased noticeably. Saucer shows more nebulosity than Pan 35 view itself. M43 is now visible as well. The dark piller and surrounding area stars showing more depth. the nebulosity around the trapezoid seems more brighter. Second pillar shows up from the saucer, pointing towards trapezoid, but at right-angled position from the main pillar. I have see nthis pillar before, but i had totally forgoten it. but tonights view brought it back. Surprisingly, I missed this second pillar shape in Jon's 25".. I wonder how..

Nag 7 wasn't able to resolve the trapezoid. Also image wasn't stable. Nag 17 + UHC view was the best for the night.

Sigma Orionis - Read my past observations about this one in the morning. So visited it. Easy catch.
Pan 35 : shows 2-2-1 star alignment. (i.e. pair-pair-single stars). First pair is STF 761, second pair, in the middle, Sigma Orionis. Can resolve only two stars (A & E). 'A' is definitely brighter than 'E'.

Nag 17 : shows one more star in A-E.. D shows up. Fainter than E. Very close to A.

Nag 7 : C pops up in this one. Lil Further from A than D.

Overall A-B was never split. I dont know how much mags it requires (??). I should tried the barlow. (Description below says that i can not")

From internet: "Sigma Orionis consists of 5 components, the main components A and B at present only 0.3 "apart, and thus for amateur telescopes hardly separable. The components C, D and E each have a distance of 11.5", 12.7 " and 41.4 "of AB"

Mintaka : Nice binary. Easily split in Pan 35. Primary is brighter my huge margin than secondary.

Moon : Observed moon for ~10 mins In Pan 35, Nag 17 and Nag 7. Details TBD.

Late night Jupiter

Date: Sept 25th, 2010 Sat
Observation Time: Late night 1:15-2:00am (45 mins),
Location: Archstone Apts, Mission Valley, SD CA
Weather: Lil clouds. Full Moon.
Instruments: AT102ED

Jupiter - All 4 moons visible. Best View with 7T1 @ 107x. Tried higher mags with Xcel-10-x2 (@ 140x), TMB 4mm @ 177x, 7T1-x2 @ 202x , but they weren't great. So just stayed with 7T1 @ 107x

Didn't remember the nomenclature, while observing, but now it seems like observed: EZ, NEB NTB NPR, SEB, SPR. A black spot on NTB.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Jupiter_Belt_System.JPG

http://www.astrosurf.com/cidadao/jupiter_obs.htm

Uranus - In Pan35 @ 20x and 17T4 @ 40x, it didn't show distinctive blue color again, but in 7T1 @ 100x, it showed the color, as well you can feel the disk spae, compared to background pin-pointed stars.

Tried NGC 253 Gal and NGC 288 GC located in the nearby regions. the location was spot on, but i didn't see both of them. Considering ~8.0 magnitude, i thought that it will be visible, but again FAILED.

Observing Uranus

Date: Sept 22nd, 2010 Wed
Observation Time: Late night 1:00-1:15am (15 mins),
Location: Archstone Apts, Mission Valley, SD CA
Weather: Lil clouds. Full Moon.
Instruments: Binocs 10x50 Nikon Action Ex.

Uranus: Full Harvest Moon, Jupiter and Uranus are very close to each other tonight. Uranus is always hard to catch, but just being so close to Jupiter its easier to locate. Its only a degree apart from the Jupiter towards NW towards moon. The Uranus magnitude is almost same as 24 Psc which is SW of jupiter on opposite side. mag 5.4. So its indeed Uranus. Uranus-Jupiter-24 Psc were in the same field of view of my binocular.

Can't see the bluish disk. it seemed yellow.. it wasn't really a clean sight. probably because of moon light.. so didn't try it in the APO... but will watch it again after few days and should be able to see the bluish color.

Saw this fella probably after two years.. nice !!

Jupiter: Dazzling bright in the binocs. Ganymede and Europa at two opposite ends. Hard to get IO-Callisto pair near Europa. Too much shaking.

Moon - First Quarter

Date: Sept 14th, 2010 Monday
Observation Time: 8pm to 8:45pm (45 mins),
Location: Archstone Apts, Mission Valley, SD CA
Weather: White zone observation. No clouds. Moon (first quarter).
Instruments: Astrotech 102ED APO. Pan35 (20x), 17T4 (41x), 7T1 (101x), 7T1x2 (202x)

Observed Moon:

Crater Aristoteles and Crater Eudoxus : Just next to terminator, these crater shadows look fabulous. Shows massive depth.

Montes Haemus : Western border to Mare Serenitatis, across N-S. Shows good details on these mountains peaks. These peaks are just on the terminators today. Tomorrow might be better day to observe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montes_Haemus

Crater Posidonious and the wrinkles : On the North-Eastern edge of Mare Serenitatis. Its like small scale Crater Plato. Also has a crater inside its plain surface. the plan surface also shows a big wrinkel across N-E-S border.

Crater TheoPhilius, Crater Cyrillus, Crater Catharina : These three craters in SE region (bottom corner). Cyr-Cath are joined together. Yesterday they were closer to terminator, so they showed this connection very well, because of the shadows. Its like shape of 8 but middle section sort of merged. Today being away from terminator, they were washed out. They didn't show this connection very well today.

Crater Maurolycus: Being closer to terminator the central peak shows good details. It seemed to be made up of 3 mountain pieces in itself. Third one is actually complex in formation.

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Kaus Australis i.e. Epsilon Saggi: Brightest star of the Saggi constellation. Map shows it as double, but seems like the binary component is too faint to be seen. FAILED.

--

Moon Observation projects to follow:
http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/lunar/lunar2.html
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/moon/3308811.html

Archstone First Light..

Date: Sept 13th, 2010 Monday
Observation Time: 7:30pm to 8:15pm (45 mins),
Location: Archstone Apts, Mission Valley, SD CA
Weather: White zone observation. Very light polluted.. .No clouds.. Moon (a day before first quarter).
Instruments: Astrotech 102ED APO. Pan35 (20x), 17T4 (41x), 7T1 (101x), 7T1x2 (202x)
Buddies: Aparna

Observed first time from new Home. Somehow never got a chance to observe, in last 5 weeks, since we moved here.

Apprently, this is highly light polluted area. This is all white zone area. Summerset atleast was in Red zone. The Naked Eye visibility has gone down drastically. NELM ~3. In Saggitarius, Phi Saggi was barely visible.

http://www.brighthub.com/science/space/articles/50420.aspx
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Sagittarius_constellation_map.svg/2000px-Sagittarius_constellation_map.svg.png

Because of this, it indeed gives new respect for dark skies.. Also, just identifying the constellation boundaries is also tough. Good way to test what you know, based on judgment. e.g. Ophiuchus was visible, but i wasn't able to locate the constellation boundary.

Target List:

CON  OBJECT    OTHER   TYPE    RA       DEC       MAG   SUBR   SIZE_MAX SIZE_MIN NGC DESCR                     NOTES

1  SGR  NGC 6523  M 8     CL+NB   18 03.7  -24 23    5     13      45 m     30 m    !!!;vB;eL;eiF;w L Cl          Lagoon Nebula;Cl NGC 6530 invl;dark lane crosses neb

2  SGR  NGC 6618  M 17    CL+NB   18 20.8  -16 11    6     13      11 m             !!!;B;eL;eiF;2 hooked         Omega nebula;Swan Nebula;many F outer loops;use filter

3  SGR  NGC 6514  M 20    CL+NB   18 02.7  -22 58    6.3   13      28 m             vB;vL;Trifid;D* inv           Trifid nebula;sev dark lanes;H IV 41 & V 10;D* HN 40 invl

4  SGR  NGC 6656  M 22    GLOCL   18 36.4  -23 54    5.2   11      24 m             vB;vL;R;vRi;vmC               Stars mags 11...;one of finest globs

5  SGR  NGC 6626  M 28    GLOCL   18 24.5  -24 52    6.9   11      15 m             vB;L;R;geCM;rrr               45' NW from Lambda Sgr;* mags 14...

6  SGR  NGC 6530  OCL 19  OPNCL   18 04.5  -24 21    4.6   99.9    15 m             Cl;B;L;pRi;f M8               In Lagoon nebula M8;25* mags 7...


7  SCO  NGC 6121  M 4     GLOCL   16 23.6  -26 32    5.4   12      26.3 m           Cl;8 or 10 B* in line;rrr     Look for central bar structure

8  SCO  NGC 6405  M 6     OPNCL   17 40.3  -32 15    4.2   10      20 m             Cl;L;iR;lC;st7;10...          Butterfly cluster;51 members to 10.5 mag incl var* BM Sco

9  SCO  NGC 6475  M 7     OPNCL   17 53.9  -34 48    3.3   12      80 m             Cl;vB;pRi;lC;*7...12          80 members to 10th mag;Fine naked eye cluster

Moon: Moon is just a day before first quarter. Just above the neighborhood roof. Probably because of that high mag views (202x) weren't sharp.

Scorpion - Antares was red OR deep orange-brown. Moon is closer to Antares. M4 (mag 7.12) not visible. Must have washed out because of moonlight.

M7 Ptolemy - M6 butterfly: was easy catch from Sco tail duo stars. Apparently not many background stars in the view were visible. Still M7 shows bunch of bright stars.. sort of like multiple K shapes joined at various angles. Just above towards sco tail, M6 butterfly visible. The red-orange-brown star in butterfly pops up. cluster is not at all impressive. Also the FoV doesn't have any other stars..

While hunting M6-M7, got a feel of refractor orientations again. L-R swapped. U-D are fine. Need to get a judgment on the True FoV so that hunting will logical. Didn't know the APO+EP combination TrueFoV.

M8 Lagoon - Very depressing. Very little nebulosity visible at the central (probably near hourglass). increasing the mags 35Pan-> 17T4 definitely made the view better. UHC in 35mm pan showed similar..but nothing impressive. Still the open cluster 6530 next to M8 stands out. Compact as compared to M6 butterfly. Circular in shape.

M20 Triffid not visible. considering the magnitudes, indeed surprising. Not sure why i din't see it. Moonlight?

M17 Swan visible: Felt like its brighter than M8. OR surface brightness of swan is evenly spread as compared to M8, so feels like it.

M16 Eagle not visible again. somehow i missed the V shape cluster as well.

M22 and M28 - M22 bigger and brighter. Was an easy catch in washed out light. M28 is tight, small and lil fainter. Can fit the Lambda Saggi and M22 in the same view. Not all three in same view.