Back In the Game - Part 1 / 3

Date: Sat 1st Feb 2014, from 6pm to 11pm: 5hrs
Location: Jon's @ Boulevard
Weather:  Seeing 6/10, Transparency 4/10. No wind. Around 5pm it was completely under cloud and later it was crystal clear... Seeing wasn't great, but absolutely no winds. 
Instruments: Jon's Obsession 25" dob, My Orion 10" dob and TV101 apo. Nikon and Celestron 10x50 binocs

Highlight of the night: Supernova in M82 and Horsehead Nebula

Mercury
Rigel
Jupiter
M47
M23
Orion
Horsehead

?? Lupus pn
Flame neb
?? Pacman neb
Double cluster
?? Neighbors of db
Crab
M81
M82
2 ngcs

??Owl and gal

Sunflower
M94
M101
Leo 65 95 ngc (new)
?? Leo antenna 4

- Aplha gal

Hubble variable
Pleiades
Thor

M44


Mercury, Ori DS Rigel, Jupiter, Pup OC M46-M47, CMa OC M41, Ori Neb M42-M43, Ori Horsehead, Ori Flame Neb 2024, Ori Running Man Neb 1973-5-7, Location Boulevard, 

Per Double Cluster 869-84, Tau Neb M1 Crab, UMa Gal M81-M82-3077-2976, UMa PN M97 Owl, CVn Gal M63 Sunflower, CVn Gal M94, UMa Gal M101 Pinwheel, Leo Gal M65-M66-3628, Leo Gal M95-M96-M105, Mon Hubble Variable Neb 2261, CMa Thors Helmet Neb 2359, Cnc OC M44 Beehive, UMa Gal M108, Leo Gal 3370, Leo Gal 2903, 

New Year Kickoff

Date: Sat 5th Jan 2013, from 6pm to 8pm: 2hrs
Location: Jon's @ Boulevard
Weather:  Seeing 7/10, Transparency 4/10. No wind. in the beginning clouds on wester horizon.. central and eastern horizon clear... after two hours transparency messed up and cloud cover was almost everywhere.
Instruments: jon's 16" and TV101. Two Nikon and one Celestron 10x50 binocs

Highlight of the night: kickoff for 2013 after almost two years..


M38, 37, 36: All three clusters looked beautiful in both scopes and binocs. Crystal clear pinpoint stars.

M35: Looked way bigger than the above triplet.. never noticed it before.. in binocs, the difference in  clearly visible

Pleides: simply beautiful in both scopes.. no nebulosity.

Jupiter: watched multiple times. because o no winds, fantastic view.. main two belts + 1 more belt line visible.. southern fainter wider band visible..  5 satellites: 2 on each side and one on southern side..

Veil nebula: spent lot of time on this one.. very nice.. in 16" scope main two components visible.. the middle third one visible as well plus some fuzziness visible around.. in TV101..you can see both easter and western part... but you will notice that western is much brighter than the eastern part (next to the star).. never noticed it before.. no other components visible.. OIII filter was on.

california neb: in TV101, with H-Beta filter. some fuzziness visible.. somewhat hard.. no discernible shape either... without the filter, it was just impossible..

north american neb:  OIII (???) was on.. Large fuzziness object visible..seemed like divided in two parts... no discernible shapes.. again nothing visible without filter.

M42: fabulous. trapezoid was pin point. 4 stars visible with nag31, lowest magnification. very nice nebulous cloud, brightly lit.

ngc2301: Long elongated star cluster with some circular/heart shape cluster in the middle. Clearly visible in binocs or finder.

binoc comparision: compared jon's nikon 10x50 Action with mine nikon 10x50 Action EX. FoV is same. jon'd are not sealed, so image is not crispy in his, when humidity was high.
 
called off the night earlier because of cold and cloud cover.. i have lost my survivial skills in cold.. have to get back in schedule soon..

Little one @ Blvd

Date: August 18th 2012, Saturday
Observation Time: 7:30pm to 11pm (observing time ~3.5hrs), 
Location: Jon's @ Blvd
Weather: fine.. 4/5 seeing.. before sunset it was cloudy, but later clouds just disappeared. Moon - 1st day 
Instruments: Jon's 16" scope and his Williams 80mm scope  


Our little one visited Jon's place in mountains for first time. Slept all the way during the drive. But played for a while at their place. Later got into daycare anxiety mode and just made everybody go nuts..later got back to normal.

Moon: FAILED. Started observation with locating first day phase moon. But it was way too hard. Never found it. It was Ramadan Ed 1st day moon.

Saturn: Saturn-Mars-Spica triplet as visible in evening dusk. Saturn visible nicely. Tried thru Williams 80mm with 9mm, 4mm TMB eyepieces. Saturn rings clearly visible, front rings are on bottom, while the back side f the ring moves upwards. As night moved on, can clearly see the dark gas lanes on the saturn disk. No details / gaps on rings. Still it was impressive what 80mm scope showed from the dark place.

Mars: 80mm is not enough for mars details. Seemed like big orange bright spot in the scope. Going closer to horizon, so dint get a chance to see thru 16" scope.

M6-M7: naked eye visibility. Fits in same view in the binocs ~6deg FoV. Jons 16" scope lot of details on both. Butterfly shape. apparently i got this pair confused with m46-m47 and ended up looking for the planetary nebula in it. Jon reminded me of absence of last year. Hsshh..

Antares GC M4: Visible thru bincs. 800mm with 24mm EP, shows the GC nicely. Very tiny though. With 9mm, i think can resolve some outskirt stars. 

Northern Jewel Box: Looks nice from all three instruments. Binocs show 5-7 stars low on horizon. 80mm has the best view. Cluster fills up 50% of the view. bright stars with some E + 4 + curved shape visible. In Jons 16", view was fully filled with eyepiece. Can see very faint stars. 

M8 - M20: Quick browse thru. Lagoon without filter still shows lot of nebulosity and C shaped dark lane separation clealt from 16" scope. Triffid looks smaller as compared to Lagoon, but whole nebulosity is nice. More I spent time in EP for Triffid, the dark lanes started popping up.

Swan M17: Quick browse again.. but impressive.. distinctive shape and bright stars at the bottom and another one at the center  in the curvature shape. 

Eagle M16: no nebulosity... typical star formation like a symbol of an angle.

M22 GC above star: quick browse thru binocs and 80mm.. is it bigger than Antares GC 

M25 OC Flipped comma: Binocs show the 3 deg view of this object with inverted comma shape. OC at the center of the comma is smaller, but the whole spae makes it beautiful. 

M23: While looking for Crescent nebula ended up on this one. very bright and impressive object. 16" scope view is just lightend bright with this object. lot of yellow white stars. 

Crescent Nebula: Very tiny fuzzy object from the 16" scope.. but its definitely bigger than other planetary nebula objects like saturn nebula or ghost of jupiter. Can not miss the object frm 16" scope.. next to a star. Infact i found this one first rather than way bigger M23 :). Increasing the mags didn't make much difference though in the visibility... There is a GC nearby it.. i think you can definitely distinguish betn the type of these objects i.e. GC vs nebula.

M10-M12: Browsed the Ophiuchus GCs. Very impressive. looks similar in size as well brightness..somehow binocs gave impression that m12 is bigger, but scope shows m10 t be bigger. Hshh.. must be feeling sleepy. Very easy to locate. Probably saw these after a long time. no discernible shape.. but these are definitively bigger than m92 in Hercules (later).

Planetary ngc 6445 Box Nebula (New): Jon showed this planetary. seemed like bright blue circle...very very tiny.. dont remember anything else. Later i was able to locate it smoothly. There is another GC next to it ngc 6440. In moderate view the pair looks nice.. very tiny and faint..probably only possible in high apperture 16" scope

Ngc oc - Ic oc - Ic oc: NGC is definitively looks nice from the16" scope.. but IC objects are better in binocs. ngc-ic and the planetory fits in same view. 

Gc near spica: Jon showed this one. wasnt able to locate it by myself. its seemed like OC, but its loosely connected GC.

M13: Took a long time just to locate HER constellation. I sort of lost the scale of quadrilateral size. It is smaller than what I was thinking. One year gap in observation made me forget lot of things. M13 is fabulous.. supports magnification really well. yellow white stars.. very bright.. 

Gal: Gal near M13.. very faint and tiny as compared the M13. Wasnt able t fit both in the same view of 16" scope.

Planetary: Again.. yet another planetary..

M92: Tiny as compared to M13.. but i compared it immediately with m10-12 pair.. and m92 seems smaller and fainter than those.. Its sort of lost beauty in front of other fabulous GCs in the sky.

Saturn Neb: Easy to locate. White bluish object.. tiny.. 

M Gc.. M oc: browsing all three objects including saturn neb, is an interesting experience. It shows the differences in the object size. The triagnle is so tiny.. OC is very tiny as well.

M30: Viewed thru binocs.. very tiny.. the typical shape sort of shows up but not discernible well from binocs.

Milkyway: the orion and Perseus arms were marvelous.. its like very bright white cloud belt in the sky.. Dark skies rules... simply breathtaking.

Back to stargazing... Part 1 / 4

Date: Feb 25th 2012 Saturday
Observation Time: 6pm to 12pm (observing time ~5 hrs),
Location: Jon's Home, Boulevard, CA
Weather: good.. few lower clouds on west in the eve..but alter cleared up.. moon 5th day/~30% phase causing light pollution till 8:30pm.. lil windy at sunset and ~11pm. Seeing wasn't that great 5/10.
Instruments: Jon's 16" f/4 scope and np-101 f/7 scope

interesting things of the night were:
- first real dark session after one year gap..
- first observation of Medusa nebula, Rosette nebula, California nebula, Whale Galaxy, Needle Galaxy, plus some more new galaxy fuzzies.
- Comet Garrad C2009/P1 in Draco
- Browsing galaxies from 5" np-101 scope. When sky is clear and its dark, the small scope of np-101 can indeed show so many faint fuzzies. its very impressive. TBD: Should browse Virgo Markarain's chain through this scope next time.

16" scope with parracor: ~2070mm focal length
31mm: 67x
20mm: 103x
16mm: 130x
9mm: 230x
7mm: 295x

np-101 focal length: 540mm
35mm: 15x
31mm: 17x
24mm: 22x
16mm: 34x
7mm:: 77x

Mercury - Just after sunset, mercury visible through binoculars. while locating it, Jon cheated through his digital dumpy level for altitude and I cheated by following jon's scope location thru my binocs. Tried 31mm, 16mm, 7mm nagler on apo... With 7mm @77x, best view. Looked like a solid disk. Environment refraction showing up in apo, with blue/green color on east and orange/red color on west side of mercury disk.

Venus - Next to moon. 7mm @ 77x best view in apo. the phase of Venus is 60% from west. Lil bigger disk than mercury.

Jupiter - good view, but not the brightest view. 16" scope with 20mm Nag2 @ 103x. Big jupter disk with 4 bands visible. sothern side being the thicker band. On second band from south has a lil storm pattern, just next to the center of the band. (TBD: Need to confirm this: ~6pm). 4 moons lurking around, 2 on each side. with binocs, with hand-shaking trouble, western side 2 moons can be easily seen.

Rigel - 16inch scope, With 9mm @ 230x, fabulous view. Rigel looks like white-blue diamond with 4 streaks in each direction, like a sketch. Companion star is visible clearly with very good separation. located on North 89deg from rigel. Very faint as compared to Rigel. Lowed the magnification with 20mm @ 103x. The split is visible, but lil difficult. rigel is way too bright in the view than its companion. Jon mentioned one imp thing.. Lesser the magnification, brighter the star looks in the view. Hence Rigel dominated the view @103x as compared to 230x. this should be an easy split from home as well (TBD)

Orion M42-M43: 16" scope with 20mm @ 103x: Very beautiful view.. 3D perception with dark pillars ad the wings. Can not feet the whole nebula in one view. trapezoid visible, but only 5 stars, bad seeing. Jon mentioned that he can see/feel the red color in the saucer/wing part on upper side. I can't. M43 shows up as mediocre view as compared to M42.

Orion Running Man Neb ngc1973: Made a mistake with location. We pointed from-Inside the wing-to bigger dark pillar-to trapezoid-to dark splitting lane-just above it... its totally wrong.. Infact its outside wing-other side of the wing than m43, and few degrees away from the disk, you can spot the nebulosity. the dark region nearby sort of shows up as running man. Tried with np101, since its easier to get the judgment on location.. overall not very impressive and not very discernible view.

CMa Thor's Helmet - Impressive views with 31mm and 20mm in 16" scope. 20mm @ 103x with O-III filter is the best view. Object shows up as nice big comma shape with think disk at the top. More you focus on the view, more details you get.

CMa Tau - 103x shows up the view.. its a tiny open cluster in the view at this magnification. Central star is brighter than the rest of stars in the cluster. ~25 stars around. All stars are in outward triangular curvature from the central star, as if the ripples flowing outsides.

M93: 10x50 binocs view. Very small and tiny OC, as compared to nearby cousins M46-M47. Nothing impressive. no particular shape either.

Reflection nebula 2467 below m93: very good view in 16" sscope @ 103x with O-III filter. Easier to locate. Fainter and smaller than Thor's helmet. faint C shaped filled disk visible. in np-101, with some efforts, can see something very tiny..

M46-M47 : In np101 with 16mm @32x shows both clusters in same view. Having both of them in same view shows the beauty in both clusters. planetary nebula in m46 not visible. with 7mm@77x, PN shows up nicely with the cluster in the apo. In 16" with 20mm @103x with O-III filter, m46 is marvelous. sprinked stars now seem brighter with bigger apperture. M47 seems very marginal.. Planetory shows up as bright object in intself. neb looks good...

Jon got 10x50 Japanese Celestron regal binoculars. roof prism. but field of view is narrower than my nikkon 10x50. Tried another 7x42 binos. FoV is wider than Regal binocs, but still lower then mine. Still, 7x binocs was nice. Compared m46-m47 and nearby views in the binocs.

Continued..

Back to stargazing... Part 2 / 4

Continued..

California Neb in Perseus ngc1499: (New) Tried it multiple times during the night with np-101 apo. the best view was with 31mm nagler @ 17x with H-beta filter on. very-very faint.. infact i had hard time seeing it, though it was in the view. with filter on can see something, but really not sure abt the shpae or borders. Not very impresive object. (btw, the description says that this neb is in perseus, but still in orion arm of the galaxy.. interesting). this is first time i observed it.. I think i had tried it in past, but failed.

Medusa Nebula (Abell 21)- (New) In Gemini. yet another very-very faint fuzzy.. Tried it 4-5 times during the night. Very hard to see.. in 20mm @103x can see some fuzziness with averted vision. Later after moonset, with O-III filter on, fuzziness shows up lil better. bigger object like thor's helmet, but definitely way too fainter. First observation.

Ghost of Jupiter in Hydra- Very bright object..O-III Filter helps.. in APO with 24mm@ 22x, it shows up as blue star. but there are no other blue stars in the view and hence you know this is the ghost. with jon's 16" scope, with 20mm @ 103x with O-III give fabulous view.. very bright disk of the ghost. can see some patterns in the disk, but cant grasp it. Just for fun, want to check the first observation from oak springs camground..I still remember it, when Jon showed it to me for first time.

Eskimo nebula in Gemini: Very bright object.. more the magnification, you can clearly see the detailes inside.. white disk.. Bright star in the center visible. Its a disk, made with lot of patterns circling around the central star.. wasn't able to locate it in np-101 quickly..

Rosette nebula in Monoceros (New): Very big object.. relatively fainter object.. but with UHC filter on 20mm in np101 (~25x) fills the whole field of view... the star cluster ngc2244 with 6 bright stars is at the center. these are like three pairs. The whole nebulosity surrounds this star cluster in C shape. The C shape itself is very dense. Tried it with 16" scope with 31mm @ 66x. Very bright nebulosity. O-III filter kills the star cluster, but UHC filter works well on this object. First observation.

Hubble variable nebula in Monoceros (New): in 31mm @ 66x, looked like a very tiny, comet spaed object.. it lokks like ideal sketch of comet, or a street llight with light shapde. As we zoom in, there is a nice bright star at the tip. So it must be reflection nebula, with star light reflecting.. as we zoomed in, you can indeed see the curvature at the end of the fuzzy object indicating the light just shows up at that point and doesnt pass thru.. Very interesting object.. saw it first time, need to see it again..

Orion inverted 37 star cluster ngc2169: directly at high magnification, i think. Seemed very dim, though no filter.. perfect interveted 37 shape. 7 shpae has ~3 bright stars, while shpae 3 had 4 or 3 bright stars.. and all other stars are very dim. total ~15 stars.

Continued..

Back to stargazing... Part 3 / 4

Continued...


Perseus double cluster: with apo 24mm @ 24x, both in the view.. these dont seem as impressive as m46-47 pairs.. both of them almost look same.

M36,M37,M38 in Auriga: Apo with 24mm @24x.. single OC seemed bigger than the double cluster itself.. Outside one, i.e. m37, seemed much more beautiful with compressed salt-paper style.

NGC1893 OC, IC-410 object just below m38, next to vertical star alignment: 16" with 20mm @ 103x, simple open star cluster with lil nebulosity lurking around.. but nebulosity is not that prominent.. probably need to see it thru filter.. Jon have shown me this object before, but looks like i never documented it. interestingly, the description of this objects points to another IC object 405 i.e. Flaming Star Nebula, which is just on the opposite side of the vertical star alignment.. it is more prominent and famous.. need to watch it next time..

M1 Crab nebula: Apo @ 24mm @ 22x. I have seen crab so many times and i know its locatino precisly, but just want able to see it at 22x. I was expecting lil fuzzy ball.. but turned out that at 22x this one is very difficult object to observe. Jon was also lil surprised. it was very tiny and very faint fuzzy at this view.. this sort of gives perspective on how fiant and lil these objects are.. we are just exposed to bigger scopes showing these objects much bigger and brighter..

M81-M82: From apo @ 22x can see the bright fuzzy and bright streak objects in the same view.. can not miss it, while browsing.. alsmot as bright as background stars. m81 the elongated one seems brighter.. Later observed with 16" @ 20mm @ 103x.. it looks much better..

Two other ngcs 3077-2976 in the same vicinity.. they definitely seemed smaller and fainter.. but surprisingly, one looks like m82 i.e. elongated shape one, while another one seems elliptical, like m81.. though they are not..

Jon showed yet another ngc 2787 in the vicinity: (New) yet another fuzzy, but much smaller than above ngcs.

Mizar: The triplet system visible from apo @ 22x. Alcor lil far away than Mizar A-B. All white blue..

Leo M65-M66-3628 galaxies: From the 16", seeing wasnt that great so not very clear.. Same one from apo-24mm@22x looks good as well.. ngc not visible in that view.. but cant miss 65-66 pair.. also, from apo this pair seemed fainter than m81-82 pair.

Tried m95-96 triplet from apo, but seemed very hard.. wasn't able to get clear view in apo.. its surprising..

Jon showed yet another triplet in similar area as m65-66.. betn theta and delta leonis. NGC 3607-3608 tiny fuzzies..

Mars - observed multiple times... best view was thru 16" @ 20mm @ 103x at late night, when mars was 45deg west. The dark areas visible clearly.. mainly two dark areas.. one on northen side.. other one on south.. view improved over the period..

Continued..

Back to stargazing... Part 4 / 4

Continued..

Needle Galaxy 4565: tiny spiky needle.. looks big from the 16" scope.. middle buldge is clear.. its like tiny sombrero galaxy. Another fuzzy 4559 next to it..

Whale galaxy 4631 is along the same lines. in npo, you can easily see all these three galaxies needle-4559-whale.. not in the same view 24mm @ 22x. Whale seemed much bigger object than others.. Whale in 16" @103x seemed impressive object. irregular elongated paintbrush stroke shape.. the middle part has lot of stars just on the galaxy surface. interestingly there is a bright star just above the disk at center. and there is yet another tiny fuzzy next to it. 4627.. its like slash dot |-

Yet another galaxy 4656 closer to whale, easily observed in the 16" scope.. but not visible in np101. this one also has some stars on the surface of the galaxy on bottom side, just like whale..

spindle galaxy 3115 in hydra.. closer to ghost of jupiter. these two objects should be seen together. Smaller than any of the other galaxies like needle-whale or Coma fuzzies. Remembering the location is hard.. but was able to see thru the apo @ 22x as well.. very very tiny streak..

M3 from apo..is very very tiny.. but from 16" had fabulous view.. can resolve almost all stars from outer and central core..

Hickson 68 and 5371 - Jon showed yet another fuzzy structure in Uma tail.. I think i have seen this one before.. We located in apo @ 22x.. Two of them very close to the star..elliptical fuzzies.. these two are part of hickson 68 group.. while another one 5371, way below in the view next to another bright star.. this one semeed lil bigger

Comet Garradd C/2009 P1 in draco - in apo 31mm.. very bright..cicular bright in center and fuzzier-fainter from outside.. no tail as such poking out.. perfect circular object.. near Eta Draco star.. +30 deg above horizon... it was last object of the night..

Overall, we saw so many tiny little fuzzies NGC objects from the apo, during this observation. When its dark and clear, indeed this tiny aperture can still show you these fuzzy objects.. Its not like they are impressive at this aperture level, but the fact that we can even see them with this tiny scope impresses me a lot.

Missed Dhruv..for these 8-10 hrs..

Being Obsessive.. Part I

Date: Mar 5th 2011 Saturday
Observation Time: 7pm to 11:30pm (observing time ~3:30 hrs),
Location: Jon's Home, Boulevard, CA
Weather: not great.. partly cloudy so looking thru patches. No wind. Seeing wasn't great 5/10.
Instruments: Jon's new 25" f/5 Obsession telescope
Buddies: Jon & Ashwin

Lot of new things to begin with for this observing session.
- Jon's new 25" obsession scope. Its massive. Need to climb 8 foot ladder to observe at zenith.
- First session of 2011
- Welcome Gogol session.
- Finished all 110 messier objects.. not in one night, but in 3 years period :). All messier objects are observed atleast once now. It was sort of 3-year messier marathon.

Ashwin joined for this session, first time at Jon's place.

Recently Jon purchased 25" obsession telescope. It is a used telescope and has a chip on the back side of the mirror. Jon got an excellent deal for the scope without much compromise. Its obsession scope #511.

Irrespective of the massive size, the scope movement is very smooth from the top of the ladder. It shows really nice views.
Mirror: 25"
Focal Length : f/5 3110mm. With parracor : ~3658mm
So now a 31mm Nagler low mag eyepiece from 16" scope, suddenly gives 100x view in 25" scope. Its not low mag eyepiece anymore.

Can clearly show 500x zooming with sharp images. Can easily go to 800x with decent views.

The Collimation took longer than expected. Jon is still getting familiar with the movement of secondary mirror screws. Primary alignment was quick. Also, the collimation stayed fine whole observing session. Considering the amount of scope movement, its indeed stable.

For such a big scope, generally it makses sense to observe all the objects in the vicinity and then to move on to the next location in the sky. But becasue of clouds, we ended up jumping from one location to opposite one and moved the scope and ladder a lot. We ended up doing ~10-15 circles/360deg rotations with the scope, during the night. Still, I am listing the objects per constellation and with the flow of the observing sessions.

Perseus
========
M76 - little dumbbell nebula: Started the night with M76. not a object that will impress immediately, but details on M76 was nice. Can clearly see two lobes, sort of in hourglass shape. The brightness was enough. Considering mirror cool-down time and cloudy weather, it indeed showed more than enough details on the object.

Orion
=======
M42 - M43 orion nebula : Switched to Orion M42 masterpiece. In 31 Nagler @ 118x, the eyepiece was fully covered under the nebula. the saucer, the pillar and the trapezoid was fabulous. Very bright. More you look at it, can feel the depth.. Had3D effect. Trapezoid clearly shows 6 stars. Double speed focuser indeed gives pinpoint stars of #5 and #6 in trapezoid. With 20mm Nagler @ 182x, magnifies it to the dark pillar. In contrast, the trapezoid and the illumination of the gas around it was very bright. Because of bright nebulousity all around and the central pillar being so dark, sort of looses the typical shape. M43 itself shows lot of bright nebulosity. Talked about running man nebula nearby, but wasn't sure about the location. Next time TBD.

M78 - The nebulosity pops up because of bigger aperture. A Bright star in the view. Hard to remember, because of lack of discernible shape, but definitely filled ~10% of the eyepiece.

Rigel - Visited Rigel multiple times in the night. At 118x can clearly see the companion. Rigel was sharp, but the companion wasn't.. tried to focus, but it still seemed like blurry disk. companion ~9.8" separation. Very close to Rigel. Later visted it again with ~400x. This is to compare with Sirius. Just wanted to get a judgment on how 10" separation looks like at ~400x.

Canis Major
============
M46-47 : with 20 Nagler, at 182x, the hwole view was filled with bright stars of M46. In reality, M46 has fainter stars than M47, but with large aperture of 25" makes M46 such a bright object. the planetory nebula is in the view on the right-bottom side. A faint star at the center of it is visible. not sure if its part of the cluster or the planetory star itself. At 182x, M47 is infact dull object, though it has bright stars its really sparse object. Hence nothing impressive in their. With 31 Nagler, 118x, both objects never fit in the same view and hence the beauty of observing both in wide-view is sort of lost. but 31 nagler still shows M46 as an impressive object.

M93 - This was yet another OC.

NGC 2467 - object opposite to M93. - The nebulosity in the object is very distinct in the big aperture. Sort of big C shaped nebulosity. Next to it is the Open cluster in V shape, similar to Taurus.

Sirius - Tried splitting Sirius. Difficult part here is Sirius is too bright compared to the companion and hence very difficult to observe the companion. Also its only 10" seconds apart. Only thing I knew tabout it is that its following sirius. Hence i kept Sirius barely out of the view and tried to look for the companion, but it was hard. Sirius light rays were causing trouble. Secondly wasn't sure how much 10" distance seems at 400x. So thought that another faint star is its companion. To get the judgment on 10" separation in 400x, tried Rigel. that proved that the faint star i was looking at was wrong. 10" is still too close in 400x. FAILED to observe the companion. Need better seeing/stability for this one.

Beta Monoceros - Observed the triplet, during the last session of observing. Triplet system with a tight bright pair. No colors, all three were yellow.

Ursa Major
===========
M81-M82 : M81 seemed like a big elliptical fuzzy object. Very bright. But M82 was more impressive, with distinct edge-on and some motteling on it at the center in Y axis.

M51 : Visited M51 probably 3 times during the night. The object moved from horizon - 5deg to -30-45 deg in 3 hrs. In the last session, the details on the object were clear, Can easily trace the spiral structure fomr the center to the connecting NGC galaxy. Actual Connector betn both of them was not visible. Some Nebulas or brighter regions in the spiral of M51 were visible. Don't remember the exact location of these regions. More eyepiece time + dark adaptation, gives more details on this object. Definitely saw more details on M51 visually for first time.

M101 : The brighter part at the core is visible. Jon mentioned that this is a big object and can not fit in the view itself.. I didn't see much in this one except the fuzziness at the core.

Canes Venatici
===============
Galaxy Quintet near M51 - Hickson 68 - NGC 5354 + 4 more : This is actualy in CVn and not in UMa. Jon pointed to this one.. Seemed like typical Jon object :). Very faint galaxy group, made up of 5 galaxies. Two of them were (relatively) bright, while remaining were barely visible. Very faint. The brighter NGC 5354 is of mag +11.38, while the lowest one on the left NGC-5358 is of 14.57. this is just to know that Jon's scope goes till +15 mag, without much trouble. Have I seen this one before? (YES, I have. check older observations)

Continued..

Being Obsessive.. Part II

Continued..

Draco
========
M102 spindle and galaxy 5907 next to it : M102 was my missing messier and we found it this time. While looking for it, we ended up 5907. Just based on Telerad location, it didn't seem like the right one. 5907 is still very impressive. long, edge-on. not that faint. Took us a while to get to M102. M102 is definitely smaller than ngc, but brighter. Its very close to a star, which is barely visible through naked eye.

So if we have been looking through smaller scope, then i believe m102 will pop up first and ngc would be hard to catch. Now thats a big gotchaa in this big scope, everything seems to be relatively brighter and so will get confused often.

Finally.. I have bagged all messiers now. Still need to observe these more than once.

Gemini
=======
Eskimo Nebula: When I asked Jon, what was the most interesting object for him in his new big aperture scope, he had mentioned to me about Eskimo nebula. so visited it tonight again. Jon located this one. At 400x, very bright circular disk. Core is brighter. Inside the circular disk and outside the core, you will see some inner ring. With more magnification of 522x in 7mm Nagler, the inner ring was clearly visible. Seeing wasn't so great, so had lil hard time to get the sharp view. Jon observed it at 760x as well with 4.8 Nagler.

Taurus
=======
M1 : Crab nebula : Very big, bright elliptical fuzzy. no internal details visible. but definitely one of the bigger objects in messier list.

Leo
====
M65-M66-3628 triplet : Indeed beautiful and bight triplet. Fainter 3628 was edge-on. probably brightness is same as Draco 5807 gal and similar in size.

Bootes
======
M3 GC : Looks nice in the big scope. Stars can be resolved at the core. Stars really weren't pinpoint because of seeing (i guess).

Virgo
======
Markarains Chain : Browsed through Markarains chain and near by fuzzies. Probabaly observed in following order: 1 (4429) + 1 (4440) + Markarains chain {{ 4 (M86+M84)-+ 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 }} + 1 (M88) + 1 (M91)

Also, while relocating, observed few more : M58 + 4564 + antenna galaxy type pair (4567-68) + some more fuzzies that i don't remember now :). The fainter galaxies also seem brighter in the big scope, So really need to watch out.

Browsing through this region gives idea about all types of galaxies : brightness, size and shape.

Saturn
=======
Visited twice during the session. Seeing was always bad. Rings were bright. Saw a darker band on the Saturn's surface. According to Jon, it should be the shadow of the rings on front side. this dark band-shadow was aligned with back side of the ring. Ashwin got confused, wondering how we can see the rear part of rings like this. Instead it was the shadow of front part of the rings. Wish the view would have been more sharp. It was the last object of the night.

Hartley, Neptune, Blue Flash and NGCs.. I

Date: Oct 9th, 2010 Saturday
Observation Time: 8pm to 1pm (5hrs),
Location: Jon's Home, Boulevard, CA
Weather: Excellent.. No clouds.. Seeing was okay, not the best. 6/10.
Instruments: Jon's 16" dob, my 10" dob, NP101 APO.
Buddies: Jon

Highlight of the night: Detecting movement of Comet 103P/Hartley2 in Perseus, Locating Neptune, NGCs in southern sky, and locating very tiny Blue Flash Nebula.

Comet 103P/Hartley2 - It was fun observing Hartley2 during 5 hrs period.
~8pm: It was above Eta Persei (Miram).. probably 0.4 deg NW it.
~11pm: It was just SW of Eta. Infact becasue of the star brightness, had hard time locating it in binocs also.. It means it traveled that much within 3 hrs.
~11:30pm: It has moved lil more.
~:1145: you can see the location has changed relative to the start.

Apart from earth bound satellites, I have never seen any object moving that fast during one observation. Its indeed impressive

Overall, it was bright and you can clearly see the fuzziness. Again, its not as bright either. People are saying it will become naked eye object, but currently, its even harder to see it in binocs from San Diego as well. Lets see how it goes.

Helix Nebula: Jon showed the precise location of Helix again. Fomalhaut => North => Aqr C1-89-C2 => North => Delta Aqr pair => Jump West 3:30'clk => g Aqr pair => West => Upsilon Aqr. Near by this star is Helix located. Quick hunting in binocs, compared the brightness with comet and helix seemed similar or lil brighter. In 17T4, big, bright probabaly filled up 25% of the eyepiece at the center. Can see 5 stars within helix. 3 on one side in triangle format, one at the center and one on the opposite end. After looking at hubble picture, this view seemed miserable because you can not really see any details in it.

Jupiter: Visited multiple times during the night. Seeing never improved.
~ 7:30pm: 10" dob shows one of the moons, Calisto, close to NE corner (bottom-left) of the Jupiter disk. Not much details on the disk.
~ 9:30pm: Later Jon's 16" scope showed lot of details on the disk. NEB, NP, SEB, SSTB and SP visible. The Great red spot was visible in SEB on Western side (upper-right corner of the disk). GRS wasn't really poping out, but still visible.
~ 11pm: Jupiter moon Calisto moved towards East and just below the N pole of jupiter disk. Disk and Calisto separated by very slight margin. GRS seemed to be at opposite location i.e. upper-left corner. So is GRS and moon moving in opposite directions ?? Implies that Calisto was in the orbit behind Jupiter ... nice :-)

Uranus: Close to Jupiter, sort of blue-green color visible. Seeing was too bad to see the satellite moon of Uranus.

Neptune: Being in Capricorn, very close to a bright star Mu Capri, very easy to locate. Compared to other stars, you can see the disk (white color). Can see it from binocs as well, but seemed like yet another star in binocs.

Had nice binocs browsing session with Jon. Jon wanted to compare my 10x50 with his 10x50 and 10x42 binocs. My 10x50 binocs definitely has bigger field of view. For brightness, wasn;t able to compare much. Jon didn't say anything either. Somehow i feel this binocs is indeed good to have.. (from olympic NP experience as well, when compared with Shardul's and Adwait's binocs)

M8 and M20: M8 visible in binocs and probably a open cluster around it.. M20 doesnt seem to be a reasonable object in binocs. Jon also wasn't sure..

M24: Star cluster above M8 also visible.

M17 Swan: can see the fuzziness in binocs.

M7-M6: butter fly and Potlemy shows bright views in binocs.

M22-28: Bigger brighter, while M28 is compact, still bright.. both can fit in the same view. Observed M22 in 16" scope and compared it with M55 and M13 GCs as well. Mentioned below.

M25: Open cluster, at the end of inverted comma, above M22, visible nicely in binocs.

M55: Sigma-Tau Saggi, upper two stars of the Tea-Pot handle points to M55. Seemed similar to M22, may be fainter.

M22-M55-M13 Comparison: Observed all three in Jon's 16" scope ~100x and my 10 dob ~71x with 17T4.

In 10" scope, M13 core seem fabulous, the longer you look at it, more stars will be resolved at the core. M55 in my 10" shows the core iwth few stars resolved.. it also shows a bright star just outside the GC, probabaly not even a part of GC.. Interesting thing is, if we focus on the bright star and see the core at an angle of an eye, then M55 core gets resolved with more stars..more stars pop at the core.. impressive.. didnt see M22 from 10"...

Jon's 16" scope @ ~170x/200x shows massive and awesome view of M13.. core is well resolved with yellow bright stars.. M55 seemed lil dull after viewing M13. Can resolve those bright stars at the core and they didnt seem that impressive. M22 was resolved fully and showed more brighter stars than M55, but lesser than M13. It also seemed more brighter than M55.

Deer Lick with 7331: In Jon's 16" scope 7331 ~100x looks bright, edge on, can see angled top surface. 7331 shows three companions on top. All three in right-angle format. I can see two of them clearly. The top one 7340 and base one 7335, just above the center of the big 7331 disk. third one 7337 just above the corner of the 7331 disk, its aligned with three bright stars and in betn bottom stars, but closer to the middle star. third one seems to be way fainter and lil hard to even see it. Probably because of not-so-excellent seeing, we were having hard time.

In my 10" dob, 7331 was again easy to locate. In 17T4 @ 71x, it shows up like tiny bright needle. Didn't even bother for high magnification to catch satellite galaxies.

Stephan's Quintet: Jon pointed to this one as well. It was like you are looking into some dark view with stars. When i get adapted with the view, then i can sort of see two faint fuzzies in the middle. These two fuzzies seemed fainter than deer look satellites. (Mag shows that stephans are brighter) Indeed hard to see them. Never saw others. Quintet was a doublet to me. Observing, infact locating, these in 10" must be super hard.

Continued...

Hartley, Neptune, Blue Flash and NGCs.. II

Continued..

Switched to Capri objects.

M30 : Easy catch.. can see it binocular as well. In 16" @ 100x, the H shape is very small, but the GC shows up fine. This object is better with higher magnification. Need to browse thru scientific articles, if they ever talk abt shape.

Saturn Nebula : Easy catch. In 10" dob, the blue disk @ 71x shows up well. You cna clearly differentiate it thank the field stars. Sor of shows the elongated shape.. In 16" @ 100x, defintely shows more in the elongated shape, hard to qualify them as "wings", but you can feel their existence. Blue and bright..

M73 : Moving in correct direction Saturn nebula catches M73 Asterism easily. 4 stars in sort of
triangle shape pops up immediately.

M72 : Moving further down, shows M72 nearby.. brighter, but very compact and smaller.

M2 : Not sure when i visited this fella last time. Very easy catch from: Capricoruns Top line left corner pair => North => bright star of Beta Aqurii => North => M2.

M15 : Again, not sure when i saw this before (NEVER.. hmmm). I remember in 2008, i have tried it once to find it in 6" scope, but didn't get it. M2 => North => Bright star of Epsilon Peg i.e Enif => little North-West => M15. Sort of near Delphenus diamond.

Both M15 and M2 seemed to be of same brightness. When observed thru binoculars, M2 doesn't have any nearby stars, but M15 is within bright star pairs. So M15 seems fainter than M2.. or M2 is easier to see than M15.

Veil : In 10" scope, without the filter, Vel is very depressing. All fuzziness is gone. You can see somewhat fuziness near star 52, but that doesn't show its broomstick shape. Other two components just don't even show up.

North American and Pelican Nebula: I have tried this nebula multiple times before and always failed. This object seems more visible photographically than visually. Jon and I tried it with NP101 and the binoculars. NP101 with the filter with 31 Nagler (~22x), shows very wide field view. Jon ponted to some sort of triangle shape, this must be the narrow part in turn joining south american peninsula. OR Not sure if it was pelican.. All other parts are just invisible..

Tried to browse thru binocs, Tried to locate the dark lanes that made the border of north american nebula, but very hard to feel the shape.

Oph 6633 and one more: Jon pointed to two clusters in Oph. Nothing impressive abt it. very dispersed open star cluster with probably 15-20 stars in it.

Browsed thru Cetus.

M77 : Not so bright galaxy. sometimes its even hard to understand how M found these objects. Seemed elliptical. there are bunch of satellite galaxies and Jon's 16" scope showed them nicely. 1055 is just aligned next to it with bright pair of stars. 1087 on southern side is fainter, but still visible. It seemed to have another companion 1090. So with larger aperture 1087-1090 pair shows up. On the opposite side of M77-1055 can find fainter 1032 again aligned with sort-of-bright stars nearby. Tried to locate 1073, but didn't see it.

Continued..

Hartley, Neptune, Blue Flash and NGCs.. III

Continued..

Hunted bunch of NGC below Sculptor.

NGC 253 Sculptor Gal and 288 GC: The NGC 288 GC is not a typical GC. Its disperesed. Its very faint as well. From Jon's 16" scope also it seemed fainter, but the fuzziness can be felt in the finder as well. Indeed conflicting observation. Need to read more abt this one TBD. Once 288 is found, 253 is easy to locate. Again, can "feel" it in finder. Very large, Very elongated. At one point, felt like it has filled up the eyepiece. Messier wound't have missed it if it would have been on northern side. the galaxy defitnely shows some motelling-spots on it.

NGC 55: Jon showed me this one in NP 101. Very faint. I tried it in 16". Very easy to locate from Alpha Phx (southern constellation Phonix, just below sculptor). Huge, may be lil fainter than 253. Both 55 and 253 seem similar to me, except the mottelling part in 253.

NGC 300: Jon found this one in NP 101, but I wasn't able to locate it in 16". In NP 101 view, 300 seemed again similar to 55, may be lil smaller and fainter.

NGC 247: Don't remember much, except the location. Was an easy catch thru 16" scope as well.

M11 : Wild duck cluster seem fainter and very disperesed in 16" scope at 100x. When the sky rotates overnight, i have observed that its hard for me to locate the familiar object like M11 :).

Blue Flash nebula: Near del and saggita, was the highlight of the night in star hopping and locating this guy. the difficult part is its so small that you have to use lil higher magnification and that makes life lil difficult in low-mag star hopping. Its not like i haven't seen this guy before, but very hard to locate. Jon pointed to this one in NP 101, 16" and then i tried it with 10". In 10" with 17T4 @ 71x. You have imagine flipping the whole saggita constellation from Western to easter side. So its betn 29 Vul and Gamma Sge, with Del on left-southern side. In 71x, with 82deg nagler, you can fit 4 bright stars in a trapezoid shape, in one view. This nebula is at the center of one of the edges on left. It seems like a very-very small cluster of three stars and nebula is at the center. It looks like very-very small fuzzy ring, but still can be differentiated from the star...very hard.. You have to get familiar with the view, and then only you can really see it there. Once found, then high mags shows the details. disk doesn't show any blue color.. not sure why they call it blue flash, it confuses people ( me :-) ), when we look into the eyepiece. disk shows up like a big thick ring. central part shows lil dark hole (??).

M45 : when tired did lil bino viewing, and M45 again impressed me. 10 sisters shows up nicely. very bright blue stars. Fills up the whole view in binocs.

Double cluster : With low mags on Jon's 16" scope (~100x) shows the double cluster nicely. Can clearly see one is smaller than other. smaller is more compact than the bigger being being disperesed (isnt that obvious). Saw this one while looking at the comet.

Some double in orion head: Jon showed some double in the head of the orion, but seeing was way too bad to split the double..

M1 : Crab shows up nicely. In 16" as well cant see much details on the crab.. Its just one big, elongated fuzzy bright disk. absolutely no details inside.

In the end did some bino browsing for the comet..

Towards Messier Finishing.. I

....

Mercury - Naked Eye

Venus

Jupiter

Alberio

M57 - ring
Swan
Lagoon
Triffid

Nebulas using filter

M4

M75
M55
M80

Towards Messier Finishing.. II

..

Ophiuchus GCs.. Various NGCs nearby Messiers

M10 - M12
M107
M14
M9-M19-M62

6355-6293

M13-NGC 6207 galaxy

Double cluster

M92

M92-NGC6229
PN nearby 6210

Towards Messier Finishing III

..


M33
M31

Blue snowball - lil hard to find again

Showed some objects to Aparna before leaving: M31, M57, Jupiter, M13

So only 3 messier are missing now.. Here M40 and M102 are indeed misleading numbers in the list. People observe nearby NGC objects to complete the list.

Const M# Type R.A. Dec Mag Size Notes
h m deg m min
Peg 15 Gb 21 30 12 10 7 12 rich, compact
UMa 40 DS 12 22.4 58 5 9 1 DS Winnecke 4, sep 50"
Dra 102 Gb 15 6.5 55 46 12 2x 1 M102=M101, NGC 5866 used

Summer Kickoff - I

Date: July 4th, 2010 Sunday
Observation Time: 8pm to 1pm (5hrs),
Location: Jon's Home, Boulevard, CA
Weather: Excellent.. no clouds.. lil wind in the beginning, but later calm.. so seeing improved..
Instruments: Jon's 16" dob, my 10" dob, NP101 APO.
Buddies: Jon

Venus - Observed thru APO. Image seemed blurrier.. also lot of green/violet color, considering APO :-). Thru 10" dob, good image. looked like a small scale moon. Venus phase of ~60% lit clearly visible. Thru 16" better image of the same. no surface details visible.. its all white..

Saturn: Rings clearly visible thru 16". Thru 10" dob @ 35x (Pan35mm) the rings are visible.. image is too tiny @ 35x, but can distinguish the rings clearly.. when looked thru eyepiece, can see the light distortion i.e. "seagull".. collimation may be lil off. but by changing the viewing angle, the distortion was going away. Two moons on one side. 171x

M57 Ring Nebula: Visited multiple times. In the twilight and APO, seemed really fainter in APO. no star visible at 2". seemed all gray color. Later in the night thru 10" dob nag17 @ 71x image seems sharp and quite bright.. the star at 2" is visible. bluish color visible. Compared with uhc and then oiii filter. image seems definitely brighter thru filters. Need to try high mag filtered image.

Browsed the whole sky naked eye to get a feel of it.

Omega centauri: Lower on horizon, visible. In twilight, not that sharp. Visible thru bino.

M80: In Scorpio. Jon reminded the location. Above the Antares and twice the distance from Antares-lower star. In 10" dob 17nag 71x seems fuzzier, not clear.. ~171x still non-clear watery image. Visited it later at 11pm and the image seemed clear and sharp. In Jon's scope outer stars well resolved.

Ophiuchus PN NGC 6572: Blue Racquetball: Bright, sharp. In 71x Nag17 it seems like brighter blue star. Hard to differentiate it as the PN. Note the triangle pattern of the PN with other two bright stars. Increasing the mags @ 171x makes it brighter.. but still no details visible on the PN. Addition of OIII filter clearly makes it brighter. Visited multiple times.

Oph OC NGC 6633 and IC 4756: Looked at the OC NGC and IC.. NGC seems to be yet another OC, but IC cluster seems to be impressive.. IC bigger than ngc. In 71x it fills up whole eyepiece.. ~30 stars.. all yellow.. evenly distributed.. Switched to lower mag to get the feel of it. In Pan 35, 35x it seems more beautiful.. can clearly see the cluster at the center. seemed like wide salt-pepper cluster.

Blue Flash nebula NGC 6905: In Delphinus. At 71x itself, lil hard to differentiate than background stars. visited it before 1.5 years back, but forgot the location. 85deg (~90) angle on Delph diamond + bright star and this Neb. Note the 3 stars in straight line alignment. also a bright pair nearby. At 71x, seemed faint circular shape.. seems bigger than previous PN, racquetball, but fainter.. no color visible. At 171x, the circular shape clearly visible. Can not see much pattern on the disk. no color visible. OIII filter helps... but i felt that, for searching this neb, UHC filter really helps, as the neb is definitely visible with background stars. More mag helps.

M71 GC: In Sagitta. In Pan 35, 35x looks impressive.. lil bigger than M80, but defintely smaller than M4. clear, sharp.. and outskirt stars lil resolvable. Didn't try high mags.

M27 Dumbbell: Closer to M71. Compared all above tiny PNs, way bigger and so much nebulous. Tried 71x and 171x.. don't see any colors in it. With OIII filter, brighter.. Can see lil dark spot within the nebula.

Veil nebula - 10" @ 35x No filter. Cyg 52 star, West veil part, witch nebula visible. But can't see the visiblity clearly. Tried to look for eastern veil, but didn't find it. Later visited it again. Tried it with UHC filter. Can see all 3 parts of Veil. West+East+Pickering triangle. Nebulosity visible with background stars. with OIII filter, it just looks marvelous. all background stars are gone. And nebulosty pops up in the OIII filter. Tried the same with APO. Compared UHC/OIII/No-filter in APO on Veil.

Browsed thru Sagittarius Nebulae with UHC/OIII/No-Filter in 10" dob with 17T4 Nag @ 71x.

M8 Lagoon: Without filter it shows the lagoon dark arc clearly. With OIII/UHC filters on, it shows lot of nebulosity filess the 25-30% of EP center. shows the bright part at the center of the nebula. this must be the hour-glass nebula.. need to magnify and have to try it from Jon's 16" scope. M21 cluster nearby.

M20 Triffid: Barely shows the upper Y dark lanes without filter.. shows the cluster on the right. With filter on, it shows more nebulosity near the cluster also. The dark lanes seemed darker.

M23 open cluster above lagoon-triffid line: Visible in the 8x20 finder. Seemed to be yet another OC.

Continued..

Summer Kickoff - II

Continued..

M4 - Visited M80 for a sharper view. For a comparison, checked M4. The M4 seems so bigger, brighter and loose as compared to M80. Also a NGC 6144 next to M4 and Antares seems bigger than M80.. but looser and fainter.. M80 definitely packs more stars in less space than this NGC. Overall M4-M80-6144 is a very good comparison for different types of GCs.

Sagittarius browsing for GC: Browsed the bottom of the Sagittarius. Epsilon-Zeta line
M69: tiny GC.. similar to M80, but it has a bright star next to it.
NGC6652: is on the below the Eps-Zeta line of the constellation. Definitely smaller than Ms.
M70 (New): continued along the same line as 6652, M70 shows up. Next to triple-star-straight-line alignment.
M54: Inside the bottom line. Just no guidepost.. browsing thru gets it there.. All these Ms seems similar.

NGC6723: This GC seems to be bigger than those other messier GCs. Wonder how messier missed this one. Just below Sagittarius.. easy to find.

NGC6624: Next to star Delta. Yet another GC.

NGC pair 6528-6522 near Alnasi/Gamma. These are really tiny-loose as compared to tiny messiers. One of them is denser than other. Infact second one is smaller and looser so hard to qualify.

ngc 6558-6569: Browsing on the opposite side leading to these GCs. not in a par.. lil bit apart.. they seem to be lil bigger than the above pair.

NGC 6563 PN: Seems like blue flash PN. Can be located easily thru star Eps Saggi. two star hops and pn should be in the view.

More GCs near Gamma-Delta M8 line. 6544 6553 6520 6540.. seemed like the 6528-22 pair near gamma.

Continued..

Summer Kickoff - III

Continued..

M28-M22-NGC6638: This triplet reminds me of M4-M80-ngc triplet near antares.

M11 wild duck cluster: Can indeed feel the wild duck flock in V shape flying in the sky.

M30 - quick browsing of m30. Tried it only thru 71x.. seems tinier at that magnification. can feel the H shape star alignment. didn't try high mags.

Andromeda triplet - Andromeda rising on NE. ~15-20deg above horizon. m31 big and bright @70x.. fills the eyepiece. M32 tiny still bright. m110 is very faint, bigger than m32.

Jupiter - Rising in the easter sky. <10deg from horizon.. fluctuating image. 4 moons on one side clearly visible.

Double cluster thru APO: Tried Jon's SWA 24mm in the APO. double cluster rising up. very low in magnification. can see difference in double cluster.

Returned back ~2:45pm..

Fuzzies Everywhere - I

Date: May 15th 2010 Saturday
Observation Time: 8:00pm to 12:30pm (4.5hrs),
Location: Jon's Home, Boulevard, CA
Weather: Excellent.. no clouds.. no winds.. probably best night till now in 2010. seeing was lil bad 8/10.. transparency 9/10
Instruments: Jon's 16" dob, my 10" dob, np101 APO.
Buddies: Jon


Venus - telescope not cooled down yet.. pretty bad view from my 10" or jon's 16" scope.. blurry..

Moon - few degrees west from venus.. second day phase of moon.. really slick.. excellent view of venus-moon pair as the darkness evolved.

Saturn - excellent view from 16".. jon's scope more stable than mine.. ring, shadow of the ring.. lil gaseous pattern on the disk, 3 moons on right.. in my 10" scope, 7mm image was good.. but barlowed 7mm really blurry..

Castor - easy split with my scope. 4.7 arcmins is indeed easy to split.

Izar - Indeed interesting. companion is in a diffraction ring of primary star. from APO NP101, its a marvelous view. with my 10" scope, can see it, but not as sharp and clean as the apo.

Gamma Leo - Easy split. Companion seems smaller than Primary.

Porrima - Indeed hard.. higher magnification thru Join's 16".. don't remember how much. Its not an easy split. I am able to manage it with my scope. with 7mm ep i.e. 171x (i guess)

M44 - Beehive thru my 10" 35mm pan @ 35x.. looks marvelous. Are there any doubles in here???

M3 - Lost a track to locate this one. Not sure why it happens. Excellent view. Darker the sky better view..

-- Hot chocolate break --

Virgo All messiers: After last week's vrgo browsing, I have gained some confidence in how to browse through fuzzies in this area. In fact last time i missed few nearby messiers.. with smaller 10" scope + 35 Pan @ 35x, shows whole area clearly. should observe this when it real dark and calm, to see more fuzzies at such a low magnification. I was expecting lil better view in my scope, probably lower mag didn't show much. Still can clearly see lot of messiers and ngc objects too in markarains chain.

6 Com star-M98-M99-M100-Markarains chain with M84-M86-4388-4387-4402-Eyes4438-4435-4461-4473. Also M88 and M91 were clearly visible because of low mags. I missed these two las time. Again, M87-M89-M90 visible. On eastern side, M58-M59-M60 were also visible. Lil down M49 was an easy catch. I also mentioned to Jon abt missing M61 (New).. both of us located it and looked at it together. Easier to locate.. Jon noticed few NGCs nearby too..

Did I miss M85, which lil above M100 ??? Hmmm...

Continued..

Fuzzies Everywhere - II

Continued..

Nearby M99 and M100 lies NGC pair 4302-4928 (New).. not sure if they are related? SkyVoyeger doesn't show distances..

M104 Sombrero: Thru my scope 17T4 70x definitely looks nice. dark lane and halo seems impressive. Can't see it clearly in the finder.

Antenna Galaxies: Can clearly see the fuzzy pair @ 70x in my scope. Can not see any antennas.

M68 GC: Haven't seen this in a while.. Easier to locate below corvus. Left side of the bright star. While switching betn Jon's and my Scope, realized the confusion betn right-angled finder and straight finder.

M83 Gal: Easier to catch. Need to observe it carefully. show lot of details in spiral structure with higher aperture.. i missed all.. I was just elated that i was able to locate it :).. seems like it is referred as seashell or southern pinwheel.

Omega Cen GC - Clear view thru 10" scope. Really need to observe this one without light pollution. Jon's place has lil light pollution near Southern horizon.

Hamburger Cen A Gal: Clearly see the huge dust lane in 17T4 @ 70x.

After this, I switched to Leo galaxies, while Jon continued with NGC objects near M83 hydra. He spent probably 30 mins in this region looking for really faint fuzzies.

He showed me hydra fuzzies 5292 (New), IC 4329-4329A pair (New), 5298 (New) and 5302 (New). It was indeed hard to locate this and see them clearly, just because of 16" aperture, you can feel their existence.

Continued..