Bust..

Date: 17th March 2009, Saturday
Observation Time: 7:30pm to 8pm (30 mins)
Location: TDS, CA
Weather: Worst weather ever..
Instruments: Orion 10 XTi
Buddies: Ashwin, Alankar and Renga

Venus: The crescent venus shape was marvelous. it was like first phase from the new moon. Because of atmospheric movements, the bright part of Venus was glittering. We watched it from club's 22" scope and then thru my 10" scope. The view from my scope was comparable to club's scope.

Venus was the highlight and only object of the night. Fog rolled over and killed whole night.. it was complete waste driving to TDS. Bad night. !! Accuweather showed that sky is clear, no clouds from 7pm to 11pm, but mentioned abt high humidity. Clear sky clock showed cloud cover, transparency to be excellent, but seeing to be bad... Being deprived of astronomy sessions for more than 2 months, I took a risk of driving to TDS, but complete failure.

Discussion abt "Qualia" with Renga was interesting though.

First Dark Night with Orion XTi 10 - I

Date: 17th Jan 2008, Saturday
Observation Time: 6:00pm to 11:30pm (5:30 hrs)
Location: TDS, CA
Weather: Excellent.. Seeing and Transparency 8/10.. winds picked up around 11pm.
Instruments: New Orion XTi 10, Rick's 12.5" dob, Tony's 8" dob and Bret's 24" dob. Bunch of new eyepieces.
Buddies: Rick, Tony and Bret

Total objects: 40 DSOs + 2 planets
New : 11

Best of the Night: M46 Planetary Nebula and All tiny galaxies in Leo.

First night of the new year.. looks like astronomy for this year started way too early :).. hopefully continues like this..

Objective of the night is to:
- test the new scope
- compare all eyepieces
- check intelliscope performance and functions
- some sky browsing.

Vertical Alignment. Hard.. TDS public pad is indeed slanted a lot.. this is gonna be tricky.. Is vertical stop connection to the scope really required for intelliscope ??

Connected Telerad. Placement is not ideal, but not bad either.. didn't have much choice because of finder location.

Rick from next pad helped to do the collimation with laser collimator.. secondary was lil bit hard to align.. somehow its really tight.. don't know why.. do i need to loose the central screw lil bit ?? ..any way will buy Howe gladder laser collimator this week.. Rick showed me a way to collimate without barlow.. sort of.. he mentioned that barlow is really not required.. only trouble is moving up-down to see and move screws.. that should be okay..

Worst mistake of the night.. Intelliscope battery down.. when i checked the status form home.. it was up.. but i didn't realize that its not good enough to see at night.. i have used this thing in Nov, and it was good.. i must have left it on since then :(..needs new battery now.. the problem was i wasn't able to use it for whole night.. that was one of my objectives at TDS today..zero outcome.. next time !!

Venus: Impressive. 45% phase. Too much waving. Probably scope also wasn't cooled down. MAx magnification with 9mm expanse.. 4.5mm failed.. higher mags didn't help much to see any details.. in the view.. i noticed that when Venus at the edge of eyepiece, it had violet tint on west i.e. bright side. but as the Venus moved to center of the field of view, the violet tinge reduced. Again increased as the movement towards the edge of the eyepiece.. is it indeed eyepiece ?

M42 Orion Nebula: Spent really long time tasting eyepieces.

Tony's celestron axiom 25mm on 8' dob: 82deg field of view.. impressive view.. star crowded sky.. Orion in the middle.. dark tower visible.. trapezoid visible.. second dark tower perpendicular to main one clearly visible..

40mm GSO: View wasn't bad.. 60 deg FOV. but stars at the edge were stretched and looked like streaks.. bad eyepiece at the edges.. Again barrel length was trouble so have to take out the glasses.. second tower wasn't visible..still good view.

32mm E-Lux: Impressive view.. stars were fine. trapezoid barely visible.. i think 3 stars of it visible. second tower was visible, but not yet clear..

25mm 1.25' and 25mm 2': Second tower visible, but not as clearly as tony's. ..hmm eyepiece quality :) .. $150 ?? trapezoid visible.. compared both my 25mm eyepieces. FOV is larger in 2' vs 1.25'.. definitely.. but i felt that 1.25' is lil bit better in contrast as compared to 2'. i was able to focus better on stars with 1.25'.. also m43 nebulous area was better in 1.25'

10mm X-cel: marvelous view.. all nebulous details in second tower visible. Trapezoid 5th star was in. wasn't aware that there is 6th one two..

9mm expanse: surely better field of view.. no other difference than 10mm x-cel.

35mm Teleview Panoptic on ricks 12.5' dob: 07deg FOV. MArvellous view.. second tower was there..lil bit in-out of focus. still picture was marvelous. 3 out of 4 trapezoid visible. Still with high mags didn't see 6th star. rick tried to explain me the location, but didn't find it.

M43: In 25mm dark region within M43 visible.. western part (left) definitely larger than eastern (right)

Perseus double cluster: Rick TV 35mm view impressive.. pinpoint stars.. mine 32mm was fine too.. stars were perfect pint point.. that shows precise collimation..

M31 Andromeda: Rick TV 35mm: Clear view of whole M31..Dust lane was good.. indeed was getting a feeling of it.. M110 and M32 visible.. but too tiny. My 40mm: M32 & M110 wre but too tiny.. but this eyepiece indeed shows the length/glow of m31.. just too large.. dust lane wasn't much impressive. My 32mm showed the dust lane.. but it wasn't as good as rick 35m.. again eyepiece quality..

M33 Triangulum: Forgot the location. Rick got it.. fuzzy object.. no details visible ..m33 thru bret's 24inch and bino-view marvelous.. hydrogen region was visible at right corner.. also watched so many dark lanes in m33.. the whole view was full of it.. also sort of got a 3d perception.. must be because of bino-view. In bino-view mag calculation is different..view was around 150x. thru my 32mm or higher mags, just a fuzzy object, no details visible... aperture helps.

Blue snowball NGC7662: okay.. not that great.. really tiny.. i was expecting more.. compare with Jon's 10' dob.

M81-M82: impressive. M81, on left, seems as big fuzzy.. M82 on right seems edge on.. One tiny galaxy NGC3077 (new) right angled above M81. Used 40mm for finding.. 32mm view good.. 25mm was better and showed the dark edge on M82.. 10 mm possible.. but no other details..impressive view thru Rick's 35mm panoptic 70deg FOV.. Tony's 25mm wasn't that impressive considering 80deg FOV.. too much magnification..

M41 OC in CMa: Visible naked eye - don't remember much.. Thru 40mm: Curved lines

M46-M47 OC pair in Pup: Thru 40mm.. M46-M47 barely fits in same view.. M46 stars are pinpoint and concentrated like double cluster.. while M47 is normal dispersed bright stars. 25inch SDAA scope thru 31mm (2500mm focal) shows a nebula.. impressive view. In the nebula itself there was a concentric circle (i think).. indeed impressive.. Thru my 32mm. barely visible for me.. 25mm impressive.. bluish visible.. cluster and PN in it indeed impressive.. 6mm was still good - 10mm lost it.. M46 farther than M47.. PN is actually not in M46 but much closer to us than OC.

M50 in Mon (new): Yet another OC. Don't remember much.

M93 in Pup (new): Really tiny OC.. salt-paper.. too low on horizon

M36-M38-M37 in Auriga: Quick browse. Was overhead. lil bit hard to catch it.. Visible naked eye m36-m38.. bino view was great for all three.

M44 Beehive OC in Cancer: Thru 40mm eyepiece..impressive.. beehive visible.. but 25mm view better to see beehive triangles.

M67 OC in Cancer: Yet another.. nothing impressive..

M35 OC in Gem (New): SDAA scope impressive.. bright yellowish stars. and tiny OC NGC1258 (new) next to it.. this ngc looked like M93.. fine view in my 32mm also.. seen it before thru binocular

First Dark Night with Orion XTi 10 - II

Continued..

Horsehead Nebula IC 434: Fought for it.. dark nebula.. star was too bright.. with filter 18mm and without filter on 14mm.. without filter view was better.. but still didn't see Horsehead.. need to identify the precise location.. It seems like we were looking at NGC2024 flame nebula.. we were looking at north.. we should be looking 2-3 deg south..

M1 Crab: In 40mm visible.. 32mm was good.. Know precise location. Supported all higher magnifications.. 25mm - 16mm still good.. lost location in 10mm.. No internal detail visible in higher mags.

Leo Stars: Near Regulus UGC5470 not visible.. i thought i had seen it thru Jon's 10" dob.. verify. caught all stars. Gamma is yellow and has blue companion, but separated by large margin.. Yellow color was impressive.. Watched all stars.. Denebola was too low.

Saturn: looking for Saturn in Leo.. but nothing bright.. got too confused.. but found it next to iota leonoid.. 40mm no rings.. 32mm rings as a line.. but not able to focus.. too low on horizon. verify satellite locations.. two on top (west)..one was really far.. and two below (east).. higher mags didn't help much either.. wavy view.

Leo M95-M96-M105 Triplet galaxies: Star 53 visible averted.. easy catch of galaxies. Saw lot of NGCs nearby in 40mm itself.. M95-M96, M105-NGC3384, NGC3412 (new), NGC3377 (new) next to star 52.. also by using map, located NGC3367 circular galaxy (new), NGC3338 (new). Also, 32mm/25mm mag was best view. It also showed M105-NGC3384-NGC3389. familiar 3 star alignment also.. Brightness M105 > NGC3384 > NGC3389. Large: NGC3389 > NGC3384..

Leo M65-M66-NGC3628 Triplet: Star 73 visible thru averted vision. triplet easy catch.. this triplet much better than m95-m96-m105 triplet. NGC3628 is perfect edge on. Looking at map, found all tiny guys.. NGC3593(new) and NGC3596 (new) next to theta leonoid..

TBD:
- Intelliscope battery
- Observe each object more carefully. M46 is an example of ignorance.
- Observation Plan is necessary
- Too cold out there

SDAA BBQ Night - Part I

Date: 29th Sept 08, Saturday.
Observation Time:
Location: TDS, CA
Weather: Weather was excellent. Lil bit windy initially. but crisp clear
Instruments: My 10” dob & 10x50 binocs.
Buddies: Pete.

Total Objects: 17 (Incomplete)
New Objects: 13

Another great session at TDS. It was SDAA's annual BBQ party too. Had a hosting training session for the 22inch telescope.

Caught lot of new objects...

Initially, I wanted to cover all the M's near horizon.

M3 (New): Nicely aligned bten arcturus and canes venatici. Arc of arcturus and star above perfectly points to M3. Visible in binocs and finder 9x50. Really bright and widespread. core is tightly packed, but There seems to be branch of stars coming out if it. all stars resolvable in that branch in 9mm.

M5 (New): located Exactly opposite of M3. Easy to catch with serpens Caput last two stars. Binocular object. Tiny, tightly packed and fainter than M3.

M94 (New): Tiny galaxy in canes venatici. easy to catch. Seems to be tiny fuzzy, elliptical. It’s faint. Wonder how messier find this object.

M63 Sunflower Galaxy (New): Again easy catch. Edge on. lil bit brighter and bigger than M94. can not see any sunflower shape.

M101: really Fainter. Seems face on. still bigger than M63 or M94. On opposite side of M101. there is a galaxy triplet (IC #).

M51 Whirlpool galaxy: both galaxies clearly visible.. broken eight shape. no details visible in 32mm x 2x (16mm). I guess aperture is the key here.

M11 Wild duck cluster: Rich OC with thousands stars. It’s a failed globular cluster probably.One bright star at the center while a pair outside the cluster. Three dark regions making a triangle with each other. Can not see any stars in there. Can resolve almost all stars... cluster doesn't fit in 9mm eyepiece 135x.

Opphiuchus Clusters (New):
Browsed thru Opp. clusters. IC 4665 is indeed bright and beautiful in binocs. At 38x, fills whole eyepiece. 4-5 yellow stars. Not sure what is Cr 350. NGC 6426 was an easy catch. really tiny. Barely able to make it with 38x.

M10 & M12 (New): At the center of constellation. M10, a star, a pair and then M12 forming a line. can not fit in same binocular view. M12 seems bigger than M10. On M10, I can see sort of triangular shape because of few bright stars at the vertices.

Box nebula - NGC 6309: Tried to locate it, but failed. Need to read more.

M14 (New): Yet another globular.

Green Nebula - NGC 6572: wasn't able to locate it.

M30: Impressive. H shape with globular hanging on top right corner. In my 32mm, 32mmx2x, 9mm it didn’t look that clear as compared to Jon's 17mm nagler last time. I guess better eyepiece helps. Saw it on Pete's 16' dob at 280x. Fabulous view. I wonder if those H shaped stars are part of this GC.

10" dob @ TDS - Part I

Date: 23rd August 08, Saturday
Observation Time: 8:00pm to 12:00pm (4 hrs)
Location: TDS, CA
Weather: Seeing was excellent. Lil bit windy in the end. Slightly hot.
Instruments: My 10” dob & 10x50 binocs
Buddies: Bill and Mohammad from next pad.

Total Objects: 27
New Objects: 9 (Mercury, Neptune and Saggi globular clusters)

This is first time I took this 10" dob to a dark site.. It was a rewarding experience. This aperture is indeed satisfying my thrust :). The saggi globular hunting is a proof of it.

Tried to collimate the dob with Collimation cap, but not precisely. Edward with 17" dob, helped me to collimate it with his howie glatter laser collimator. I really need to buy one.

Started with Venus & Mercury. Venus wasn't sharp.. green ghost shadow with actual image.. indeed out of focus.. also too low on horizon. I guess collimation wasn't perfect. Didn't try any high mags on Venus either. Mercury, a small dot was visible in 9x50 finder, but didn't find it in dob...way low on horizon.. Any way, this is first time i saw Mercury with optics. To make sure collimation is correct, I moved to Jupiter, but still wasn't able to focus clearly... bit frustrating.

< Lyra >
Double Double: At 97x, bare split of double double. It was indeed hard to see anything below that (76x). With 135x and 270x it was fabulous. I guess inter-pair split is probably around 60-70 arc seconds, while each individual pair split might be 1-2 arc seconds. bluish-white star colors. Check Here. Inter-split estimation incorrect.. need to verify again..

At high mag, it was really hard to keep in focus. The spring tension system on the dob is not that great. With both mount springs attached, it becomes too tight, while with single spring, the dob moves lil bit because of its weight. Comparing both options, two springs setup was better and tried to keep the objects in view as far as possible.

Alberio: Fabulous view. nice colors. With 38x, out of focus color contrast was great. with 135x and 270x nice color contrast with sharp focus. 38 arc seconds split. I estimated double double split up values based on Alberio split up.

M57 Ring Nebula: Easy catch: Really nice wide angle view in 38x and ring pops in the view easily. Tried all mags 76x, 135x and 270x... 135x was best view. Outer ring and middle dark hole was clearly visible. Averted vision really helps to view the ring. No colors. No central star visible to me. A field star at 2" clock immediate next to ring (Confirmed)

Binocular Star-hopping:
While confirming location of veil nebula, Mohammad from next pad showed up. It was his first time and he was really exited. So I gave him quick binocular tour of DSOs in Sagittarius M7 Ptlomey's OC -> M6 Butterfly OC-> M8 Lagoon -> M20 Triffid -> M24 Star cloud -> Saggi constellation -> Galactic Center -> M22 GC -> M25 OC -> M28 GC.

Also he asked for M13 GC. I got it in my binocs within few seconds, but it was hard to show him exactly where to look at :). Also tried Omega Centauri GC, but failed. I really need to confirm the location (??)

< Scorpius >
M4 & 6144 GC : Instead of browsing to Veil, I started with M4 Glob. Fabulous GC. No colors. Easy to resolve all outskirts stars. 6144 was also next to it. Out of 6144, M4 and Antares, only two objects can be in the 1.0 deg view at a time. 6144 GC is indeed twice the size of Antares, but Antares is too bright and close, dimming the 6144 brightness.

Northern Jewel Box (6231) : Too low on horizon.

M7 Ptolemy OC: Fabulous yellowish stars in view. At 36x whole eyepiece was full of yellow stars. Heavenly experience

M6 Butterfly OC: Butterfly shape visible in 36x, with Reddish orange star tail. The upper wing is loosely attached on a point to the central body, while lower wing is smaller in size. At 135x (9mm), too much mag to see the shape. also reduced some contrast on orange tail star.

< Sagittarius >
Spent hell lot of time in Sagittarius.

M8 Lagoon + Hourglass : Observed in detail. 36x showed the dark semi circular rift. The right side of the rift (E) has a small open cluster (6530). The bottom part of rift (N), has some nebulosity, while The upper part of the rift (W) has another region of nebulosity. At 76x and 135x, the upper nebulous part shows distinctive features: A bright fuzzy object and two stars aligned in SW-NE line. Fuzziness is larger in size and higher magnitude than those two stars. I think this fuzziness is hourglass nebula and with some creativity, you can imagine the shape @ 270x as hourglass aligned at SW-NE line. (Need to confirm). Deep sky filter would have really helped.

M20 Triffid + M21 : Observed in detail. 36x shows the Open Cluster (M21).. This OC is indeed bigger in size than Lagoon OC. Upper Left (SW) of which, lies the nebulosity. In the Y rift shape the bottom of Y prong is aligned SW-NE and is the only visible rift. Two stars are aligned with it on upper side. while 2 more bright stars defining edge of lower nebulosity. The 72x clearly shows one more star at the center of Y shape. It is also aligned with previous two stars. 76x also reveals the other 2 rifts of Y shape upper prong is more visible than lower prong. 76x reveals that the central star in Y is indeed a double star. 135x view was good too, confirming all details. Deep sky filter would have helped.

Kaus Borealis, M22, M28 & NGC-6638 GC: the 5th star of Tea pot is Kaus Borealis (lambda). I wasn't aware abt the name before. "Kau's" :) !! M22 is fabulous GC.. probably slightly fainter than M4. Looks good in high mags. M28 is also nice, bluish and tiny as compared to M22. Hard to resolve anything in there. while star hopping within 32mm eyepiece (36x), I accidentally saw a tiny GC next to Kaus Borealis, which was smaller in size than M28. Map confirmed that it is NGC 6638. It's probably same size as Antares, but bluish and fuzzy in size. Its like sky-blue color fuzzy dot. Also, map shows a planetary nebula NGC 6644 next 6638 but didn't see anything (confirm the mag and try it next time. ??)

10" dob @ TDS - Part II

...continued.

Globular Hunting:
My own discovery of NGC 6638, sparked some enthu in me and i started browsing all tiny globulars within Sagittarius :). I spotted NGC 6624 GC, next to Kaus Media star (delta). Again, next to Alnasl (Gamma) were NGC 6528 GC, NGC 6522 GC, NGC 6558, NGC 6569. All of them were bluish and fuzzy in color probably 3-5 arc minutes in size. 6569 was lil bit brighter and bigger in size than 6558. (Right)

Neptune : When I was moving to Kaus Australis, I heard people talking abt "Neptune" from next pad. Fellow "Gilbert" showed me Neptune in his 10 inch Meade Cassegrain. Neptune was white in color.. "a dot" in the view.. having on board computer indeed helps... According to gilbert, if you make it lil bit out of focus, you can see a out-of-focus disk for that "dot", but other stars still remain as pointed dots and thats the key to identify. hmmm.. After some discussions and with few more objects, i realized that his telescope his not properly aligned. When i asked him to point to Uranus, which i have seen before, it didn't show anything. Also pointing to Mizar in UMa implied its completely out of alignment..so i am really not sure what i saw was really Neptune :)..

Because of Neptune, I got distracted from my GC starhopping and inturn afterwards I realized that I missed some nice globs M69, M70 and M54... any way.. next time !!

Veil nebula : missed - need to read more... nebulousity wasn't visible at all...means i felt something smoky around star 52, but the shape wasn't discernible. Filter would have really helped.

M31 Andromeda - M32 - M110: Because of Veil nebula frustration, i picked best object for nice view. M31-M32-M110.. was awesome.. M31 just doesn't fit into any eyepiece. binocular shows its real size. M31 and M32 fir in same view (36x). M32 is tiny, but still really bright and its ecliptic shape is clearly visible. M110 is indeed faint. Probably fainter than M33-Triangulum galaxy (Wrong) and all high mags just killed it. I tried to put some high mags on M32 to catch any glimpses inside. but i can see only the bright core. I wonder what kind of aperture or magnification you need to see all Andromeda globular clusters. (???)

M33 Triangulum: I misinterpreted the map and it took hell lot of time to get M33 in the view. Binocular really helped here. Probably I spent more than 10-15 mins just to find M33 in binocs and in turn in the dob. It was disappointing.. Again, i didn't see much in the view.. it seemed to be brighter than M110.. but it was hard to see any shape or arms. (??)

M27 Dumbbell: After frustrating M33, I moved to familiar one. Altair + coat hanger and M27 dumbbell the starhopping session i learnt from Jon is so precise and imprinted in my brain, that it didn't take much time to locate M27. Infact coat-hanger was visible with just naked eyes. M27 view was fabulous. I caught it dob, within a minute.

Jupiter: At the end of session pointed to Jupiter. 36x or 76x wasn't impressive. but 135x was THE best. Higher magnification of 270x didn't help. Wasn't able to focus clearly. NEB, NTB, Equatorial zone & SEB were clearly visible. STB was lil bit hard. Sawtooth in SEB was nice. I saw great red spot also. Again.. only the shape was perfectly visible. Need to read more (??)

Moon: Moon rise just washed out whole deep sky... Browsing to moon thru dob was nice. It was too low..

Problem Faced:
- Dob movement not smooth. spring system
- Observations at zenith. Lost direction sense in the view. Chair height.
- Judgment of distances within a field of view.

TBDs:
- Laser Collimator
- Chair with proper height.
- Deep Sky Filter

31st May 08 @ TDS

Date: 31^st May 08, Saturday
Observation Time: 8:30pm to 12:00pm (3:30 hrs)
Location: TDS, CA
Weather: Seeing was “okay” initially, but afterwards it improved, but still not excellent. Cloud cover was always there near horizon. Little bit breezy till 10pm. and it was freaking cold.. 44 deg F. If yahoo weather say “almost clear', then think before heading to TDS.
Buddies: Bill from next pad. Didn't talk with him much..

Highlight of the night: I cracked complete Leo constellation DSOs and surprise look of Omega Centauri.

Another constructive session at TDS. Actually I wasn't sure abt visiting TDS, because of late afternoon lunch at friend's daughter's first birthday party. So was somewhat tired.. but 25 mins nap did the magic, and ended up gong to TDS late evening.

Not many people were around.. probably 6-8 telescopes. Weather was awful when I was driving to TDS. The clear sky clock showed few “faint blues”, while yahoo weather had a doubt with “Almost” clear.

Faced some trouble with collimation.. I think primary mirror is not fully visible in secondary.. I tried my best.. but still I think its still wrong.. wasn't able to focus on Saturn precisely.. I was seeing the double images except the fine tuned point.. I should not see double images.. out of focus is okay.

**** Saturn:
Because of bad weather,, I started with Saturn. In32mm, 38x, Saturn was perfectly visible with 3 moons. 2 on one side, while one on another. Rings were visible with a separation from planet. 97x with 25mm 2x barlow, indeed showed something dark band on Saturn. Ring's overlap over the planet was clearly visible.. still wasn't able to see cassini division. Its hard to keep saturn in high mag view.

*** Leo
I followed again the cloudy night article regarding “Leo”.. page by page..

> M65 – M66 – NGC 3628 Triplet
It was again perfect catch absolutely no trouble. in finding it. all three visible in same view. NGC 3628 was really faint. View was not that great, because of bad seeing I guess.. Didn't try high magnification.

> NGC 3607 – 3608 – 3605 Triplet
Easy to find. all three lined up in a triangle. The one in the middle is really bright, other two were barely visible to me. Required averted vision. Infact I am not sure if I saw correct one.. I have a sketch with galaxy and surrounding stars and its not matching with cloudy nights.. I need to verify with ma10 sky chart.

> M95 – M96 – M105 Triplet
this time I located it precisely and in first shot :) .. The stars “p”, 53, 52 and 43 form perfect trapezoid. and in the same view finder. If we take perfect mid-point of 52 & 53, thats where galaxy triplet can be found. All three can not be in same view, some bright star, M105 and M96 are in perfect view like a right angle triangle.. if we pick up M96, then another 90 deg twist gives M95.. perfectly aligned. so all four objects for one-side angled square.

M96 is the brighter between them. M105 and M95 seemed of same magnitude. M95 seems to be the bigger in size than M96. I need to verify these observations.

> M105 – NGC3371 – NGC3373 Triplet 
3371-73 should have been 3384 and 3389.
M105 itself is a triplet. M105 is at 6 o'clock from the bright star. 3371 is at 8 o'clock. There are 3 stars lined up on right side of 105-3371 line. If we pick up the middle star, then with averted vision, 3373 is clearly visible. Simply fabulous !! 3373 is just too faint and tiny.. 3371 is bigger and brighter than 3373 and can be seen fairly.. Bill from next pad was happy to see the triplet-triplets..but 3373 was too hard for him.

> NGC 2903
Following pocket sky atlas, gave me the precise location of this guy and easy to catch. it looked like as elongated as NGC 3268, Nothing much special..

> Alpha Leonid – Regulus:
I am still not able to resolve this double star. .not able to resolve it with 6mm also, 184x.. Freaking, there is something terribly wrong.

> Gamma Leonid – Algieba:
This double star is fabulous. in 32mm, 38x not able to resolve it, but 76x showed me the “peanut” shape. companion is so close and smaller than gamma, so it looks like uneven 8 or a peanut. Both of them golden yellowish color.

I am done with Leo now.. need to move to new one.. probably virgo !!

*** Cancer
> M44 – Beehive cluster – fabulous as usual !!

> M67 – open cluster – not as impressive as M44.. its really tiny. but its hard to locate.

*** Omega Centauri
This is first time I saw this glob in my life.. From India, for the roof of my place in pune, I have seen it., but I never knew that this is THE BEST glob in whole night sky. and yesterday I saw it.. Initially thru my binocs 10x50. its almost 4 times the size of M13 Hercules glob. M13 is really tiny in front of this one. Its naked eye... 2-3 deg from southern horizon. At 38x with 32mm, it was fabulous.. not able to resolve any stars, but it was too dense more than a cotton.. really fuzzy !! 32mm with 2x barlow, 72x resolved some outskirt stars, but 25mm 2x 98x was indeed impressive... more you look in the eyepiece, the more you have adapted your eyes to the view, the more I was able to resolve the stars in it.. all of them seemed to be of same color. Again as it was too densely packed.. I am just not able to see any shape.. This was-is indeed memorable sight !!

*** Ursa Major
After dinner, I tracked few objects in big dipper. I should have read the cloudy nights article in detail.

> M81 – M82 pair:
M81 is indeed brighter & bigger than M82. M81 is edge on.. again both of them seemed to be too faint to observe anything.. again following sky atlas pointed perfect location and first shot catch !! high mag didn't help much !!

> M108 galaxy – M97 Owl nebula pair:
This was indeed hard to catch because of my stupidity. I misinterpreted the view through finder and was looking on the opposite direction of “beta”.. moment I realized my mistake, in next attempt the pair was in my eyepiece.. its indeed fainter than M81-M82 pair.. the distance between them is more than 81-82 pair. Again high mag really made them faint.. M97 is indeed brighter than M108. M97 is in perfect circular shape while M018 is elongated edge on.

> M109 - It was too faint .. I don't remember much !! it was yet another DSO.. nothing more..

> M51 whirlpool galaxy:
This was indeed great. clearly visible in 32mm, 38x.. pretty bright.. in 8 shaped with left galaxy smaller than right one. but both of them were brighter.. high mag didn't show much !!

Next time I need to watch Ursa DSOs carefully.

** Jupiter
From bill's Orion 6” MAK , it was indeed good, crispy clear image.. all 4 satellites, two on each side.. The bands were clearly visible and impressive.. but still image was not crystal clear.. too bright !! Also Jupiter was low on horizon.. similar view from my scope, but not as crispy as from bill's. I tried the red filter on it, to see the bands.. but total failure.. I think scope needs to be collimated properly..

Mistakes:
- Its freaking cold out there. A sweat shirt and jacket is not enough.
- I should right down each observation.. otherwise i forget

TBD:
- Collimate the scope properly..
- Red torch with a string

26th April 08 @ TDS

Date: 26th April 08, Saturday
Observation Time: 8pm to 11:30pm (3:30 hrs)
Location: TDS, CA
Weather: Seeing was good, not excellent.. No cloud cover.. lil bit breezy after 10pm.
Buddies: Mark from the next Pad. He was doing some photography.

Highlight of the night: Leo I galaxy triplet: M65-M66-NGC3628

Probably after 5 months, visited TDS. It was full with visitors on this public star party. Lots of laughing, cracking jokes, loud discussions and "wow"s from visitors !!

This night was too systematic for me. I followed predetermined schedule and was taking notes after every object observation. I did that for almost 10 objects. The pre-plan for "Tonight's observations" really helped.. I should always follow that. this time I went alone to TDS and indeed I was able to spend as much time as I want in my observations. I should go to TDS "alone" pretty often.

Tube Mount screws were loosen during SD-TDS drive.. so really need to tighten them.. on they return journey they became loose again.. the way they are located, It’s pretty damn hard to tighten them. I hate Celestron for the bad design of these mounting screws accessibility.

>> Saturn: My night started with "Saturn". This is first time I saw Saturn with my 6' dob. For first round observation, it was feel good object.. then late night I observed it again for details.

In 32mm eyepiece : It is a big dot with a ring shape around it. Hard to see any details. but still I am able to see two moons. One at 6 o'clock was brighter than one at 8:30 o'clock. Second one was visible thru averted vision only.

In 32mm-2x barlow eyepiece: Saturn was clearly visible. Can see the gap between planet and rings. Planet was indeed bright and some dark band at the center. rings were also nice.. wasn't able t to Cassini division, probably because of winds. Image was shaking a lot, requiring constant focusing. I was planning to put filters, but it was too breezy to be patient... so I didn't.

In 12.5mm eyepiece: It is visible really big.. but winds made it bad enough on focusing side.
In 12.5mm-2x barlow eyepiece: It was useless..

** Orion
>> M42 Orion Nebula + M43: As expected, it was a fabulous sight.
In 32mm eyepiece: you can clearly see the whole disk. It is ~0.8 to 1.0 deg wide. It feels like bright sunlight is put on its curved side.. Dark tower in the middle was in deed great.. three star alignment parallel to the tower, on right side, was great. There are 2 stars on the left side of the tower making probably 45 deg angle to the base of the tower. Head of the dark tower was brightly lighten by the trapezoid. It was somewhat hard to resolve the trapezoid with 32mm.. but still I was able to see 3 out 4. (C, A & D)..B wasn't visible. At the left-bottom side of the disk, M43 (??) was visible. It looked like oval shaped fuzzy object with a bright star in the middle. the fuzziness of M43 wasn't clear enough than that of M42 cloud. Initially I wasn't sure if it is indeed M43.. but the fuzziness and its location seems to be it. the size of the M43 oval was bigger than the M42 dark tower.

In 32mm-2x barlow eyepiece: Trapezoid was big and clear enough. I noted down the comparative magnitudes of all stars with M42 and M43. I wish I would have been able to upload my picture. Trapezoid "C" star being brightest. M43 star was also as bright as trapezoid "C" star.

My previous observation from home, indeed helped me during this observation on what I was looking for.

M42 was oriented too low in the sky around 10 deg from horizon, that’s why probably it wasn't that clear enough and it was going out the field of view really fast.

>> M78: Failed in locating M78. Just wasn't able to find it according to the map. Is it too faint for my telescope?

While observing this one and Leo galaxies, I felt that I should have more details maps for TDS. The current one which I have is Mag 7 atlas... but I guess I need like mag 10 star atlas. It helps in star hopping. or tracking in the mount :) !!

>> Cr69 Mrug-Shirsh: In deed fabulous sight. It looks like open cluster for naked eye. From 32mm eyepiece it was like all stars in perfect straight line & 90 deg alignment with a sad face at the corner.

* Canis Major + Puppis
>> M41: This open cluster is always a great sight.. lots of pairs. In 32mm it impressive, but barlow looses it beauty. "E" or twisted 4 shape or "swastika" shape describes bright stars.

>> M46-M47 open cluster pair: While looking for M41, I saw M47 with naked eye. TDS darkness is simply fabulous, most of the messier objects which give really hard time for me to observe from SD, are naked sights from TDS. That’s why TDS trip is always worth. M46-M47 pair is best seen from binoculars. They are ~1-2 deg apart and both clusters are of different type. M47 seems open while M46 seems fuzzy. I guess M47 is closer than M46, so initially I felt that M46 is a globular cluster fuzzy oval, but it is indeed a open cluster, densely packed. Probably it has more stars than M47. M46 is more impressive in 32mm eyepiece than M47. With 2x barlow on it, M46 looses its beauty. bit these clusters are ~12 deg north-east of Sirius. I should be able to find them from SD. My next pad buddy, Mark, said that there is planetary nebula in M46. I tried to look for it, but wasn't visible with 2x barlow either. He mentioned that he can see it through his 8' cassegrian.

While observing M46 from 32mm, I saw a satellite passing by, so I tracked it with telescope for almost couple of minutes. It was going SE parallel to horizon. Infact during whole TDS observing session, I accidentally saw bunch of satellites thru eyepieces.

** Auriga

>> M37-M36-M38 open cluster triplet: As usual, good sight thru binocs.. but not as great as I have previously seen. I realized that these guys are somewhat difficult to catch in telescope. Thru binocs browsing is easier, but thru telescope you really have to know guide stars and your telescope movements. M37, the outsider, is indeed impressive and densely packed than M36, middle one. Again, this packing is not as impressive as the M46 in Puppis. Didn’t look for M38.. lil bit difficult for me.

** Leo
I pre-planned this constellation. "Small wonders" article from "cloudy nights" indeed helped. the only mistake I made is I started too late ~11pm on this one. So lost the enthu to go into details.

>> Alpha & Gamma double stars: I really didn’t see any doubles.. I really messed up here. Need to read more.

>> M65-M66-NGC3628 galaxy triplet: This was the highlight of the observing session. It wasn't too difficult to catch them... and I never knew how didn’t galaxies looks from my dob. I have seen M31, but its too close to enjoy the searching aspect from the dob. The triplet looked fabulous. M65 & M66 aligned on the right side of the eyepiece. M65 on top right corner- M66 is 6 o'clock position and bottom right corner and perpendicular bisector of this alignment shows you NGC3628 on left center of the eyepiece. All of them seem to be similar in magnitude. All of them are edge on, M65 & M66 are oval-circular in shape, but NGC3628 is really elongated in shape. the cloudy nights article picture indeed helped me here. I tried 2x barlow on it, but low light was killing it. More aperture would have really helped. I showed the triplet to Mark, He was trying to photograph NGC3628, but wasn't able to find it thru his 8' Meade. He was indeed impressed with my view. I didn’t go for detailed observation as I was too tired. Need to observe these triplet really carefully. Need to spend atleast half-an-hour on this one. Saw M65-M66 pair thru 22inch. NGC3628 didn’t fir in same view, so saw it separately. The dust lane on 3628 clearly visible thru 22inch.

>> M95-M96-M105 galaxy triplet: I was too tired to for this one.. but the thought of leaving TDS was killing me, so I pointed the telescope to look for this triplet.. and guess what... it was too damn hard to find these guys... it took me almost 15 minutes to find these guys. There is no guide star nearby... Star 53 is there. Tracking star 53 from Regulus & Rho is somewhat tricky.. but after Star53, its like just browsing thru eyepiece.. In first 2 attempts I just didn’t see anything.. but in third attempt, I somewhat hit on M95-M96 pair.. they indeed are too faint than M65-M66.. But I am not sure if I indeed saw M95-M96 pair only and nothing else.. because I wasn't able to see M105.. missing piece... any way, I am sure it will take me some time to find this pair again next time.. Again no detailed observation.

** Misc
>> Double star - Delta Bootis, just above Corona Borealis:
Saw this guy through 22inch SDAA tele. Yellowish in color with blue-green companion at 6 o'clock. My 32mm eyepiece also resolved it. the distance between them seems really far for to be double star. Need to read more or observe carefully.

>> M4 in Scorpio: In SD, I spent hell lot of time to find it, and it was naked eye object from TDS. Awesome sight thru 32mm.

>> M13 in Hercules: How can I leave TDS without seeing M13. The globular cluster is miraculous. Its really bright enough to support both my 32mm and 2x barlow. With 76x, I can clearly resolve lots of stars in this globular cluster. Again, big aperture would have really helped here.. but still great sight from my 6'.

any way, left TDS around 12:30am. Forgot my passport at home, so had nice chit-chat with border patrol female :) on my way to SD.

Mistakes:
- Leo and Ursa Major constellations were going to be the prime focus for this session. But I observed Leo at the end of the session.. missed lots of objects in Leo. Whatever I observed, didn't observe them in detail. Totally missed Ursa Major.. Really need to follow the plan..
- Need couple of more jackets.. its too windy out there.
- IMP: Don't forget the passport :) !!

TBDs:
- Telerad finder. It will help to find the guide star and nearby things.
- Really good red flashlight. Tired of small red lights.
- Always read "Small Wonders" from "Cloudy Nights" before observing anything.

First Light @ TDS - 8th Sept 2007

Date: 8th Sept 2007, Saturday
Observation Time : 8pm to 11:30pm (3:30 hrs)
Location : TDS, CA
Seeing : Good (for me, "excellent")
Transparency : Good (for me, "excellent")
Cloud Cover : None
Instrument : My 6' dobsonian reflector Celestron StarHopper 6, Bob's 17.5' dobsonian reflector, 22' SDAA observatory telescope, My 10x50 Nikkon binocs.

Buddies : Ranga and SDAA president Bob for a while

Highlight of the night : M17 - Swan Nebula

TDS was an awesome experience. This is first time I took my 6' dob there. I have browsed the sky using the dob from home, but dark sky from TDS was a feast. It was the true "First Light" for my telescope.

Some mistakes on my side. Actually, I forgot to take the side fixers of the telescope. Means.. I wasn't able to hold on to a object through telescope for others to see.. It was somewhat a mess... but Ranga and me pulled it together really well.

Milky Way: Never seen before like this. Milky way cloud was amazing, flowing from Sagittarius , Cygnus to Cassiopeia. The milky fuzziness was so bright, that any one can mistake it for a normal cloud, but when scanned through my 10x50 binocs, I can see millions of stars in that milky cloud. I have seen pictures of these on my "binocular astronomy" book, or on APOD, but seeing by yourself is an ultimate satisfaction. Also tried to observe the dust lanes of milky way, but wasn't able to see it clearly. Need to study more on this one.

While explaining Ranga about deep sky objects in Sagittarius, we scanned through them with binoculars as well as my 6' telescope.

M7: The Ptolemey's open cluster M7 was visible with naked eye. Scan through 10x50. revealed hundreds of star distributed over 2 deg field. Lots of stars at the center and more widely distributed at outer fringes.

M6: The butterfly cluster can be barely made through naked eye, if you know where to look at, but caught easily through 10x50. M7 and M6 are around 7 deg apart. Both clusters can not be observed in the same eyepiece view as my binocs. Considering the number of stars and distribution of stars in M7, M6 is not that impressive. Not sure why it is called "butterfly".

M22: The Sagittarius cluster is a globular one. Really good through binoculars. It is around 3 deg apart from Sagi-Lambda. With my 6' dob, 32mm eyepiece and 2x barlow, under 80x magnification, it is an awesome view. I can resolve the outer fringe stars clearly. Tried to observe the colors, but all of them seemed to be almost same.. white mainly.. I thought that cluster is divided in 2 parts, 99% is one side. At 7' clock from the main one, has remaining stars like a small open cluster.

M25-23 open clusters and M24 star cloud: North of M22, around 8 deg, lies M25 open cluster. Its located nicely inside a shape of stars like a shell or a logarithmic curve is formed by these stars and M25 is at the center of it. The cluster is typical open cluster. I felt the stars to be yellowish.

Exact west of M25, around 5 deg apart, the star cloud M24 exists. I really don't understand what specific fuzzy object Messier saw here, but i can see the cloud like all other clouds, which are part of Milky way... the interesting part here is I can see the stars inside M24 arranged in an oval shaped heart.

Exact west, little bit towards north, you can see small open cluster of M23. Because of being small, its not as impressive as M25, but still M25-24-23 alignment is good to watch.

M17-Swan Nebula: when I watched M25-24-23 alignment thought binocs, I accidentally saw two fuzzy objects above M24. First one turned out to be M17 swan nebula, while other one to be M16 Eagle nebula.



M17 is like 2 or 3 degrees apart from M24 oval shape. I didn't really understand what it is from my binocs, but the moment my telescope hit on it, I was spellbound. I saw the "swan". The nebulous gas is indeed in the shape of a swan or looks like number "2" to me. I observed it in 80x, 100x and 200x magnifications. The 200x magnification was good, but lack of light/aperture didn't make it good enough, but 100x magnification made it excellent. I saw one star at the head of the swan and two stars aligned in the neck of the swan.

While talking with SDAA president Bob, he showed me the Swan through his 17.5' dobsonian. He explained me the use of OIII filter for nebulas. He showed me the contrast in Swan nebula through this filter. With the filter, the gaseous part of swan nebula was strikingly bright than any other field stars. I think I need to buy the OIII and UHC filter. Thanks Bob !!

Swan nebula was indeed a "holy" site for me :) and finding it through my 6' dob, was the achievement for the day.. to be literally correct,... the achievement for the "night" :) !!

(photo credit: from net somewhere.. this is how it looked from 6" dob, but in black-white)

M16 Eagle nebula: Being impressed by Swan, I moved the dob to Eagle nebula, but I didn't see any fuzziness in this area. I saw the shape of stars to be in the "wing" shape.. the arrangement was like the "marathi number 4"... or the way kids draw the bird in their picture of "nature"... the stars were indeed closer to each other forming this shape. ..but no fuzziness... need to read more about this object.

M8-Lagoon nebula: I have seen this in MTRP, but wasn't really sure if indeed it was Lagoon. From TDS, lagoon was excellent. It is divided in two parts by the "dark" lane. On the right/east side, I saw the open cluster NGC-6530 inside lagoon. On east side, we have two stars parallel to the cluster. At 10'clock position of these stars, we have second component of lagoon which is strikingly bright than the first part. Infact this second component was visible from MTRP. I should have had the OIII filter here. Lagoon through Bob's 17.5 dob was excellent. the dark lane is indeed really wide and you can see the two parts of lagoon so clearly. Because of OIII, the cluster on the first component wasn't that impressive.

M20-Triffid Nebula: I pointed the dob at the location, where M20 is supposed to be, but I wasn't able to see anything fuzzy. I got surprised and checked my location again. but still nothing impressive in my eyepiece. I compared the magnitudes of M20 with M8 and they are of same mag 5. but still nothing in eyepiece... but then i watched it carefully. and i saw really dim fuzziness around a star.. indeed it was there... Around 4' clock position of the central star, two stars form a line, which is exactly next to one of the dark lanes of Triffid. All other lanes were not that clear enough. I tried it with Bob's 17.5' dob, and triffid dark lanes popped immediately through OIII filter.

Overall, M20 fuzziness is not as bright as M8.. I need to verify the magnitudes of both and other people's observations of M20.

All these objects are part of Sagittarius and ...indeed.. Sagittarius is worth to spend plenty of time.

M31 Andromeda-M32-M110 Galaxy Triplet: I have watched Andromeda Galaxy - M31 from my home, but from TDS it was just beautiful. The core of the Galaxy is like bright cotton and the outside is like dispersed cotton. The outside bright haziness continues everywhere, mainly across the horizontal axis of the galaxy. The whole eyepiece was full of just this haziness. Wasn't able to resolve anything inside Andromeda.

Got a chance to watch Andromeda through Bob's 17.5' dob. Instead of going deep into Andromeda, he pointed me to Andromeda's satellite galaxies.. M32 and M110. M32 was around 1 deg apart due east. It looks like small globular cluster. compared to Andromeda, it is like 1/5th in size, circular in shape. M110 was 1 degree apart form Andromeda due north-west, It is almost parallel to Andromeda but I think it was on the edge view for us and indeed more elongated than Andromeda. Need to verify these things.

I tried the triplet again through my 6' dob, and indeed with lowest magnification of 38x, I was able to put all 3 of them in the same eyepiece view.

M33- Triangulum Galaxy: In my first attempt i wasn't able to locate Triangulum. Scanning through binocs also was a failure. But Ranga found it for us and kind of mentioned the location and i was able to see some fuzziness through my binocs. I pointed the dob towards it and i indeed saw the fuzziness, but i really didn't pay careful attention to this object. Later i spotted Pegasus constellation and confirmed the location of M33, and indeed the fuzziness which we saw before was Triangulum. This galaxy is the most distant naked eye object that can be seen from the earth. Need to watch it more carefully next time.

Perseus Double Cluster:
Visible Naked eye object. I think magnitude is same as M7 cluster. Individual cluster as such is really small, but both being together makes it naked eye object.

M57-Ring Nebula:
With OIII filter on Bob's 17.5' dob, it was a good sight. All other field stars were dim. but still the rng was somewhat fuzzy. Infact i felt it like a hazy blue-white color disk rather than a ring. Bob/Rick blamed the "seeing" conditions.
with my 6' dob, I caught M57 in first shot. Indeed it was awesome. I was barely able to make out the color, but ring was surely visible. but considering "seeing" conditionals, i think I had a better view on this one from MTRP than TDS.

M27-Dumbbell Nebula:
with my 6' dob, dumbbell was an easy catch, but it was just some haziness to me. Didn't see any dumbbell shape. Better luck next time.

M2 - Globular:
M2 was the only object I watched through 22' SDAA scope. It was beautiful. The core of M2 was strikingly bright. Was able to resolve most of the stars on the fringes of the cluster. All stars seem to be yellowish.. hmmm.. not sure why..

M13 - Hercules globular cluster:
It to a while to locate M13 through 6' dob. I think I attempted it at wrong time. It was located way high in the sky. Ranga also tried it, but didn't work. After my 3 attempts, I found it, but somehow it wasn't that impressive as compared to M22. I had really high hopes from M13 being it better than M22. I am not sure why it happened.

Infact overall I think whatever objects I saw in the the later half of the night, weren't much clearer. Probably "seeing" to blame to, but milky way cloud was still strikingly bright. so i really can not say that "seeing" was bad... hmmmm i think more experience and more observation times will answer it by itself !!

On the planets side,

Jupiter: It was the first one of the night to look at. 3 satellites, two being on the extreme end, while one being closer to it, was a nice view. Really clear sky conditions, pointed out the bands on the Jupiter clearly. I have seen them before, but not as bright as this one. They were brown and in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter, just above the equator.

Uranus: First time of my life, I watched Uranus through Bob's 17.5' dob. It was indeed a bluish disk. but somehow the image wasn't as clear. I tried to focus, but it didn't work. (Bad seeing??) Bob mentioned that he watched Uranus's moon the previous day, but we weren't able to see anything. He blamed for bad "seeing". I didn't know the precise location of Uranus, so haven't attempted it through my 6' dob.

TBD:

- Read more and observe Milky way dust lane
- Star colors in M7 through telescope.
- M6 called "butterfly" .. why ?
- M28 next to Saggi-Lambda.
- Read more about OIII and UHC filters and lists of objects to be viewed through the filter.
- M24 star cloud.. what is it ?
- M19 Eagle nebula... is it supposed to be fuzzy ?
- M8-M20 magnitudes and other people's observations.
- M33 careful observation for next time
- Uranus
- Wild duck cluster. Somebody was talking abt it really loud, during the star party. What/where it is ?
- M2 through my 6' dob.