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, 

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

Last light with Jon's 10" dob - Part II

Crescent Nebula NGC6888: Failed... indeed frustrating... this one is listed as top 10 deep sky object for October sky and it was unbelievably hard to find.. just spent too much time, but still no success.. Greg mentioned to me that without filter its hard...

M29 (New): Curved H - nice tiny open cluster.. in H shape.. but vertical lines curved outside.

Berk86 (New): open cluster in V shape, next to M29

Blinking Planetary NGC6828 (New): This was perfect catch. Star, in one field of view a pair and half field of view, the blue lil tiny disk in 32mm eyepiece. its hard to se it in 32mm.. but lil bit more magnification shows it well.. no blinking effect in 10" aperture.. but looks good... probably less brighter than blue snowball. Need to revisit for details.

IC 1396 cluster and nebulosity: In Cephus, listed as best object for telescopes and binocs... but failed..

M33 Triangulum: From Greg's 10". sort of able to see the spiral structure.. in two arms.

M74 (New): In Pisces, Nominal fuzzy object visible thru binocs also.

M77 galaxy (New): In Cetus. Bizzar shape sort of like m30, but only with a star.. high magnification didn't help to resolve much either. but this is indeed an interesting object. need to revisit. its tiny fuzzy.. I wonder how messier saw this.. wasn't able to see much thru binocs. Tiny galaxies 1055 and 1087 are on opposite sides of M77. Its hard to distinguish if they are galaxies or tiny globulars...probably for tiny globulars they seem bluish..but these tiny fuzzies didn't.

Mira: Didn't know what to look for in the star. Read more.

Caroline cluster in Cassiopeia (New): Don't know the NGC number. open cluster like wild duck, but really spread over large area.. like sprinkled salt.. but really faint. all the stars seem like field stars, but no other stars in vicinity near the cluster, hence all the stars in the view can be treated as part of open cluster

Uranus: Quick glance at bluish disk.. nothing interesting.

Spectrographs of Antares and Vega (New): graph, Vega graph was on left side, showing blue wavelengths. It Greg showed me his spectrograph which he has collected form SBIG instrument. Antares graph was sort of in red wavelength (right), Showed multiple heavy dips representing element titanium. and one h-alpha dip. compared to Antaresdidn't have any titanium dip, but it had all h-alpha, h-beta lines. mainly showing hydrogen and helium. On right side, there was one big dip showing water vapor, because of earth's atmosphere. All the dips indicate absorption lines, while all peaks indicated sort of reflection lines.

M1 Crab Nebula: Easy catch.. Still not able to see any details in crab. elongated fuzzy disk..

M42 Orion Nebula + M43: The best view I have ever seen. Marvellous. First time from TDS. At 38x, viewing thru 32mm eyepiece gave me a feeling that the whole cosmos is indeed full of dust, but we can not see it, until there is a star nearby. The reflection of nearby stars indeed gives the shape to the nebula. I really experienced this textbook definition with orion nebula. At 38x, almost 80% eyepiece filled up. M42 with deep dish shape with two dark columns perpendicular to each other visible. Deep dish dust is so much that on one side nebula is bright, while on opposite side non of the light passes thru. On opposite side, M43 visible as white fuzzy ball. The trapezium in M42 dark column is visible with only 4 stars. 5th star barely visible. More magnification on this gives more. In the dark columns, got the 3D feeling.

M78 (New): Easy catch. Bright star with dark nebula column. 3D feeling. The dust is indeed so much you will see reflected light on one side. This makes the nebula shape.

Horsehead Nebula: Failed. Difficult to catch.