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...
Showing posts with label Sgr OC M23-M24-M25. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sgr OC M23-M24-M25. Show all posts
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Fuzzies Everywhere - IV
Continued..
Continuing the galaxy hunt, switched to Coma.
Coma 4565 Triplet: Easy catch. this one is comparable to 2903 in leo.. but 4565 seems bigger than it. The elliptical 4494 and irregular gal 4559 companions are in the vicinity.. saw both. The elliptical is lil difficult to locate.
M53 GC: I wanted to look at M64 Black eye galaxy, so to confirm switched to Alpha Com and saw M53.. bright-bluish very rich GC.
M64 Black Eye Galaxy: (New): Dont even remember when i watched this one last time. with 17T4 @70x looks definitely nice in my scope. the dark pattern just below the bright core is somewhat visible. with Jon's scope, its clearly visible. Need to try higher mags on this one.
M13: Naked eye.. Thru the scope, can resolve lot of stars outside the core. looks nice.
M80 (New) GC: Never looked at it before.. tiny, compact but seems densely packed. Can somewhat make it in the finder. Looks impressive from both 10 and 16" scopes.
M4 : Big brother of M80.. but after watching M80, this one seems little loose in star packing. Not sure if its the distance-magnification or really physical. Need to read more ??
M57 Ring: bluish disk.. very impressive in Jon's scope. 2" star visible.. din't try higher mags.
Saggi browsing thru M7, M6, M8 Lagoon, M20 Triffid. Lagoon dark lane and ngc cluster clearly visible. Triffid way smaller than lagoon, dark lanes sort of visible to make distinct shape. 17T4 @ 70x.
Open cluster M23: In direct line of M8 and M20. Indeed rich.
M16 Eagle nebula and then M17 Swan Nebula. Swan and background stars look beautiful through nagler 17T4. For eagle nebula, still can't see the nebula clearly. Stars are clearly visible. probably can feel it lil bit, but not as expected..
M54 GC: Bluish.. tiny and very compact.. really close to horizon so didn't go into details. Also tried for M70..but way too low..
Alberio: At the end, quick look at Alberio.. again orange-bluish pair looks marvelous with all other stars in 17T4.
Continuing the galaxy hunt, switched to Coma.
Coma 4565 Triplet: Easy catch. this one is comparable to 2903 in leo.. but 4565 seems bigger than it. The elliptical 4494 and irregular gal 4559 companions are in the vicinity.. saw both. The elliptical is lil difficult to locate.
M53 GC: I wanted to look at M64 Black eye galaxy, so to confirm switched to Alpha Com and saw M53.. bright-bluish very rich GC.
M64 Black Eye Galaxy: (New): Dont even remember when i watched this one last time. with 17T4 @70x looks definitely nice in my scope. the dark pattern just below the bright core is somewhat visible. with Jon's scope, its clearly visible. Need to try higher mags on this one.
M13: Naked eye.. Thru the scope, can resolve lot of stars outside the core. looks nice.
M80 (New) GC: Never looked at it before.. tiny, compact but seems densely packed. Can somewhat make it in the finder. Looks impressive from both 10 and 16" scopes.
M4 : Big brother of M80.. but after watching M80, this one seems little loose in star packing. Not sure if its the distance-magnification or really physical. Need to read more ??
M57 Ring: bluish disk.. very impressive in Jon's scope. 2" star visible.. din't try higher mags.
Saggi browsing thru M7, M6, M8 Lagoon, M20 Triffid. Lagoon dark lane and ngc cluster clearly visible. Triffid way smaller than lagoon, dark lanes sort of visible to make distinct shape. 17T4 @ 70x.
Open cluster M23: In direct line of M8 and M20. Indeed rich.
M16 Eagle nebula and then M17 Swan Nebula. Swan and background stars look beautiful through nagler 17T4. For eagle nebula, still can't see the nebula clearly. Stars are clearly visible. probably can feel it lil bit, but not as expected..
M54 GC: Bluish.. tiny and very compact.. really close to horizon so didn't go into details. Also tried for M70..but way too low..
Alberio: At the end, quick look at Alberio.. again orange-bluish pair looks marvelous with all other stars in 17T4.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Getting Into The Rhythm - I
Date: Sept 13th 2009, Saturday
Observation Time: 7:30pm to 1:00am (5.5 hrs)
Location: Jon's Home, Boulevard, CA
Weather: Moderate Seeing, Good Transparency. Windy whole night.. chillier !!
Instruments: Jon's 12.5" dob, My 10" dob, Jon's Celestron 100mm f/5 achromat. Bino browsing.
Buddies: Jon
Had 2 sessions after coming back from India..but in this session I felt like my usual rhythm is back. After normal browsing, spent lot of detailed viewings in Capricorn, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Aquila, Hercules etc.. total 5.5 hrs observing was excellent..
Just after sunset, browsed few bright usual candidates thry my scope and Jon's refractor.
M7-M6: Nice viewing. Pin point stars.. butterfly red star seemed orange. there is a GC next to M7, but missed it. need to find out TBD.
6441 Tiny Glb next to G scorpi: while looking for M7, ended up at this GC next to G Scorpi. GC is small, but bright.. Initially felt like shape of 8..but its not.. surprisingly, its also visible thru 10x50 binocs thru averted vision. How much is magnitude of this TBD?
N Jewl box: Quick browsing.. seemed lil tiny in the nagler..
M4 Antares & 6144: M4 next to antares is definitely resolvable in 17mm nagler 76x. 6144 seemed lil smaller.. but its definitely not tiny.. its just really faint so lil tricky to observe.. seemed like egg shaped..
Alberio: In the pair, the green star seemed bluish..probably not dark enough yet after sunset
With Jon's refractor, did lil browsing. Used his Williams 28mm UWAN. Excellent viewing. Lagoon, Triffid, Swan, Eagle, Wild duck M11, M4 Antares.
Pipe nebula in Oph: Its dark nebula. Lil bit visible thru naked eye, if you know what you are looking for. Binoc browsing with Jon.. Refractor browsing with 28mm UWAN wasn;t much helpful
M23 OC: In Saggi, saw thru binoculars. Easy to spot.. preety wide and big.
M25 OC: In saggi, opposite of M23..located at the center of the inverted comma-spiral. Thru binocs.. Not as dense as M23 OC.
M22 GC, M28 GC: Opposite ends of lambda saggi star. M28 smaller, but still visible thru binoculars clearly.. usual bluish in color.
M62 GC (New): Yet another GC in sco. Smaller than M4. Easy to locate.
Veil Nebula: Observed this one multiple times during the night. All viewings were excellent.
- ~8pm: Being at zenith, hard to point the scope. Jon pointed this one thru his 16.5". Both components visible.
- ~8:15pm: In the refractor, filter on, with 28mm UWAN. You can fit complete Veil loop in the view. Excellent. I don't even remember if I have seen the complete Veil before. Tried 35mm Panoptic on this one. UWAN view was definitely better than panoptic. Mag + extra Fov definitely helps to capture better view.
- ~10pm: In Jon's 16.5 scope with his 16T2 nagler, we compared 2 OIII filters on veil, Celestron 2" & Orion 1.25". I wasn't aware abt which filter is ON. Jon was testing both filters blindly without knowing them. First (Ori 1.25") seemed to give brighter view of the nebulosity than second one (Cel 2"). Ori 1.25" was cheaper than Cel 2" filter.
- ~11:45pm: In my 10" dob, 17T4 nagler, with Cel 2" filter, Saw the veil. Without filter the nebulosity is not that clear. In first componet "broomstick", the bigger part on one side of star 52 is clearly visible, but the opposite side wasn't clearly visible. With filter ON, the nebulosity extends and shows its real length.
- In the skyMap, they show third component for veil nebula towards star52, but I/we didn't see it. Need to talk with Jon abt this. TBD.
Capricorn browsing:
M30: Distinctive curved H shape stars with the GC on the right vertical line. Easy to catch and easy to remember. 9x15 Finder shows it faintly. Visited this one after almost an year.
M72 GC: Yet another GC
M73 Asterism: Being close to M72 GC, Easy to spot. Asterism triangle.
Saturn nebula 7009: Easy to spot after observing M72, M73. In 10", 17T4 70x, Bluish. Tiny. Ring shape lil visible. Tried to locate it in Jon's 16.5", 22T4 54x, just wasn't able to find it. instead of following usual m72-m73 line, I went from opposite side with a bright star, but just lost it.
Continued..
Observation Time: 7:30pm to 1:00am (5.5 hrs)
Location: Jon's Home, Boulevard, CA
Weather: Moderate Seeing, Good Transparency. Windy whole night.. chillier !!
Instruments: Jon's 12.5" dob, My 10" dob, Jon's Celestron 100mm f/5 achromat. Bino browsing.
Buddies: Jon
Had 2 sessions after coming back from India..but in this session I felt like my usual rhythm is back. After normal browsing, spent lot of detailed viewings in Capricorn, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Aquila, Hercules etc.. total 5.5 hrs observing was excellent..
Just after sunset, browsed few bright usual candidates thry my scope and Jon's refractor.
M7-M6: Nice viewing. Pin point stars.. butterfly red star seemed orange. there is a GC next to M7, but missed it. need to find out TBD.
6441 Tiny Glb next to G scorpi: while looking for M7, ended up at this GC next to G Scorpi. GC is small, but bright.. Initially felt like shape of 8..but its not.. surprisingly, its also visible thru 10x50 binocs thru averted vision. How much is magnitude of this TBD?
N Jewl box: Quick browsing.. seemed lil tiny in the nagler..
M4 Antares & 6144: M4 next to antares is definitely resolvable in 17mm nagler 76x. 6144 seemed lil smaller.. but its definitely not tiny.. its just really faint so lil tricky to observe.. seemed like egg shaped..
Alberio: In the pair, the green star seemed bluish..probably not dark enough yet after sunset
With Jon's refractor, did lil browsing. Used his Williams 28mm UWAN. Excellent viewing. Lagoon, Triffid, Swan, Eagle, Wild duck M11, M4 Antares.
Pipe nebula in Oph: Its dark nebula. Lil bit visible thru naked eye, if you know what you are looking for. Binoc browsing with Jon.. Refractor browsing with 28mm UWAN wasn;t much helpful
M23 OC: In Saggi, saw thru binoculars. Easy to spot.. preety wide and big.
M25 OC: In saggi, opposite of M23..located at the center of the inverted comma-spiral. Thru binocs.. Not as dense as M23 OC.
M22 GC, M28 GC: Opposite ends of lambda saggi star. M28 smaller, but still visible thru binoculars clearly.. usual bluish in color.
M62 GC (New): Yet another GC in sco. Smaller than M4. Easy to locate.
Veil Nebula: Observed this one multiple times during the night. All viewings were excellent.
- ~8pm: Being at zenith, hard to point the scope. Jon pointed this one thru his 16.5". Both components visible.
- ~8:15pm: In the refractor, filter on, with 28mm UWAN. You can fit complete Veil loop in the view. Excellent. I don't even remember if I have seen the complete Veil before. Tried 35mm Panoptic on this one. UWAN view was definitely better than panoptic. Mag + extra Fov definitely helps to capture better view.
- ~10pm: In Jon's 16.5 scope with his 16T2 nagler, we compared 2 OIII filters on veil, Celestron 2" & Orion 1.25". I wasn't aware abt which filter is ON. Jon was testing both filters blindly without knowing them. First (Ori 1.25") seemed to give brighter view of the nebulosity than second one (Cel 2"). Ori 1.25" was cheaper than Cel 2" filter.
- ~11:45pm: In my 10" dob, 17T4 nagler, with Cel 2" filter, Saw the veil. Without filter the nebulosity is not that clear. In first componet "broomstick", the bigger part on one side of star 52 is clearly visible, but the opposite side wasn't clearly visible. With filter ON, the nebulosity extends and shows its real length.
- In the skyMap, they show third component for veil nebula towards star52, but I/we didn't see it. Need to talk with Jon abt this. TBD.
Capricorn browsing:
M30: Distinctive curved H shape stars with the GC on the right vertical line. Easy to catch and easy to remember. 9x15 Finder shows it faintly. Visited this one after almost an year.
M72 GC: Yet another GC
M73 Asterism: Being close to M72 GC, Easy to spot. Asterism triangle.
Saturn nebula 7009: Easy to spot after observing M72, M73. In 10", 17T4 70x, Bluish. Tiny. Ring shape lil visible. Tried to locate it in Jon's 16.5", 22T4 54x, just wasn't able to find it. instead of following usual m72-m73 line, I went from opposite side with a bright star, but just lost it.
Continued..
Monday, September 1, 2008
DSO Marathon - Part I
Date: 31st August 08, Sunday. Labor Day Long Weekend
Observation Time: 7:30pm to 1:00pm (5:30 hrs)
Location: Boulevard Oaks campground, CA
Weather: Seeing was Good.. not excellent. Heavy Dew. Lil bit cold because of humidity. All things got wet, but still survived for long time :)
Instruments: My 10” dob & 10x50 binocs. Jon's 12.5” dob, and Astrotech 120ED refractor.
Buddies: Jon and his wife Francis.
Total Objects: 49. The max I have ever seen in one shot :)
New Objects: 16 + Ophiuchus OCs (4)
Had a great session with Jon Isaacs. Jon knows so many “different” objects and their precise locations that otherwise it would have taken me a while to just know them. Had a great DSO marathon.
Venus: Venus was popping on western sky 15 deg above horizon. Because of high clouds on west, the view was bit “shaky” and wasn't able to get sharp image (150x, 96x). As Jon pointed out correctly, because of color aberrations in refractor, upper part of Venus has purple shade, while lower part seems orange in color. While in out of focus, it gets green shade. Jon mentioned that phase was almost full, but because of blurry image didn't see much.
Mercury: It was around 4deg SE of Venus in same binocular view. Was really bright than I hoped. Surely smaller in size and fainter than venus. Thru refractor just seemed to be a “dot” and nothing more. (150x)
Mars (New): 7 deg NE of Venus. Nice and bright. Jon moved his refractor to Jupiter, saying clouds on west are killing everything. so din;t observe it from telescope. Completely missed it.
Jupiter: Fabulous view thru refractor at 150x. I cannot believe that 120mm refractor apperture gives so sharp and crispy views as 250mm (10”) reflector. NEB, SEB, NTZ, STZ were clearly visible. The great red spot was popping into the eye, Shape was prefectly visible, but thecolor seemed to be white. The STZ (upper part) also had some sawtooth structure. All 4 moons were widely spaced. Precisely same view thru my 10” dob at 135x. Cranking up the mags at 270x, killed the view.
Also, because of lil bit “wavy” “shaky” views, Jon suggested not to crank up mags.
M4 & NGC 6144: Antares, M4 and NGC 6144 were not impressive. Because of twilight, 6144 was almost invisible. M4 was just another globular, nothing specacular.
M7-M6: Both of them at 38x were impressive. Red tail star of M6 butterfly, seemed more orangish. Stars in M7 most of them seem yellowish with few seemed to be white.
M28-M22: Quick browsing thru lambda saggi, Kau Borealis, M22 was impressive. Able to resolve outskirts with 38x. M28 was really tiny, but bluish color wasn't as impressive as seen before.
Veil Nebula: I told Jon abt my last observation to see the nebulousity of veil, without filter. On 12.5” dob, Cyg52 veil neb was barely visible to me. I can feel the neb, but not the shape of it. Second part was also disappointing. With filter, some of the shape was perceptible, but again not impressively. Later at night, we saw Veil again and it was fabulous with filter. Veil was overhead and we captured 3 parts of veil. Cyg52 veil was great with its unique broomstick shape. The other end was also impressive from end to end. And in middle of these two, exists another one.. its bit fainter, but visible..also its more close to cyg52 veil component. Veil is Jon's favorite object, he watched it probably 4 times during the whole session.
Sagittarius browsing: Thru refractor, with wide-angle view (~30x), browsed saggitarius. It was marvelous and heavenly sight. It really gives a perspective on all objects at the same time. M8 Lagoon & its cluster, M20 Triffid, M21 OC in same view. M20 is really smaller than M8. M24 star cloud, M25 OC on moving left and M23 OC (New) on moving right looked great. M17 swan and M16 eagle were again in same view at two ends. Swan shape was clearly visible.
M8 Lagoon: Thru 10” dob, with the OIII filter on 24mm eyepiece (~50x), M8 was marvelous. The nebulousity was prominent. Semi circular dark lane seemed to be really wide. The left side neb seemed smaller than right+lower side neb. Hour glass also seemed to be brighter and lil bit bigger than non-filter views. Because of filter, only bright stars were visible and all stars indeed lost their charm. OC Cluster wasn't impressive either. High mags with filter (100x) surely killed all stars. Neb also seemed to be fainter than 50x view.
M20 Triffid: At 50x with filter, the nebula was indeed impressive. Dark lane Y shape was making sense as compared to non-filter views. The middle 3 stars were not that bright and hard to resolve the central star into double. Cranking up the mag to 100x helped lil bit with dark lanes and central double star resolving.
M17 Swan: this is one of the best objects in sky and with filter it became impressive. Along with 2 shape, the right and lower side nebulosity was clearly visible, more-ever like a peacock :). these two parts are extended almost as the same size as 2 shape. The central two bright stars in 2 shape seemed really dim.
M16 Eagle: With non-filter 38x view, the nebulousity was fainter. The characteristic, V hsape and the arc in the middle was impressive. With filter, the nebulousity brightness increased. Not as great as other nebulas, but still decently visible. Neb is just on the upper side of V.
M57 Ring: To have more fun with Filter, I pointed it to M57 and this is first time, I felt the blusish color. Ring was strikingly bright and with high mags it made it more impressive. Jon also mentioned that high mags + filter + planetary nebula combination works great as compared to other nebulas. With 150x, still the central star not visible. Also because of filter lost 2 o'clk star.
M27 Dumbbell: Brighter views with filter. Characteristic dumbbell shape with upper and lower wings. Left and right wings also mix well with dumbbell and are pretty bright..
The use of OIII filter on all 7 nebulas, really enhanced the view and had more fun in observing.
Saggi OC browsing: Thru binocs, captured M24 star cloud, M25 OC on left and M23 OC on right. Also captured fainter M18 OC (New). M18 wasn't much impressive thru 38x either. It was yet another OC.
Continued...
Observation Time: 7:30pm to 1:00pm (5:30 hrs)
Location: Boulevard Oaks campground, CA
Weather: Seeing was Good.. not excellent. Heavy Dew. Lil bit cold because of humidity. All things got wet, but still survived for long time :)
Instruments: My 10” dob & 10x50 binocs. Jon's 12.5” dob, and Astrotech 120ED refractor.
Buddies: Jon and his wife Francis.
Total Objects: 49. The max I have ever seen in one shot :)
New Objects: 16 + Ophiuchus OCs (4)
Had a great session with Jon Isaacs. Jon knows so many “different” objects and their precise locations that otherwise it would have taken me a while to just know them. Had a great DSO marathon.
Venus: Venus was popping on western sky 15 deg above horizon. Because of high clouds on west, the view was bit “shaky” and wasn't able to get sharp image (150x, 96x). As Jon pointed out correctly, because of color aberrations in refractor, upper part of Venus has purple shade, while lower part seems orange in color. While in out of focus, it gets green shade. Jon mentioned that phase was almost full, but because of blurry image didn't see much.
Mercury: It was around 4deg SE of Venus in same binocular view. Was really bright than I hoped. Surely smaller in size and fainter than venus. Thru refractor just seemed to be a “dot” and nothing more. (150x)
Mars (New): 7 deg NE of Venus. Nice and bright. Jon moved his refractor to Jupiter, saying clouds on west are killing everything. so din;t observe it from telescope. Completely missed it.
Jupiter: Fabulous view thru refractor at 150x. I cannot believe that 120mm refractor apperture gives so sharp and crispy views as 250mm (10”) reflector. NEB, SEB, NTZ, STZ were clearly visible. The great red spot was popping into the eye, Shape was prefectly visible, but thecolor seemed to be white. The STZ (upper part) also had some sawtooth structure. All 4 moons were widely spaced. Precisely same view thru my 10” dob at 135x. Cranking up the mags at 270x, killed the view.
Also, because of lil bit “wavy” “shaky” views, Jon suggested not to crank up mags.
M4 & NGC 6144: Antares, M4 and NGC 6144 were not impressive. Because of twilight, 6144 was almost invisible. M4 was just another globular, nothing specacular.
M7-M6: Both of them at 38x were impressive. Red tail star of M6 butterfly, seemed more orangish. Stars in M7 most of them seem yellowish with few seemed to be white.
M28-M22: Quick browsing thru lambda saggi, Kau Borealis, M22 was impressive. Able to resolve outskirts with 38x. M28 was really tiny, but bluish color wasn't as impressive as seen before.
Veil Nebula: I told Jon abt my last observation to see the nebulousity of veil, without filter. On 12.5” dob, Cyg52 veil neb was barely visible to me. I can feel the neb, but not the shape of it. Second part was also disappointing. With filter, some of the shape was perceptible, but again not impressively. Later at night, we saw Veil again and it was fabulous with filter. Veil was overhead and we captured 3 parts of veil. Cyg52 veil was great with its unique broomstick shape. The other end was also impressive from end to end. And in middle of these two, exists another one.. its bit fainter, but visible..also its more close to cyg52 veil component. Veil is Jon's favorite object, he watched it probably 4 times during the whole session.
Sagittarius browsing: Thru refractor, with wide-angle view (~30x), browsed saggitarius. It was marvelous and heavenly sight. It really gives a perspective on all objects at the same time. M8 Lagoon & its cluster, M20 Triffid, M21 OC in same view. M20 is really smaller than M8. M24 star cloud, M25 OC on moving left and M23 OC (New) on moving right looked great. M17 swan and M16 eagle were again in same view at two ends. Swan shape was clearly visible.
M8 Lagoon: Thru 10” dob, with the OIII filter on 24mm eyepiece (~50x), M8 was marvelous. The nebulousity was prominent. Semi circular dark lane seemed to be really wide. The left side neb seemed smaller than right+lower side neb. Hour glass also seemed to be brighter and lil bit bigger than non-filter views. Because of filter, only bright stars were visible and all stars indeed lost their charm. OC Cluster wasn't impressive either. High mags with filter (100x) surely killed all stars. Neb also seemed to be fainter than 50x view.
M20 Triffid: At 50x with filter, the nebula was indeed impressive. Dark lane Y shape was making sense as compared to non-filter views. The middle 3 stars were not that bright and hard to resolve the central star into double. Cranking up the mag to 100x helped lil bit with dark lanes and central double star resolving.
M17 Swan: this is one of the best objects in sky and with filter it became impressive. Along with 2 shape, the right and lower side nebulosity was clearly visible, more-ever like a peacock :). these two parts are extended almost as the same size as 2 shape. The central two bright stars in 2 shape seemed really dim.
M16 Eagle: With non-filter 38x view, the nebulousity was fainter. The characteristic, V hsape and the arc in the middle was impressive. With filter, the nebulousity brightness increased. Not as great as other nebulas, but still decently visible. Neb is just on the upper side of V.
M57 Ring: To have more fun with Filter, I pointed it to M57 and this is first time, I felt the blusish color. Ring was strikingly bright and with high mags it made it more impressive. Jon also mentioned that high mags + filter + planetary nebula combination works great as compared to other nebulas. With 150x, still the central star not visible. Also because of filter lost 2 o'clk star.
M27 Dumbbell: Brighter views with filter. Characteristic dumbbell shape with upper and lower wings. Left and right wings also mix well with dumbbell and are pretty bright..
The use of OIII filter on all 7 nebulas, really enhanced the view and had more fun in observing.
Saggi OC browsing: Thru binocs, captured M24 star cloud, M25 OC on left and M23 OC on right. Also captured fainter M18 OC (New). M18 wasn't much impressive thru 38x either. It was yet another OC.
Continued...
Sunday, September 9, 2007
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.
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.
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