having a second look – 3 February 2009

Location: at home in Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: none
Transparency: excellent (5/5)
Seeing: average (3/5)
Darkness: bright quarter moon
Wind: none
Humidity: 25%-30%
Temperature: 50’s
Start Time: 7:45 pm CST
End Time: 9:15pm CST
OTA: 8″ SC

Venus half-illuminated, very bright even with ND filter. Lots of atmospheric turbulence.

Luna brilliant, just over half illuminated. Mons Piton and Mons Pico cast long black triangles toward the dark side. Occasional turbulence visible. Subtle “fractal” texture visible on the surface of Mare Imbrium. Pulled ep and diagonal then projected image onto white paper to see entire moon in FOV. Did not try to locate Pleiades nearby.

M42 nice with 12.5mm, less detail visible than two weeks ago due to moonlight. Noticed Trapezium E for the first time, a very faint mag 10.3 star between A and B, just outside the trapezoid. Observed a pair of mag 7 or 8 stars near the mouth, and another mag 8 or 9 that formed a nearly equilateral triangle with the two stars near theta2 orionis.

Beta Mon very cool, primary slightly brighter than two companions. Close triple, clean separation in the new 12.5mm ep. Open angle about 140°-150°.

M50 appeared to consist of an isoceles triangle, pinched at the narrow vertex, with stars dotting the edges. A smaller triangle inscribed the larger, fainter stars everywhere.

NGC2264 appeared like the outline of a large arrow pointing “this way up”.

Many Moons – 19 March 2008

location: Tomball, TX
time: 830pm-1030pm
cloud cover: 0%
transparency: 100%
seeing: avg (3/5) to poor (2/5)
darkness: city sky glow, full moon
wind: 5-10mph nnw
humidity: 30% up to 50%
temperature: 59F-53F
dewpoint: 31F-39F

M42 in 25mm. Less nebulosity discernible than normal presumably due to full moon.

Observed iota cancri; color of primary (reddish) not as distinct as nights past.

No detail visible in Mars.

Saturn’s moons best in 25mm. Titan and Rhea clear, Tethys and Dione occasionally obscured by bad seeing, Iapetus a challenge, often obscured.

Waxing full moon very bright. First time to attempt identification of features. ID’d Tycho, Copernicus, Kepler, Aristarchus, and Mare Crisium.

 

Zeke’s Place – March 08, 2008

Location: Tomball
Temperature: upper 40’s
Clouds: none
Seeing: average (3/5)
Transparency: good (4/5)
Instrument: 8″ SCT

First night to observe from Zeke’s place. The sky is slightly darker than home and the area has wider overhead field of view than home.

Observed Saturn in 25mm, several moons visible. Titan, Rhea, and Iapetus were clear. Dione sometimes faded out with bad seeing. Tethys was occasionally visible but quite faint just above and to the left of the rings. Both Dione and Tethys were easier in the 15mm, which developed a smudge.

Also visited a few double stars. Iota cancri was splendid contrast of red and blue.

We observed m42 and discussed the process of star formation within nebulae.

Zeke wanted to see Mars. The “dark” patch of Syrtis Major was visible — an area of just slightly diminished brightness compared with the rest of the planet.

Open Clusters, Doubles, & Saturn – March 04, 2008

temp: 53F-46F
humidity: 37%-70%
transparency: 4/5 – 5/5
seeing: average 3/5

Attempted M1 (Crab Nebula) with 25mm, 32mm, 10mm, could not discern any nebulosity
using 25mm
M35 – dozens of stars, many bright – bow shape in center
M36 – moderately bright cluster, some linear patterns
M37 – faint cluster, few lines, bright center star
M38 – odd abstract bilateral symmetry of four rays (two short, two long), center star

M41 – behind a tree
M42 – observed to test dark adaptation of my eyes after failing to see M1. region is impressive as a cluster

M46 – wide cluster in 32mm, celestron controller indicated nebula in field of view, but I could not discern any
M47 – several bright stars, prominent lines, one tight pair of similar magnitude
M48 – dozens of similar magnitude stars, no prominent lines, many “wide” pairs
M50 – sparse cluster, wide magnitude range
M67 – dim cluster with pleasing random arrangement

Rigel – companion much fainter, 9.5″ separation
lambda orionis – similar magnitude companion 4″ separation, very close in 10mm but distinct during moments of good seeing
sirius – could not discern companion

Saturn was bright, Titan clear. Dione was dim but distinct. Rhea was very faint, disappearing at times with poorer seeing.

Ceres & Saturn’s Moons – February 06, 2008

Location: Tomball, TX
Cloud cover: none
Transparency: clear
Seeing: moderate (3/5) or maybe poor (2/5)
Darkness: city sky glow, no moon
Limiting Magnitude: n/a
Wind: mild/none
Humidity: 65%-75%
Temperature: mid-40’s
Start Time: 8:00 pm CST
End Time: 10:00 pm CST
OTA: 8″ SC
EP: 25mm mostly, also 32mm for M44 and 10mm for Saturn

Need to learn names of stars in Cassiopeia if for no other reason than for picking alignment stars.

Mars – observed briefly, noticed that disc is no longer completely circular. Other details lost in atmospheric turbulence.

Ceres – used SNP to get visual geometry and RA/Dec. Asteroid visible at the intersection of two lines of stars slightly wider than a right angle. Did not realize until looking in SNP later that Ceres would move so “far” within just an hour. Might observe twice tomorrow night an hour or more apart. SNP reference shows that observation time must have been about 8:20 or 8:30 pm, but actual time was 9pm and later. SNP location was Houston instead of Tomball — could that make such a big difference?

M42 – Trapezium clear, nebula surrounding like wings of a heraldic eagle

M44 Beehive – small almost equilateral triangle near center with dim star on one edge

Saturn – rings distinct though nearly edge-on. Visible moons: Tethys, Titan, Dione, and Iapetus, plus three stars in the field of view. Dione and Tethys uncertain at first, stronger with continued observation. Did not see Enceladus (too dim or bad seeing?) or Rhea (maybe lost in Saturn’s glare?), both of which SNP shows very close to Saturn.