Post by Al Degutis on Jul 12, 2004 7:13:45 GMT -6
After dinner and an evening at a backyard campfire my wife released me 
for some sky observations. The moon wasn't set to rise for a couple more hours and the seeing and transparancy were average.
This was the second time I set up my LX200 and the first time doing it in the dark. Once I was set up, I did a two star alignment via the computerized GoTo and off I went observing. Having just upgraded from a 4504, I was shocked by the accuracy and quickness of the LX200's GoTo. I couldn't believe my eyes as I hit a half-dozen or more Messiers in about 15 minutes. I wasn't really observing them, just jumping around the sky targeting things. Once I got passed that, I started to observe. I'm a novice but want to get more out of my observing so I had downloaded and printed some blank observing logs from the AAAA (American Association of Amateur Astronomers) website. Not sure what to note (I printed a couple articles on taking notes while observing too but haven't read them yet) I took simple notes pointing out things like how much detail or if stars were discernable in globular cluster at different magnitudes.
I observed 10 Messier and 2 Caldwell objects which included the Ring Nebula (M57) and the North American Nebula (NGC 7000). Around midnight, I was starting to make out a section of the Milky Way galaxy.
I caught a clear sight of a meteorite passing thru Cygnus from the center star Sadr to past Deneb.
I spotted 8 satellites, two before midnight and 6 after 2:00am. At first I couldn't understand why I was seeing so many satellites (6) in the middle of the night as the sun was on the other side of the earth and then realized they were reflecting the moonlight.
I packed up by 3:30am but couldn't bring myself to go in yet. So, I grabbed a folding chair and sat on the deck and just looked up... enjoying the view and hoping to see another meteorite. Luckily the lounge lawn chair was covered in dew, otherwise I may have fallen asleeping laying in it looking up. At 4am, I forced myself to go to bed.
It was a good night.
Al
for some sky observations. The moon wasn't set to rise for a couple more hours and the seeing and transparancy were average. This was the second time I set up my LX200 and the first time doing it in the dark. Once I was set up, I did a two star alignment via the computerized GoTo and off I went observing. Having just upgraded from a 4504, I was shocked by the accuracy and quickness of the LX200's GoTo. I couldn't believe my eyes as I hit a half-dozen or more Messiers in about 15 minutes. I wasn't really observing them, just jumping around the sky targeting things. Once I got passed that, I started to observe. I'm a novice but want to get more out of my observing so I had downloaded and printed some blank observing logs from the AAAA (American Association of Amateur Astronomers) website. Not sure what to note (I printed a couple articles on taking notes while observing too but haven't read them yet) I took simple notes pointing out things like how much detail or if stars were discernable in globular cluster at different magnitudes.
I observed 10 Messier and 2 Caldwell objects which included the Ring Nebula (M57) and the North American Nebula (NGC 7000). Around midnight, I was starting to make out a section of the Milky Way galaxy.
I caught a clear sight of a meteorite passing thru Cygnus from the center star Sadr to past Deneb.
I spotted 8 satellites, two before midnight and 6 after 2:00am. At first I couldn't understand why I was seeing so many satellites (6) in the middle of the night as the sun was on the other side of the earth and then realized they were reflecting the moonlight.
I packed up by 3:30am but couldn't bring myself to go in yet. So, I grabbed a folding chair and sat on the deck and just looked up... enjoying the view and hoping to see another meteorite. Luckily the lounge lawn chair was covered in dew, otherwise I may have fallen asleeping laying in it looking up. At 4am, I forced myself to go to bed.
It was a good night.
Al
