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[jeremy]

I've been getting out whenever possible on my deck to improve my understanding of my new scope, and to see new things. Tonight I had been more prepared with an observation list ready to go. I also was going to challenge myself to find Garradd.

Conditions were great tonight, and started off with a lot of confidence. I've been studying the Sky Safari app on my iPad, and making my observation list. In addition my COL had only a warp factor of 0.2 tonight after I aligned it so I felt I would be able to lock onto objects pretty quickly.

Here is a list of the objects I was able to view:

C/2009 P1 (Garradd)
Whirlpool Galaxy - Messier 51
Bode's Nebulae - Messier 81
Double Cluster - NGC 869
Uranus
Neptune
Andromeda Galaxy - Messier 31
Ring Nebula - Messier 57
Vesta (Asteroid in Capricornus)
Jupiter

Truthfully some objects I could just barely make out, like M51. I had several more objects on my list tonight, mostly nebulas, but I just couldn't see them. It seemed any nebula that was dimmer than a 6.5 was just not going to be possible for me with the city lights. For example try as I might, the Dumbbell Nebula was just not going to show itself to me.

Now I was able to see Garradd which was cool. Billy had challenged me at Thursday's Star Party to try to program my COL to find it using it's open port. I read online several articles about the connector needed, and a shortcoming is that the PC being connected needs a serial port. Most laptops do not have that anymore, so some people have used USB to Serial adapters. I decided on something simpler, just program the coordinates directly into the COL. Worked like a charm.

I could not make out any tail on Garradd, but still great to see. Maybe it will get brighter as we move closer to our New Moon.

Am already planning my next observation list, and am ready to take the scope to some dark skies to really test it out!

[dapple]

Very nice! I haven't tried tracking Neptune down myself. Did it look extended at the eyepiece? Did you get any color off of it?

Since you were already in the neighborhood with M81, try out M82 next time. It's surface brightness should be much higher. Plus, it's a really fascinating object with star bursts, stellar wind outflows, lots of H-alpha emission, and even now gamma rays detected by the Fermi Gamma Ray Telescope.

Not sure where you are in your astronomy journey (I'm kinda new myself), but I've found that double stars and binaries are surprisingly cool to look at, and they are easier to see in light pollution. Not all doubles are equal ... the best are the ones with strong contrasts in color like Alberio.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

While the we were messing around with guitars Sunday afternoon, I noticed that the sky was a great turquoise, a sure sign that the wind blew all the gunk away and set for a great night of observation.

Alas, for me, I was too exahusted for any astronomy...and let it slip by. But I did peek out the window and noticed deep skies and a great looking Moon.

[patrickm]

Cool you snagged the comet!! Congrats. It ain't easy with all this heinous LP!

Can't wait to see the scope!

I, too, noticed the weather, but my back ain't cooperatin', so none for me. Thanks for posting so I can live vicariously.

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[Paulie pchris00]

It wasn't just city light pollution drowning out the comet last night: good ole Luna did a great job dimming the iceball too. Last night was the worst I've seen Garradd, and that was with the 16". The good news is that the next couple nights Garradd will be passing over Alpha Delphinus (the dolphin's dorsal fin, as I see it). And while you're in the Delphinus neighborhood, check out Gamma Delphinus, the dolphin's nose. Nice double star, almost little brother of Albireo. With a wide field view of Gamma Del, it's little brother is just to the south, but it might require decent aperture to pull in.

While Luna crippled the comet, it made Vesta easier to find. Sort of. Moonlight washed out all of Capricorn, making it difficult to find a starting point for my search, but once I was in the area, everything dimmer than Vesta was washed out looking through the finder scope, making Vesta easy to single out. Luna taketh away, but she giveth also.

There may have been a transit of Europa across Jupiter between 11:20 PM and 2:30 AM, but I didn't follow it up. I had some unexpected visitors show up at the observatory around 10:45. I let them hang out on the patio for awhile, and when I decided they weren't going to cause trouble, I invited them up for a look through the telescope. This ate into some of my observing time, and I didn't come back to Jupiter until 2:30 AM, when Europa was just off the limb, and getting farther.

Nice observing, Jeremy!