Post by jglover on Feb 12, 2005 4:19:08 GMT -6
It was a nice, clear evening so I could not resist taking the scopes out on the deck this evening. I had to wait until my son went to bed, then it was time for Battlestar Galactica and SG-1 so it was after midnight before I got out ot check out things.
Tonight I elected to use the 8"Dob and as always, the ED80. Orion was just setting into the trees but I was able to get a nice view of M42/43 between the branches. The view through the Dob was psectacular this evening. The nebulosity seemed to glow, the Trapezium was easily split with the 24Pan at 50x. Saturn was equally nice as was Jupiter. The contrast was much better through the ED80 on the planets. The Banding in Jupiter was obvious, even at the lower powers (24x, 46x). Seeing tonite was somewhat tenous though, at times it was nice and steady, others things were iffy. Cassini (the Division not the spacecraft!) was easy through the Dob at 133x when things settled down and I could also pick it out at imtes with 9T6 through the ED80.
My next target was M104, the Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo. I had to use the GOTO on the ED80 to track this one down and it was still almost impossible to see among the light pollution. I thought i caught a hint of it using the 24Pan at 25x. Still, it was impossible to see without using averted vision. Bumped up to the 13T6 Nagler and was able to see the core of the galaxy, again with averted vision but I could not pick it out at all with the 9T6 Nagler. I'm finding the 13mm Nagler to be a really sweet eyepiece, just enough power for most DSO and right about the sweet spot for exit pupil size in both scopes. That's been one of my best purchases to date. M104 is the only other galaxy that I've been able to see from the back yard here, with the exception of the M31/M32/M110 grouping, so it was nice to add another galaxy to the log. I've got try M81/M82 on the next clear evening but they were just not well positioned for seeing tonite.
I've been using AstroPlanner software to plan my session and it is a really nice program for printing out decent finder charts. It's shareware so you can try it out before you buy, but I liked the trial so I ended up purchasing the program. It's only $20 if you download it from the net and it is well worth the cost in my opinion. Using that software to print out a finder chart for my scope/eyepiece combo let me really home in on where M104 should have been.....without it I doubt if I would have been able to have found the galaxy this evening.
The next target was Jupiter, again it was a magnificent site in both scopes. The banding on the planet was very obvious in the Dob, and when the seeing was steady, it felt as if you were there tonite. The ED80 performed better though the images were smaller. I was getting a lot of difraction spiking in Dob, I think due to the ice crystals in the atmosphere....the planet seemed to have a halo around it but it was more annoying in the Dob due to the spiking from the secondary mirror.
Next target was M3, the globular cluster in CVn.....a nice bright seventh mag target. It was easily spotted in the ED80, though at the time I was observing, the seeing would not support a high enough power to resolve the cluster. Something to come back to. I decided to try to hit M68 in Hydra but this glob was just too low to spot, mixed in amongst the trees.
Last target of the evening was M44 in Cancer. this was spectacular tonite, with a multidue of multiple stars in the center of the cluster. It filled the eyepiece with the 13T6, colors were obvious, a very pretty sight. However, it was even more spectacular through the Dob. It's amazing what an additional 5 inches of aperture can do!
All in all, a good night though not as productive as I'd have liked. I had the Auriga clusters on my plan, but could only spot M36 and it was not resolved as well as I had seen on previous evenings. I suppose it had sunk too low into the glare of Naperville to really pick out the cluster in their glory. I'll have to make sure and line those up first thing next time before they get away from me.
Tonight I elected to use the 8"Dob and as always, the ED80. Orion was just setting into the trees but I was able to get a nice view of M42/43 between the branches. The view through the Dob was psectacular this evening. The nebulosity seemed to glow, the Trapezium was easily split with the 24Pan at 50x. Saturn was equally nice as was Jupiter. The contrast was much better through the ED80 on the planets. The Banding in Jupiter was obvious, even at the lower powers (24x, 46x). Seeing tonite was somewhat tenous though, at times it was nice and steady, others things were iffy. Cassini (the Division not the spacecraft!) was easy through the Dob at 133x when things settled down and I could also pick it out at imtes with 9T6 through the ED80.
My next target was M104, the Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo. I had to use the GOTO on the ED80 to track this one down and it was still almost impossible to see among the light pollution. I thought i caught a hint of it using the 24Pan at 25x. Still, it was impossible to see without using averted vision. Bumped up to the 13T6 Nagler and was able to see the core of the galaxy, again with averted vision but I could not pick it out at all with the 9T6 Nagler. I'm finding the 13mm Nagler to be a really sweet eyepiece, just enough power for most DSO and right about the sweet spot for exit pupil size in both scopes. That's been one of my best purchases to date. M104 is the only other galaxy that I've been able to see from the back yard here, with the exception of the M31/M32/M110 grouping, so it was nice to add another galaxy to the log. I've got try M81/M82 on the next clear evening but they were just not well positioned for seeing tonite.
I've been using AstroPlanner software to plan my session and it is a really nice program for printing out decent finder charts. It's shareware so you can try it out before you buy, but I liked the trial so I ended up purchasing the program. It's only $20 if you download it from the net and it is well worth the cost in my opinion. Using that software to print out a finder chart for my scope/eyepiece combo let me really home in on where M104 should have been.....without it I doubt if I would have been able to have found the galaxy this evening.
The next target was Jupiter, again it was a magnificent site in both scopes. The banding on the planet was very obvious in the Dob, and when the seeing was steady, it felt as if you were there tonite. The ED80 performed better though the images were smaller. I was getting a lot of difraction spiking in Dob, I think due to the ice crystals in the atmosphere....the planet seemed to have a halo around it but it was more annoying in the Dob due to the spiking from the secondary mirror.
Next target was M3, the globular cluster in CVn.....a nice bright seventh mag target. It was easily spotted in the ED80, though at the time I was observing, the seeing would not support a high enough power to resolve the cluster. Something to come back to. I decided to try to hit M68 in Hydra but this glob was just too low to spot, mixed in amongst the trees.
Last target of the evening was M44 in Cancer. this was spectacular tonite, with a multidue of multiple stars in the center of the cluster. It filled the eyepiece with the 13T6, colors were obvious, a very pretty sight. However, it was even more spectacular through the Dob. It's amazing what an additional 5 inches of aperture can do!
All in all, a good night though not as productive as I'd have liked. I had the Auriga clusters on my plan, but could only spot M36 and it was not resolved as well as I had seen on previous evenings. I suppose it had sunk too low into the glare of Naperville to really pick out the cluster in their glory. I'll have to make sure and line those up first thing next time before they get away from me.
