Post by Al Degutis on Aug 1, 2005 12:37:17 GMT -6
Observing report - July 30, 2005
Since conceiving the project and getting the go ahead in January 2005, the Stargate Observing deck was done (July 2005) and ready for first light.
More pictures of Stargate here:
www.skyinsight.net/wiki/?title=Final_Deck_Pictures_%28stained%29
With the telescope mounted on my homemade wood pier I was ready to observe, but not ready for the challenges that followed. Lack of experience and practice showed. A lot of little things went wrong, including my finder not being lined up with the scope (should have checked that during the day), the flashlight LED burning out on my Maglite, problems getting the wedge properly polar-aligned. Plus, being the first time out on Stargate and first time I used my scope in two+ months, I was making many trips in and out of the house getting this, that and the other thing (e.g. a/c adapter, power strip, dew shield, etc). Thank goodness the rest of the accessories (eyepieces, focuser, etc) are in two cases.
Around 05:00 UT it all came together. New LED in the Maglite, good polar alignment and I was ready to observe. To top it off a -1 magnitude meteor streaked overhead. It was a sign that I was now ready for some serious observing. In addition, this day marked the one year anniversary of launching the Sky Insight website and Search Tool.
The pier is slow to dampen vibrations which I'll work on, but otherwise very solid. Here are the objects I observed using my 8" Meade LX200 Classic:
* M 27
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - It was easy to see and at first looks like a large round cotton ball. (I later looked at the DSS image and it looks just like that but not as bright and burnt out.) Studying it with averted vision it appears to be taller than wider with an hour glass shape.
* M 11
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - The Wild Duck Cluster - Very good open cluster that is rather tightly packed. There were three bright stars that stood out. The first one is slightly below center while the other two were a pair located near the bottom. Popped in the TeleVue PowerMate 2.5 and was still able to get a good view but the transparency wasn't great. Obviously the entire cluster wasn't visible anymore but I focused my attention on the center around that bright star. Above the bright center-ish star was a gap with some faint stars in the middle making it look like the open mouth of someone screaming.
* M 2
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Very tight globular with tightly packed core. Popped in the 15mm Plossl and it was still impossible to separate any core stars. With the 10mm Plossl I was able to resolve a couple of stars near, but not in, the core which was still too dense.
* M 31
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Andromeda Galaxy - Very bright and easy to see. Too large to take it all in but the core was bright and a lot of diffused light surrounding it.
* M 32
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Very small and compact compared to M31 which I just observed. The core seems as bright but more of a pinpoint with some light close by. It looks almost like a globular. With the 15mm Plossl, it looks even more like a globular but still very small.
* M 110
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Very faint galaxy that requires averted vision to best detect it. It appears to be an edge-on galaxy.
* NGC 7662
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Very easy to see the center of this Planetary Nebula, but not a lot of detail. It looks like a bloated (4x normal size) star. No improvement in detail using the 15mm or 10mm Plossl.
* Mars
Mars had just cleared the treeline around 06:50 at an altitude of 23 degrees. The transparancy was very poor, partly because of the humidity and in part because Mars will still close to the horizon. I started with the 22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide but it appeared as a tiny orange disc that changed shape because of atmospheric turmoil. I added the TeleVue 2.5 PowerMate and was able to get a better look at it's shape. I appeared to be only 85-90% illuminated. While the view as larger but still small, the atmosphere prevented me from seeing any surface detail.
* Meteor observation
I spent one hour doing meteor observations from 06:45 to 07:45 UT during which time I spotted 12 meteors, including 7 from the Alpha Cygnids (ACG) meteor shower. The night's total meteor count was 16 Including 4 others I spotted before the official meteor observation began. Meteor observation report will be posted in a separate thread.
* Lunar observation
At this point the 24 day old Moon was rising above the trees overpowering the meteors so I decided to observe the moon through the telescope. I popped in the 22mm Lanthanum SuperWide and the PowerMate 2.5 for some very nice views along the terminator. I was intrigued by a small clustering of craters. They were near the terminator. Surprisingly I found something that looked like them in one of my general astronomy books and I wrote down "wurselbauer gauricus" but I'm not sure if that's really them of something nearby (assuming I didn't write it down wrong). The problem I'm having finding them is that the shadows make them look different than the fully illuminated views shown in the books.
My rough description of craters:
* located near the bottom of the FOV
* three "small craters" in a triangle and a fourth below them
* a smaller crater in the middle of the three triangular craters
My neighbor and a moon aficionado is reviewing my sketchs to try and help my identify them. Next time, I'm going to use my little digital camera for a quick handheld eyepiece projection shot.
Since conceiving the project and getting the go ahead in January 2005, the Stargate Observing deck was done (July 2005) and ready for first light.
More pictures of Stargate here:
www.skyinsight.net/wiki/?title=Final_Deck_Pictures_%28stained%29
With the telescope mounted on my homemade wood pier I was ready to observe, but not ready for the challenges that followed. Lack of experience and practice showed. A lot of little things went wrong, including my finder not being lined up with the scope (should have checked that during the day), the flashlight LED burning out on my Maglite, problems getting the wedge properly polar-aligned. Plus, being the first time out on Stargate and first time I used my scope in two+ months, I was making many trips in and out of the house getting this, that and the other thing (e.g. a/c adapter, power strip, dew shield, etc). Thank goodness the rest of the accessories (eyepieces, focuser, etc) are in two cases.
Around 05:00 UT it all came together. New LED in the Maglite, good polar alignment and I was ready to observe. To top it off a -1 magnitude meteor streaked overhead. It was a sign that I was now ready for some serious observing. In addition, this day marked the one year anniversary of launching the Sky Insight website and Search Tool.
The pier is slow to dampen vibrations which I'll work on, but otherwise very solid. Here are the objects I observed using my 8" Meade LX200 Classic:
* M 27
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - It was easy to see and at first looks like a large round cotton ball. (I later looked at the DSS image and it looks just like that but not as bright and burnt out.) Studying it with averted vision it appears to be taller than wider with an hour glass shape.
* M 11
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - The Wild Duck Cluster - Very good open cluster that is rather tightly packed. There were three bright stars that stood out. The first one is slightly below center while the other two were a pair located near the bottom. Popped in the TeleVue PowerMate 2.5 and was still able to get a good view but the transparency wasn't great. Obviously the entire cluster wasn't visible anymore but I focused my attention on the center around that bright star. Above the bright center-ish star was a gap with some faint stars in the middle making it look like the open mouth of someone screaming.
* M 2
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Very tight globular with tightly packed core. Popped in the 15mm Plossl and it was still impossible to separate any core stars. With the 10mm Plossl I was able to resolve a couple of stars near, but not in, the core which was still too dense.
* M 31
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Andromeda Galaxy - Very bright and easy to see. Too large to take it all in but the core was bright and a lot of diffused light surrounding it.
* M 32
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Very small and compact compared to M31 which I just observed. The core seems as bright but more of a pinpoint with some light close by. It looks almost like a globular. With the 15mm Plossl, it looks even more like a globular but still very small.
* M 110
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Very faint galaxy that requires averted vision to best detect it. It appears to be an edge-on galaxy.
* NGC 7662
22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide - Very easy to see the center of this Planetary Nebula, but not a lot of detail. It looks like a bloated (4x normal size) star. No improvement in detail using the 15mm or 10mm Plossl.
* Mars
Mars had just cleared the treeline around 06:50 at an altitude of 23 degrees. The transparancy was very poor, partly because of the humidity and in part because Mars will still close to the horizon. I started with the 22mm Orion Lanthanum SuperWide but it appeared as a tiny orange disc that changed shape because of atmospheric turmoil. I added the TeleVue 2.5 PowerMate and was able to get a better look at it's shape. I appeared to be only 85-90% illuminated. While the view as larger but still small, the atmosphere prevented me from seeing any surface detail.
* Meteor observation
I spent one hour doing meteor observations from 06:45 to 07:45 UT during which time I spotted 12 meteors, including 7 from the Alpha Cygnids (ACG) meteor shower. The night's total meteor count was 16 Including 4 others I spotted before the official meteor observation began. Meteor observation report will be posted in a separate thread.
* Lunar observation
At this point the 24 day old Moon was rising above the trees overpowering the meteors so I decided to observe the moon through the telescope. I popped in the 22mm Lanthanum SuperWide and the PowerMate 2.5 for some very nice views along the terminator. I was intrigued by a small clustering of craters. They were near the terminator. Surprisingly I found something that looked like them in one of my general astronomy books and I wrote down "wurselbauer gauricus" but I'm not sure if that's really them of something nearby (assuming I didn't write it down wrong). The problem I'm having finding them is that the shadows make them look different than the fully illuminated views shown in the books.
My rough description of craters:
* located near the bottom of the FOV
* three "small craters" in a triangle and a fourth below them
* a smaller crater in the middle of the three triangular craters
My neighbor and a moon aficionado is reviewing my sketchs to try and help my identify them. Next time, I'm going to use my little digital camera for a quick handheld eyepiece projection shot.
