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[astrocohort]

Bill and I (Arvind) , decided that today was a great night (30 Jul & 31 Jul morning) , packed with Bill's Vixen mount, 6" reflector , my 5" Meade DS 2130 Go-to scope (hey Joe - i have upgraded to 1.2" eyepiece and the difference is unbelievable). We must be the only 2 handsome single guys - heading to Yorkville instead of Bars ;D.

We arrived at silver springs state park at 9:15 or so . Venus was set . Jupiter was still up. I had done a lot of prep work in the afternoon - printed all the skycharts - 9 pm , 10pm, 11pm,00 am , 1 am from www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Yoursky
excellent resource . and the Skymaps from
www.skymaps.com. Made a list of objects that i wanted to see.

the sky was amazing, Jupiter seemed like moon. Arcturus and Vega were detailed. All constellations were visible - for the first time is saw the teapot of SAGITTARIUS.

I lined up my DS 2130 to north star and locked it up in home position. Then aligned it by pointing to Vega and Altair. Then Hit GO-TO to wild-duck-cluster (M11 open cluster-Scutum) . Wallah - it was bang in the center of the eyepiece - i was totally stunned that the computer worked !!! - bill could not believe it .

Then saw all the below :
M13 - in Hercules
M8 , M20 , M21 , M23, M17 , M16 , M25 , M22 , M6 , M7

the GOTO failed for Andromeda , M57 and M27 . Found Andromeda easily with Binoculars . Manually found M57 and M27 - as i was determined to see it - with Bill's help.

Saw Double Double in Lyra on Bill's scope - its a truly amazing sight - but it was with an eyepiece of 7 mm.

Could not get to see
NGC 7293
Pluto
Uranus
Neptune
Which were on my list. Due to clouds and for Neptune & Uranus - there was no way to tell them different from Stars .
at about 12:00 am - we saw the most amazing thing - a fireball - probably from the constellation of Aquarius or Pegasus - it was quite high in the sky.

At 2:00 or so - to my surprise - i saw - what i always wanted to see - the magnificent Pleiades ( i was under the impression that it is a winter time obj - so never looked for it) . Thru Binoculars its beautiful - telescope - shows you an area of it . Naked eye - saw at least 6 stars in pleiades.

At 3:00 am - Moon rose - and we used a digital camera to take pics of it . Mars was up and shining - so that was an amazing sight too - thou i am yet to see the ice cap.

We saw two satellities in different parts of the sky - one near Cassiopeia-Cepheus and another in Hercules i think .

Bill's fav object - the milky way - was up too !! - clear and prominent .

Bill and I were thinking - we should do this one night - for Balu, Linda, Rajasi, and all others who are interested .

Cheers !!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Handsome guys?, can't be...I wasn't with you!

Arvind,

Thanks for your first post and joining the Chicago Astronomer family...(Been trying to get him for the longest).

What a great first post too! I wasn't able to accompany Bill and Arvind on their excursion to darker skies, but it sounds tantalizing and I must join in soon.

Indeed, the 1/2" eyepieces open up the sky and really push the scope to it's best function. You didn't mention what the mm's are of your new eyepieces, but every astronomers bag should have the three basics, a low wide field, medium and high power - (25, 10 & 4). With that, you can do some good observing. I'm still looking for an economical 40mm...

I like that you prepare intricate maps for intelligent observation. I still owe you for prepping us for the overhead viewing of the ISS recently. Regarding Uranus...one can see the difference. It really does shine in a different color that the stars, as it imparts a every so slight - greenish hue. Quite cool really. I have not observed neither Neptune nor Pluto, but perhaps one day. And again, another member mentions the Pleaides...and although a great sight in the eyepiece...it heralds the cold winter nights soon to be here...sigh

You had a great bunch of targets offer you views and that's only the start...

[atomant]

Third time was definitely the charm.

My jaw almost fell off as I got out of the car.
I could see the teapot and scorpion clearly amid the glorious Milky Way. It arched right through Cygnus in the Summer Triangle all the way toward Cassiopeia.

Unfortunately, in my rush to get out to the Silver Spring State Park, I did not check my batteries.
My initial plan to zip through objects with the goto didn't quite pan out.
I moved to plan b with piggyback photography of the heavens. I targeted the Swan Nebula with the 6in reflector and took shots of the Milky Way around Sagittarius and Cygnus with a manual SLR. I used Fuji Super HQ ISO 200 35mm film [readily available at your local grocery/drugstore]. I hope they turn out o.k. since I was fighting the dew on my telephoto lens.

It was great sharing views with Arvind as he pushed his 5in reflector to new heights.

Here are some shots of the moon through Arvind's 5in scope. I mounted a 3.2 MP digital camera onto a 25mm eyepiece.




You are all welcome to join us at our next impromtu observing session. Let's hope for clear skies next weekend.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Wow,

The 1/2 eyepieces brought out the best in Arvinds scope I see, and the lunar shots there reflect it! Bill tried to show me the Teapot on different occaisions, but I fail to see it in Chicago's light polluted skies. That Yorkville site sounds more and more inviting!

Excellent observation post!... ;D

[jglover]

[You are all welcome to join us at our next impromtu observing session. Let's hope for clear skies next weekend.
[/quote]

Bill,

Let me know next time you are planning to head to Yorkville,as I'd be game to head out there. It's not too far from home for me.

[David]

Read about your outing and it sounds like you had a great time. A neighbor was given a Meade ds 114 without an instruction booklet. I've been able to locate most of the manual info on line , but can't get any detailed instruction on how to place it in home position. Any recommendation on where to locate such info?

David