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Just got an invite from friend on a farm in Pine Island with good viewing. It will not work out for her tonight so I might consider
Keller – just have my binocs. Maybe around 8:30/9:00. BI hate to have one of those evenings where it took me as long to get dressed warmly as I spent outside. I lasted about an hour
but it was worth the trip for the lovely clear sky. Saw M44, Beehive in Cancer, Comet Lulin, M 36, 37, 38 in Auriga, and M42.
Got a wonderful look at Saturn in Jeff's scope. The rings are still beautiful straight on. That said, this is as close to cyrogenics as I want to get…..! BI was taking peaks outside here and there tonight. I was not feeling the greatest, so did not feel like making a trip out in the cold.
I THINK I saw Comet Lulin, in my 10×50 binoculars. Earlier I was trying with 8×25 (?) which did not work. I also got a look at Orion's sword and belt (nebula in the sword), M41, and M44. I was out again a few minutes ago, but I could no longer find what I thought was the comet, it must have moved into the bad glow over the city. It also looks a little more hazy now. I need to check if Mars is up, I thought I saw another planet.
Nope, not Mars, my bad. That would have been Arcturus. Wouldn't be the first time I made that blunder. :-/
I dressed as warm as I possibly could and I'm glad I did. The temps wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for that darn persistant wind! >:(
However, Captain Kirk and his dog Lucky beamed on down to the Flatin Farm frozen tundra and we had a great night. Kirk is the first RAC member to make it to the Flatin Farm in the winter, but he is only the second to make two trips down here. That distinction belongs to Duane Deal.
Venus started the show, then a good look at a beautiful Moon. Kirk let me use a wide angle 2' Meade 32mm ocular which I was very impressed with. We looked at the Great Orion Nebula, then got talking about double stars, so I showed him 54 Leonis. He liked that and told me about his trip to Arizona which was very interesting.
I showed Kirk the starfield of 54 Leonis in my binoculars and noticed right away that it didn't look like it did on Wednesday night. A quick check of my observing journal showed me which 'star' was the dwarf planet Ceres, both on Wednesday night and tonight. It wasn't either of the two I thought it would be! 😮 It's nice to know now though, and I'll be following that object at least through the end of April. If you want to see it for yourself, 54 Leonis is bracketed by a pair of stars to the upper left and a pair of stars directly below. Ceres will be the one crowding 54 Leonis in the middle.
We were treated to a BRILLIANT meteor at 9:27:25. It started above Coma Berenices, split Canes Venatici and ended just short of the last two stars in the handle of the Big Dipper. Kirk spotted it, called out "Wow, what's that!" and I caught the last second or so. It was easily as bright as Venus, mag. -4 8). I was very suprised to see something like that at that time of night. It will make the AMS fireball page.
Saturn got our attention next. Titan well to the west with another moon about halfway in and two other "amateur moons" just off the ring to the east. Absolutely wonderful.
Kirk pulled in M44 and he showed me how to work his scope. That was fun, then we jumped in his rig to warm up before we pulled a long observation on Comet Lulin after the Moon set.
I could just barely see it, and that suprised me after how easily it showed Wednesdy night under worse sky conditions. Captain Kirk said he could see it if he used "averted imagination" ;D. I'll have to remember that one. Through the telescope and binoculars the tail was more noticable than ever. Quite the sight.
We finished the night with looks at M41, the Coma Berenices star cluster and the Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo. By midnight, the breeze was still getting at us, even though we parked our rigs at right angles to help block the wind. Still four hours wasn't a bad effort and it was AGNFA!
Dean, How interesting as all three of us at Keller were looking at the same area of the sky when the meteor started. Usually someone lets out an Ahhhhhhhhhh and others turn and say "Oh I missed that!" But Jeff, Bill Fischer and I all saw the brilliant
and long arc of the meteor. So five club members were all looking at the sky at the same time in two locations. How often does that happen? BI lasted 50 minutes on the back deck last night. Just too tired to face even an 18 minute drive. The wind was pretty well blocked by the house, which no doubt made my session more pleasant. I struck out on an open cluster in Gemini (2266) and Comet Kushida. At that point, I'd spent 30 minutes to see… nothing. I decided to do a scan for Lulin, and I'm afraid I don't understand the difficulty. With my 11×56 binoculars, it was easy to pick up about 10 degrees to the west of Regulus as a very diffuse patch. With my 17mm Hyperion, I could clearly see the core, and could just make out the broad tail. This was about 8:40PM, so it wasn't very high up in the sky yet. I then turned to Saturn, and it made my night. In spite of being so low, seeing was incredible and I could make out two bands – one above and one below the rings. I could see the rings across the planet and the shadow of the rings was a thin black line just below the rings (north). I pushed my scope up to 240x, a power I rarely can use, and was rewarded with a grand view of Saturn. I saw the four moons Dean cited, as well as one more on the west side of the planet, almost in the glare of the rings themselves. Very faint in my 10". Titan might have presented a disc.
The good news is that my finder is now focused. I can actually see through it!
I have a Crayford focuser on the way via Astromart, so that may make for an interesting daylight project. It's a replacement from a stock Orion tube, so there should be no "customizing" necessary. At least I hope not! So long Rack & Pinion!
It wasn't too bad out there, wind stayed down until the end, maybe when Luka got there! He must have brought it. 🙂
I had been out there for over and hour and was almost thinking I would leave soon, but then Rebecca showed up.
Prior to Rebecca, the first thing I looked for was Comet Lulin. It was pretty easy to find with the binocs and then looked at it through the scope. It looks a lot like a galaxy through the scope. Putting in the 8mm and you could get down and see something of a nucleus. Venus was still nice a bright. I think Venus and the Moon were very close to the crescent phase, looking almost identical. Besides what Rebecca mentioned, also showed her open clusters M41 (Canis Major) and M35 in Gemini, but did not actually show her M38, got somewhat distracted or something and didn't quite get to that one. 🙂
Also, brought up Pleiades, Venus and Double Cluster in the scope for her as well.
Not sure quite what time it was, but Bill Fisher from Chatfield showed up at perhaps 9:00? He is interested in Comets and was trying to get a photo of it. We showed him the comet. He did set up his camera and we'll have to see if he gets anything or not. Now that he knows more about where it is, he'll probably look for it again from his place. He thought he saw it the other night with his binoculars. Can't remember what all else showed him, seems like Beehive, M42, Saturn for sure. Oh, also showed him M81 and M82. Luka showed up sometime between 9:30 and 10. Rebecca left soon after that. As she stated, she didn't feel like being cryogenically preserved for science, not yet. ;D
She did provide hand warmers for Bill, they come in quite 'hand'y. Bill left a little after 10? We may see him again, either viewing or at the meetings. Eagle Bluff would be nice and close for him. I mentioned the Messier Marathon there for March.
Luka had some other eyepieces he picked up and was checking out. He showed me M53. And he found M65 and M66 again. I then found them, M65 and M66, too. We both split Algieba. I left about 10:45 or so, there for about 3 and a half hours. Luka was still there when I left. He was going to hunt down the Virgo cluster.
Yes, quite amazing, the 5 of us apparently seeing the same meteor in two different places. We all thought it was a plane and then it disappeared and we realized that was no plane, but a meteor. It was in the direction of the airport. I also saw a meteor earlier in the south, but Rebecca missed it. Early in the evening, I followed a satellite from the Pleiades, through Orion over to Sirius.
Reading your post Dean, you mentioned 54 Leonis and I said, hey, Ceres is over there. Right after that, you then mentioned Ceres. I was going to take a look for it, but then never did take the time.
JeffIf you look at the starfield of 54 Leonis over a period of a few nights, or even back to back (if you can get them!) Ceres instantly calls your attention to where it is. Ceres is at about mag. 7, so while not naked eye it is an obvious, easy sight in binoculars.
When I mentioned that Comet Lulin was hard to see, I meant naked eye visibility-wise. In binoculars and thru the telescope, it was very special to view. What a treat, and one that can keep an astronomer out there on a bitterly cold night.
I was wondering about you folks out at Keller when Captain Kirk and I saw the meteor. That is so cool that you saw it as well! 8) From what I understand, Keller is west of the airport, so if you were looking east, you definately saw it. Wonderful. That will also go into the report to the AMS.
From what I gather, it was a glorious night for astronomy for the RAC. We all looked at very much the same things, even though we were in three different locations. How cool is that? ;D
What a great night under the stars! With some better boots and I could have stayed out until dawn.
I'm glad to hear others saw that meteor. (Would it be best to have the Keller folks report it as they saw it and let AMS figure out the corroborating reports?)
Lulin was quite a treat! And Saturn and Ceres. Dean's meticulous observation notes came in quite handy.
AGNFA
Kirk
P.S. Dean,my apologies for not getting that picture you wanted.
You are absolutely correct than someone from the Keller group report that sighting. I'm sure Starbie or Jeff could get that done. ;D
Captain Kirk: You may get another chance if we have to try a Messier Marathon from the Flatin Farm location. 😉
I'm looking forward to the March meeting, the observing notes should be pretty interesting!
That wind was really cold. I wish I can come out earlier to see that meteor. I looked at several things I'd found before, as Jeff mentioned. Including M70, M65, M66, amd M53. Near M53 is NGC 5053, but I coudn't find it. I also couldn't find the other two galaxies near M65 and M66. I did however find M51. and maybe NGC5195, which if that was it, was immediately next to M51. I didn't find M94 and M63. I think I'll print out some small charts for those next time.
I was eager to try out my new Orion ED-2 12.3mm ocular. It has a very comfortable 20mm eye relief, and a 55? AFOV. It is pretty good. Considering the deal I got it for used, I'm quite pleased.
I also took a look at some doubles. Cor Caroli, Algieba, Almaak, Mizar, and Nu Draconis. I think Almaak was my favorite of those.
[quote author=Captain Kirk link=topic=233.msg2779#msg2779 date=1235932517]
With some better boots and I could have stayed out until dawn.[/quote]I bought a pair of Ranger boots with Thinsulate inserts at Fleet Farm for about $60 last fall. With wool socks over cotton socks, I haven't felt a lick of cold in my feet, even with my face and hands freezing in the cold. It's worth noting that the warming packs do not work in these boots – they are too air-tight to permit in enough oxygen to allow the reaction to work, at least with the extra-thick wool socks I use. With my old Columbia Bugaboo boots, I could feel the cold creeping in when it got cold, and heat packs were required.
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