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M3 is a pretty easy hop for me, after I found the path. Basically, you look for the Orion-shaped structure and follow it straight to M3. Easy in binoculars under city skies, I'm certain you'll find it easily at Keller…
I can't see the "eyes" in M97, the Owl Nebula either. However, it is a nice little planetary.
M105 is a fairly "stand out" galaxy, but it sits higher above M95 and M96 than what I initailly believed it would. Once you see it, you can see why it made the Messier list, even though Charles Messier didn't include it himself.
I had to tend bar last night, but this incredible string of clear weather leads me to believe that I can get out to the Flatin Farm hayfield tonight. It is great to see so many posts to the forum by our cadre of very active observers. Kudos to Jeff to show the birdwatchers some basic astronomy and get their interest piqued in our beloved hobby. I bet they show up to a meeting.
Well, I got out for two and a half hours. I had to fight the partly cloudy skies the whole time, but I did get another couple Herschel 400 objects.
NGC 2301 in Monoceros is a beautiful star cluster, a wavy line of stars centered around a lovely double star whose primary is a nice bright yellow. Really cool looking. 8)
NGC 2304 in Gemini. What can a guy say about this open cluster except they must have been ******* DESPARATE to include this puny little group in the Herschel 400 list. You can see it with averted vision (or Captain Kirk's turn of phrase "averted imagination"). Seriously, averted vision works best, it is there, but a star cluster whose brightest members start at 11th magnitude probably looks real good in one of the Keck telescopes in Hawaii. ::)I got observations in on Venus, Comet Lulin, Saturn and the Dwarf Planet Ceres. When I wasn't dodging clouds, I used my binoculars to look at the obvious stuff in Orion and Canis Major, the least affected part of the sky.
Better luck tomorrow night, at least I passed the 50 hour mark for this observing year. I'm ahead of last years pace, anyway. 🙂
A much better night tonight. I got the word we weren't working tomorrow due to the sap rise about 8 p.m., so I packed up and was out there observing by 8:30.
Dwarf Planet Ceres was first (now close to 40 Leo Minoris), followed by another great apparition of zodical light (much better than last night's). Saturn had a vast array of moons in attendance, and then I turned my attention to Comet Lulin.
Wow! It was indeed close to Delta Geminorum (thank you Jeff!), so much so that the comet and Delta Gem. comfortably shared the same FOV at 80X. I should have tried for Comet Kushida, but forgot about that when mesmerized by Lulin. 8)
At 10:22 the Herschel hunt was on and I journaled NGC's 2311, 2324, 2395, 2355 and 2420. The first two are in Monoceros, and the last 3 in Gemini. NGC's 2324, 2355 and 2420 are pretty "diamond dust" clusters and are the best to look at, although 2355 is a real tough star hop. My Herschel count is now 240.
I finished the night with some old favorites, such as M3, M53 (also nabbed NGC 5053 nearby. It's still faint ::) ). M13, M51 and the Leo Triplet.
It was a glorious night for astronomy! 🙂I got out myself last night. I got there about 10 and stayed till 12. The seeing was decent but not as good as Saturday. I looked at M103 and NGC 663 in Cassiopeia first. Then I started looking for M3. I just scanned from Arcturus to Cor Caroli in my binoculars(8×40), and sure enough it was obvious when I saw it (Thanks Scott!). I looked at it in my scope with more magnification, but couldn't resolve anything. Then I started on the Virgo Galactic Cluster. M58 was pretty easy to hop to, but not very bright. Then I found both M59 and M60. Those were brighter. Next M87 stuck out pretty well. Then I hopped over to M90 and M89. M90 was more prominent. Then I followed their line to an easy to spot almost-"V" shaped asterism, which guided me to M91. It took me a little bit to see that, and it was probably the toughest of the bunch I saw. Next was M88 which was easy compared to 91. Last I went over to M84/M86. I could only see M84. It seems that M86 is larger and has a lower surface brightness.
I also did see 1 meteor. From approximately Theta Persei to Chi Andromidae. I didn't check the time, but it was probably 11:15 or so. It was mag 1.5 to 2, I would estimate. There was also one Sheriff's Deputy that stopped by at about 10:30 or so. After seeing my telescope he was satisfied that I wasn't doing anything bad or illegal.
I heard coyotes, dogs, 1 or 2 owls, some other high-pitched bird, and a ground noise that scared me. It seemed large and close. I realized it was a horse a few second later, and that it was at the farm across the street. I could also hear the river flowing nearby. It didn't top Saturday, but it was a nice night for astronomy.Luka, I hope you showed the deputy something in your scope. Saturn would probably have been good or perhaps Orion Nebula. Saturn for sure. ;D
Hello all,
Newbie to the forum and to night sky observation here. Am going to try to convince my wife we should go to Chester Woods tonight (3/19/09) to observe – since it appears it will be a good night for viewing. We tried in town on Tuesday but had bad viewing conditions. Please send me an email (I'm on the members list of the forum) if anyone is interested.John Aderton
Welcome aboard John! Hopefully your astronomy journey will be a wonderful experience.
Doesn't it cost money to get into Chester Woods? Will they let you in at night? I think parks in general have hours on when you can be there. And, I think Chester Woods is the one county park that charges to get into it.Jeff
Welcome!
It looks like Chester woods costs $5 per vehicle, or $25 per year. I would gladly pay that for a good site, however I'm concerned that it closes at 10pm. Since it doesn't get dark until after 8, that puts a time limit on it. Also I wonder if there are any parking lots without any lights? There would probably be many fewer cars passing by the inner areas.I was just thinking of going to Keller WMA this evening, but Chester woods might be interesting too. Not sure yet.
Looking at the latest forecasts, it looks like it will be cloudy for awhile after today. Because of that, I do plan to head out to Keller WMA tonight.
John, you can come on out there if you want. There are some directions in an earlier post. It is SW of Rochester.
Jeff
I'm heading out to the Flatin Farm hayfield, boys. If the forecast is accurate, this could be the last good night for quite a few.
John, if you're thinking about going out to Keller, you'd be in great company with Jeff and Luka. ;DI've got nine targets left on my Herschel 400 winter group. Eight are in Puppis, wish me luck.
I'm hoping to see an ISS pass tonight, too. I'll be checking Jeff's post after this.
Clear skies everybody! 🙂
Chester Woods has a parking lot by the horse area that is before the pay area. I was informed that if you notify them you are coming, there is no issue staying past the 10PM official close in that area. However, if you go past the pay gate, you'll be stuck until morning.
Wow, what a night! I did see the ISS pass overhead at 7:34 by my watch. I caught it at the zenith and then followed it from the 45 degree angle down with my binoculars. It didn't disappear into Earth's shadow until I could see the horizon in my binoculars. 8)
Venus, the Great Orion Nebula and M41 occupied my time while I waited for enough darkness to go Herschel hunting. I did my homework before I left the house and got all nine objects to complete my Winter Group. All but two were open clusters, the two in question were planetaries. I had seen NGC 2438 in M46 before, but hadn't seen NGC 2440 a few degrees south of there. They're both nice and all the open clusters were fairly easy to find and for the most part, pleasing to look at. 🙂
Comet Lulin is cruising through some gorgeous stars in Gemini. It was about halfway between Delta and Zeta Geminorum tonight. It really looked special, but then the sky was FABULOUS tonight.
How fabulous, I really found out when I viewed Saturn. OMG! FIVE moons easily seen, atmosphere banding on the planet, the gaps between the ring system and the planet, and Cassini's Division was even visible at this narrow angle! Tonight might just be the best I've ever seen it in my Celestron G8. 🙂
I finished with another observation of Ceres, now cruising past 40 Leo Minoris. I also got binocular views of M46-M47,
Sorry, I must have hit a wrong button.
the Perseus Double Cluster, Aldebaran and the Hyades, M41, and the Coma Berenices star cluster during coffee breaks. I could have stayed out there lots longer, but I have to go to the woods tomorrow.
I hope the Quarry Hill event turns out all right, we need to bottle nights like tonight to show the folks what astronomy is all about.
It was indeed AGNFA! ;D
I got out there early enough to catch the first ISS showing, but then… I was looking at the clouds, no Venus in sight, it was behind the clouds. There was a nice pretty sunset with the clouds and had me worried. Listening to the birds. Looking around some for any other stars. I happened to see Sirius, and looked at my watch and saw it was 7:40 and ahhh, too late for the ISS. I just wasn't looking at the right spot when it came out as I should have been able to see it. There was a thin film of clouds, so things were not popping out. I was looking around with the binocs. As it darkened, you could see there were clouds reflecting the light in Byron and Rochester. Venus did make an appearance between the clouds and took a look at that and Saturn thru the trees. Venus still a nice thin crescent, very pretty. Saturn was still too low, saw one moon, but didn't take too much of a look. I had thought of going for M76, but with the clouds, didn't think that would show up. Started looking for Messier open clusters over by Sirius, but not having much luck. Looking at Orion Nebula and did not really see it with the clouds. Trapezium stood out quite clearly, even in my wide angle.
Luka showed up before 9, not quite sure when, 8:30ish? Still some clouds, Luka was looking for M76 and even with the clouds, he did pick it up. I took a look and sure looked like what I thought M76 should look like. Around that time, I happened to glance at my watch and noticed 9:06, ISS coming at 9:08. Started to watch for that and it popped out in the WNW, maybe WWNW. We both followed that in our scopes for awhile. Not picking up much of any detail. It disappeared under the Little Dipper.
And as if by magic, 😮 or maybe the ISS pulled the clouds with it, ;D all of a sudden, things were really starting to pop out. It cleared up quite a bit. We both took some more looks at M76 and verified that is what we were seeing. Looking at it in various eyepieces to compare things. Luka was looking at many different Messiers and I'm sure he will probably say something later. The open clusters in Auriga (M36, 37, 38) were now popping out in my binoculars. I started looking for the ones I had tried earlier and I was finding them in the binocs and the finder now. Found M46, M47, M48, M50, M93, M41, M67. Went to Leo and did M65 and M66. There was talk on one of the other nights about M3, so took a look at that. Went to 150X on that and did start to see some grains in there, not quite starriness.
Saturn was now much higher and I was able to see banding, I think I was seeing about 4 moons, perhaps 5 if that one way to the left in the eyepiece was one. Thought there were like 3 on the right side close to the rings. That is the best I have seen Saturn. My scope will be coming up on 1 year old here shortly. I'll have to bake it a cake to celebrate. 🙂
I was thinking of packing up and Luka asked if that star over there was Spica. Looking around, yep, it is. And then that over there must be Corvus then? You bet, yes it is. Ah, I know where you're going, you're going to look for the Sombrero. Yes indeed, that is where Luka was going. Corvus wasn't too far above the trees. We both took a look. I searched my memory and there it was, the path to M104 (Sombrero Galaxy). Just like riding a bike. 🙂
Finished off with M104 and we both packed up. It was about 11:00. For me, time for bed. Luka had to head home as he had a brother coming in from Cinci(?). If not for that, I think he would have stayed out for another hour or two as things were looking good. One last observation, at the end, the 'V' of the Hyades was really showing up naked eye, more than other times I have looked at it. Yes, you guess it, AGNFA!
Jeff
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