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I got out for a few hours tonight. The seeing and transparency were only average towards the horizon, but Saturn was tremendously beautiful tonight. Cassini's Division crisp, atmosphere bands plainly visible, Titan looking very orange and three other moons surrounded Saturn. The northern portion of the planet almost had a bluish tint to it. I hadn't seen that before.
I bagged NGC 2419, the "Intergalactic Wanderer" tonight. I had searched a few times for it before and never located it. Tonight I was patient and knew it was near one of two optical doubles near a bright field star. I got it on the second suspect.
I also got a planetary (NGC's 2371 & 2372) in Gemini. The Herschel 400 book describes this object as "bright". If that sucker's bright, then Obama's a Reagan Democrat. I had to crack it up to 200X to make sure it was a planetary and not just a faint double star.
I bet it looks great in the Hubble, though, or in Jeff's 48 inch scope that's getting made in Texas! (Somebody better let him know there might be portability issues with that thing….)
See you Friday night!
I'd found NGC 2371/2 a few months back on a pretty good night. With a filter, they were moderately bright even in the city. The dimmer half took averted vision to be sure of.
The trick with planetaries is to crank up the power because otherwise, they do look like stars unless there's a tell-tale color difference. I could check my logs, but I probably used 200X as well.
Hello astronomy fans! I got out tonight for three hours and bagged eight more Lunar 100's to push my total to 82. I had a very nice look at Saturn and saw that Mars has passed south and east of Pollux in Gemini.
It was wonderful to be back at my favorite spot after a tremendous NCRAL weekend.
It was a glorious weekend for astronomy!
Hello once again, astronomy fans! I put in another 3 hours tonight, got observations on Saturn and Mars, 2 Herschel 400 objects, and another Lunar 100 item. I also saw a 2d mag. meteor dive NE to SW above Castor, Pollux and Mars at 11:03:00 It lasted a half second, white light, no tail or sound, but still VERY noticable and very cool.
I have an awesome star hop from one cool object to another cool object with two cool objects to check out in the process.
But I'm not going to tell you what it is until you either come on down for the Recon Mission or go to the May Star Party at Eagle Bluff.
Getting a little tough on me to not be out there. I'm not cut out for being an armchair astronomer. Had the scope out and cooled down last night, but by the time the kids were all asleep, I was too tired to do anything. So I wheeled it back into the garage and sighed.
Things will get better. I've already gotten in more time than I expected (20 minutes) since becoming a dad for the second time.
Scott, I know how tough have real little ones can be. I'm thankful that my kids are old enough to where they need very little maintenence, and also that my family doesn't mind me going stargazing. Good for you for taking care of them and still keeping your interest in the hobby alive. Family comes first.
Hang in there Scott. Pretty soon you'll have a couple extra astronomers out there with you 🙂
Rebecca, Dean's is really easy to find. We'll probably meet there (?)
South on 52, 52 turns into 44. Follow 44 until in Spring Grove. Drive nearly straight through until 2nd St SE, take a right. 4th house on the right.
To get to the farm, take 16 south. Right after crossing the Iowa border, take another right into the driveway of the farm. Dean will have to give us a landmark to know for sure which driveway.
Duane
My first forum post for observations!! Duane & I went over some constellations & bright stars @ his observatory, and also "bagged":
M3; M13; M57; two of the Leo Triplet; Albireo; Titan, Rhea, Dione, Mimas & Enceladus (right, Duane?); and three meteors!
Dean, four words: the race is on!
Anything I missed, Duane? 😀
Good for you Nicole! I hope you journaled your observations. That would come in handy if you ever want to go after an observing certificate and pin.
You have a start on the Messier Objects, the Planetary Observer certificate and the Meteor Observer award.
If you want to "race", let's go for it.
Tethys instead of Mimas… Great job!
That girl has a memory like a steel trap… she'll best ya Dean 🙂
DD
I've spotted some pretty faint galaxies in Leo from within Rochester, but never the third of the Leo Triplet. It is rather easy once I get out of town, though (no trip to the Bluff required… Randy's should be more than far enough.)
[quote author=Dean Johnson link=topic=233.msg1674#msg1674 date=1209342497]
Four words; It;s a long race.
[/quote]Six Words: Dean has a big head start.
Scott, if you can spot M65,M66 from Rochester, you are doing pretty darn good. Perhaps Monseiur Messier had too much light pollution from Hotel de Cluny in Paris to spot NGC 3628?
He also didn't have nearly as good a scope. As far as eyesight goes, we'll have to check that one out when we get to astronomy heaven.
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