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Hello everyone. Bright moon and all, I'm going to head out to Keller tonight. Just gotta get out there with weather. 🙂
Head on out if you're interested. See you there.Jeff
Boy, it was bright out there last night. You need sunglasses, especially looking at the moon. Darn near burned my eyes out sighting in on it and looking through the scope. 🙂
Things were quite washed out. Caught Orion in his skivvies bathing in the moonlight. We took a look at Orion nebula, Jupiter and Andromeda. Not that bright. I think I did see M32, but didn't look too hard for M110. Nothing like the other night when they really stood out. With all the brightness, we decided to look at double stars. Found quite a few and it was so much fun, we're heading out to Keller again tonight. Find what we found last night and find some more. Come on out if you want.
Jeff
My wife Gerarda and I were out again Saturday night at Keller. It was a pretty good out there last night. Colder than Friday night, but there was less wind. Again went looking for double/multiple stars. But, first thing we looked at last night was Venus, appears to be in a gibbous phase. Very low in the west. We got there too late on Friday to see it then. We didn't spend much time looking at it as we had checked it out at home earlier before heading to Keller.
Since it was now double star time, we had to first go to Albireo. We had to do that right away as it was very low in the west. I could just barely see it naked eye in the soup. We got out later on Friday night, so we didn't see Albireo on Friday. To help us in our searches, I brought along a few books that we looked at to help find the various stars and also give ideas on what stars to find. We had: Starwatch (Harrington), Celestial Sampler (French), Cambridge Double Star Atlas (Mullaney, Tirion), Turn Left at Orion (Consolmagno, Davis), Double Stars for small telescopes (Haas).
Quite a variety of stars and quite the ranges in separation. We weren't able to separate the Pup from Sirius. For Rigel, just a little bump on the side. On the other hand, Sigma Orionis E is split out at 42 arc seconds. Stars we looked at over the two nights.
Albireo (Cygnus), Almach (Andromeda), Mesarthim and Lambda Arieta (Aries), Beta Monocerotis (Monoceros), Castor (Gemini), Sigma Orionis, Struve 761, Alnitak, Mintaka, Meissa, Trapezium, Rigel, iota Orionis, Struve 745, Struve 747 (Orion), iota-1 Cancri, Struve 1266 (Cancer), Polaris (Ursa Minor), Mizar and Alcor (Ursa Major), eta Cassiopeiae, iota Cassiopeiae, Struve 3053, Struve 3049 (Cassiopeia), eta Persei (Perseus), Sirius (Canis Major), gamma Leporis, h3759 (Lepus).We finished up in Lepus. Since we were there, took a look for M79. I did find it. It wasn't very clear with the moonlight, but we did find it.
All in all, a couple of great nights of seeing double! 🙂
A very impressive observing session, Jeff. Most of the stars you mentioned are on the Astronomical League's Double Star list.
Well done!
If that wind slows down a bit, I thinking of heading to Keller tonight for a couple of hours. I was hoping to head out Saturday or Friday, but that wind was a deal breaker for me. 🙂
Anyone else interested?
On another note…
Dean, anything happening at Eagle Bluff this coming weekend? Early forecast has it looking clear, but no telling what it will be like when Friday gets here. 🙂
Jeff
We're going to head out to Keller in a little while. See how it goes. Still has that 10mph wind, so we'll see. Only plan to be out there for 2-3 hours. Have to work tomorrow. 🙂
Jeff
It was really nice out there last night. Didn't even feel like any wind when we got there last night and it stayed that way. Less wind than the last few times we've been out. We got there about 7:00 and were driving off at 10:20. A little longer than I planned, but the weather was nice so stayed out there. Also, was waiting for Mars to clear the trees. 🙂
I wanted to get there early as I wanted to try and find Uranus. Uranus has been close to Venus. On the 9th, they were probably in the same eyepiece FOV, but not last night. They were already a little ways apart in only 3 days. I was able to find Uranus, nice little blue ball. It was a few degrees below and to the right of Venus. Venus was very bright. I was wondering if you could have even seen Uranus in the same FOV as Venus was so bright. 🙂
We took a look at Jupiter, too. It looks like one of the moons was heading behind it, at least one seemed to be disappearing.
Besides Uranus, I seemed to also just have to find the Eskimo Nebula for some reason. I was able to find it after a few fits and starts. Found a few other things while I figured it out. I just seem to have trouble figuring out which star is Wasat for some strange reason. ::) Also, the description I was using had the Eskimo by a triangle of stars. The triangle turned out to be bigger than I was looking for. 🙂 Nice cool little nebula. 😉
Also wanted to catch Mars and finally did in the end. Probably the biggest I've seen it. Should be nice watching it for the next few weeks as it gets nearer to earth. Should be the closest on March 5th I think.
Besides those, I was hitting some Messiers, mostly open clusters, half anyway. 11 open clusters, M35, M36, M37, M38, M41, M44, M45, M46, M47, M50, M93. 7 galaxies: M31, M32, M110, M33, M51, M81, M82. 3 nebulae: M42, M43, M78. And one globular cluster: M79
Also, since I was down around Canis Major, I found the Winter Albireo, Herschel 3945. Nice double star, very Albireo like.
A nice night, 22 Messiers, 4 planets, Eskimo Nebula, and Winter Albireo. I'm hoping for some more nice nights this next week and to head out again. I'll post if I do.
Jeff
Jeff, if you journal this stuff, even on line like you are doing, I think you could pick up a Messier Objects certificate.
Please keep us posted. Well done!
Dean
Hi Dean, Thanks, I'll have to keep that in mind. 🙂
Do you know if they have anything going on this weekend at Eagle Bluff?
If there are some nice nights in the next few days, I'll probably at least head out to Keller.
Jeff
Hello astronomy fans!
There is a Girl Scout troop at Eagle Bluff tonight, but Dawn told me that we can have the parking lot lights off if we show up and she said that the Girl Scouts would love to look through our scopes.
The CSC shows a clear sky for tonight, but seeing is iffy. It looks like it might be a little breezy.
If anyone is interested, I would certainly show up. Last night was awesome! The weather is definately getting better.
I would probably prefer Saturday for Eagle Bluff. If it is somewhat clear tonight I'll probably head out to Keller.
I should have headed out last night. 🙁 Were you out last night Dean?
Jeff
If others are looking to go to Eagle Bluff tonight, definitely will think about it. Eagle Bluff on Friday and Saturday? 😀
Jeff
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