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  • #10352
    Dean Johnson
    Participant

      Hello astronomy fans! I got out to the Flatin Farm hayfield again tonight and had a sky just like the StarBQ's. Jupiter showed Jerome and my "Great White Spot" clear as a bell. When I first looked at it at 9:45 I could see one moon to the east, then 15 minutes later another one showed. It must have just come out of eclipse.

      I observed and drew the Serpentine Ridge for the Lunar II program before the Moon set. (Dorsae Lister and Smirnov)

      After that I nailed NGC 6356, a glob in Ophiuchus, one of the brighter Herschel 400 objects (it's near M9). Then I caught NGC 6369 a planetary nebula in the same constellation. It is faint, and sits in front of a dark nebula. At 200X it looks like a fainter M57. Then I found NGC 6401, a faint globular in Ophiuchus that sits in a faint but pretty field of stars. I followed that up by getting NGC 6426, the challenge object of the night. 6426 is a globular in Ophiuchus that is another "ghost" object. Very challenging. The last Herschel object I caught was NGC 6520 a pretty open cluster in Sagittarius. It is a gorgeous little thing. That pushes my Herschel 400 total to 161 and my observing hours for this year to 187 and a half.

      I knew I had to get out there tonight to stay ahead of Nicole! ;D

      #10353
      Macastronomer
      Participant

        I was out the last couple nights too. It's been fun. I shot Jupiter as you guys were watching and Io did indeed pass in front of Jupiter, shadow and all (with the GRS trailing too). Here's the shot I took:

        Tonight was even better. I took a lot of shots but I haven't processed any except for this one:

        The shadow transit tonight was from Europa. I lost Europa itself before this shot, but for a while I was tracking it in front of Jupiter and could see it quite clearly. The moon on the left is Io and the moon on the right is Ganymede. The atmoshere was more stable and I collimated my scope through the camera, which I think helped.

        I also saw nine meteors, two of the Perseids. Both Perseids were better than the others, but the second Perseid I saw was a very nice, long, but fast one with a lingering trail. They seems to be radiating from closer to Cassiopeia than what Starry Night says they do.

        Well, time to hit the sack. It was AGNFA!

        Duane

        #10354
        Macastronomer
        Participant

          Anybody interested in going to Eagle Bluff Tonight?

          The Moon sets before 12:00 and it doesn't look too bad for sky conditions.

          Duane

          #10355
          Macastronomer
          Participant

            OK, lots of clouds, but tomorrow looks better…

            #10356
            Macastronomer
            Participant

              Dean and I are contemplating Eagle Bluff tonight. We'll keep a watch on the sky…

              Duane

              #10357
              Dean Johnson
              Participant

                Hello astronomy fans! Tonight is looking very good for stargazing!

                Duane and I are heading down to Eagle Bluff and plan on being there at 8:30 p.m. We are going to observe and pursue the Lunar II program and see what Jupiter is up to until the Moon sets around midnight. Then dark skies and Perseid meteors will take over after that!

                If any of you are up for some astronomical camraderie, COME ON DOWN! The clear sky chart shows above average seeing and transparency, especially after midnight.

                We hope to see you there!

                #10358
                Dean Johnson
                Participant

                  Hello astronomy fans! Duane and I got out there for 7 and a half hours last night. While we were setting up and listening to the Twins beat the Royals, we were treated to a loooonnnnggg meteor that started above the eastern horizon in Pegasus, traveled thru Cygnus, Lyra and finished in Hercules. WOW!! It was as bright or a little brighter than Vega and lasted at least 3 seconds. That one is getting posted to the American Meteor Society It happened at 9:14:10 p.m.

                  Jupiter showed three moons to begin with and must have had one in shadow behind the planet. It reappeared by 10p.m. a ways out from the planet. I'd like to watch one of those happen in front of my eyes one of these nights.

                  I did Sinus Lunicus, Crater Cassini and Valles Alpes for the Lunar II program.

                  We had a long search for the starfield of SS Cygni, made more challenging by some partly cloudy skies. After an hour and a half we pinned down where this interesting cataclysmic variable star resides. We intend to keep an eye on this to witness its next eruption. There is an interesting article on it in this months ASTRONOMY magazine.

                  Then we went "Herschel hunting". I got NGC 278 (elliptical galaxy in Casseopia, very nice), NGC 381 (open cluster in Casseopia, a delicate little group of stars with a "lollipop handle"), NGC 436 (open cluster in Casseopia, a pretty little knot of stars), NGC 524 (elliptical galaxy in Pisces, a tough star hop), NGC 559 (open cluster in Casseopia, a beautiful bright grouping of stars), NGC 598, also known a M33 in Triangulum, (easily found, but nebulous, only the core showed well), NGC 637 (open cluster in Casseopia, a small knot of stars near Epsilon Cass), NGC 651 (planetary nebula in Perseus, also known as M76) and NGC 654 (open cluster in Casseopia, a nice little cluster with a bright star on one edge.)

                  Duane got a bunch of objects and I can't remember them all, but I do remember looking at Gamma Delphinus (bright double star with an Otto Struve double nearby in the same FOV), NGC 891 Caroline Herschel's galaxy in Andromeda, M74 in Pisces, M34 open cluster in Perseus, Gamma Andromeda (bright double star), and the Andromeda Galaxy with its attendant satellite galaxies, M32 and M110. These were simply awesome in Duane's 12" Lightbridge telescope.

                  We saw LOTS of meteors last night, but none were able to beat the first one. It was a glorious night for astronomy! 🙂

                  #10359
                  Macastronomer
                  Participant

                    That was a great night, and starting it with that spectacular meteor was perfect. I can't believe how long that thing burned for as it stretched across the sky. That one is etched in my memory with three other meteors (a bolide from Eagle Bluff about 3 years ago, a fantastic fireball from RCTC that I saw with Brandon, and the bolide we saw at the StarBQ). It was a glorious night for astronomy, and it wasn't even dark yet!

                    Here's a few items I journalized:

                    NGC 891
                    NGC 752
                    NGC 772
                    NGC 7789
                    NGC 457
                    NGC 654
                    NGC 129
                    NGC 663
                    NGC 136
                    NGC 225
                    NGC 436
                    NGC 381
                    NGC 156
                    NGC 651

                    Fourteen Herschel objects. I used the C set of the free Tri-Atlas to find all of these. It works pretty well.

                    I also looked at an S shape (it's actually called the backwards 5) asterism in Hercules. Jupiter was very clear/stable. I'd say the seeing was 7.5 of 10?even 8 at times. Very nice. Other than the thin clouds we battled early on, the transparency was pretty good too. Transparency was anywere from 0 (when the clouds passed over) to 8.5 out of 10 (and I'm considering 10 unattainable in MN).

                    A G. N. F. A.

                    #10360
                    Macastronomer
                    Participant

                      Kirk came over last night and we worked very hard on the Perseids. Working hard counting Perseids involves laying on one's back, drinking a tasty port and watching the skies… oh yea…

                      OK, there were some clouds involved, but we had enough holes in the canopy to tally up about 28 by 1:00AM.

                      OK, here's where the die hards are separated from the enthusiasts (OK, maybe that actually happened earlier when we went out in spite of the clouds, but I digress). We stayed out there…

                      Around 3:00AM the sky really opened up, however, the Perseids didn't. There were some long periods of no activity, interupted briefly by a batch of three meteors (one after the other, not simultaneous, mind you). OK, Kirk snored a few times  8) (zzzzz), but all told we tallied 54 by 4:00AM. The activity wasn't as shower-like as I had hoped. At that point, it wasn't the sky conditions keeping the numbers down. In fact, the clouds were gone and the sky was soooo stable, I could see a plethora of Pleiades (I could count TEN Pleiades! I could see more, but the little buggers disappear when you look at them directly). The sky was great!

                      Almost all of the meteors were Perseids. There were some that seemed like anti-perseids. They were shooting upwards, from approximately the pleiades (maybe a tad south of there) and straight up to Perseus (right between the legs  😮 ). I literally saw two Perseids take that path down and two anti-perseids take the opposite route.

                      Sometime after 4:00 the clouds moved back over again and so did my eyelids. We had rolled out a couple carpets and each bundled up in our own weather-proof cocoons. I highly recommend a sleeping bag for this task. I stayed pretty warm, maybe it was the port (ya gotta try Dustin's port–it is absolutely the best!). In any case, there's no substitute for the fresh air you get sleeping under the sky. I'm sure we were both keeping the owls awake at that time zzzzzzzz.

                      Oh yea, I have to mention two satellites I saw (I saw more than two, but these two were notable). One I thought for sure was the ISS. At about 3:45, it cut the southern sky, from the south-west, over the southern horizon, over/through Cetus, and set in the south-east. Smooth, consistent and bright. Another, almost as bright satellite came from the south and headed north, under Cassiopeia and over Auriga. It seemed very much like an Iridium satellite but without the flare. It brightened and dimmed some but it was fairly consistent. I tried to look them up on Starry Night and couldn't peg either one.

                      I hope the Perseids are better tonight. The forcast has completely reversed itself. Yesterday it said it would be clear until midnight and then cloud up, now it says it will be cloudy until after midnight and then clear up. I kind of like that forecast better–if I can trust it.

                      Meteor watchers, prepare!

                      #10361
                      Macastronomer
                      Participant

                        Meteors were quieter last night. It didn't help that we fell asleep… not sure at what time. Sometime around 2:00AM I think. I woke up around 4:00AM and started watching again. Only counted 32. One early on was particularly significant. It was profoundly yellow/orange. Very cool, not a Perseid.

                        Lots of not Perseids last night.

                        It was pretty cool to wake up and see Cassiopiea directly overhead. The sky looked so different. I saw a very bright satellite pass overhead and cut diagonally through the great square of pegasus. I just look it up and it was COSMOS 1220 at magnitude -0.4. It started to get foggy by 5:00.

                        Kirk said, there's a lot of mornings I wake up in a fog, but this morning I really did wake up in a fog 🙂

                        #10362
                        rabomgaars
                        Participant

                          Well, Seems we were all up about the same time.  I woke up at 3:30 am and was surprised to see a beautifully clear sky.  Saw two
                          from the backyard then went to the front yard  and saw two more. (neighbor has a yard light – annoying at 4:00 in the morning).  I got the binocs out to look at the smudge in the sky and my field of vision was FULL of the Pleiades.  Lovely.  Worth getting up early.  B

                          #10363
                          Dean Johnson
                          Participant

                            Good job, "Starbie"!

                            You have the makings of a great observational astronomer! 🙂

                            #10364
                            Dean Johnson
                            Participant

                              Well, I finally got around to making copies of my Binocular Deep Sky List. Besides doing the 60 objects listed I submitted 4 others for extra credit: 61 Cygni (the very near double star that was the first object whose distance was measured by trianglar parallax), NGC 2362 (the Tau Canis Majoris cluster), NGC 7293 the Helix Nebula (a big favorite of mine) and NGC 7000 the North American Nebula.

                              I probably spent about five or six hours going through my journals, copying them and double checking to make sure I had every observation down. I found that I had made two observations of only one object, the open cluster NGC 1342. Not bad.

                              Here's hoping the observations "fly" and that my old buddy Mike Benson (the double star guy that took six months to review my double star observations) is a little quicker this time around. (He was very good with my Binocular Messier list).

                              Clear skies! ;D

                              #10365
                              rabomgaars
                              Participant

                                Dean, from the sublime to the ridiculous……………Have been printing Lunar 100 information.  I am confused.  Lunar 100 and Astroleague
                                Lunar Club.  Not the same.  I was just looking at the lovely full moon (binocs) and am surprised by how quickly "it" moves across the sky.
                                Great view then 20 minutes later the trees are in the way.  Had to stand on a stool on the deck to continue looking.  Didn't know moon had man, woman, rabbit, cow.  This is kindergarten……………B

                                #10366
                                Dean Johnson
                                Participant

                                  Hi "Starbie"! Welcome to the wonderful world of observational astronomy. Yes, the Moon does move very quickly across the sky. But not as fast as the stars. If you pay attention (and from your post, you certainly are), you will find that the Moon "drops back" one angular diameter of itself an hour. If you go out on your deck some night and watch the Moon near a first magnitude or some other visible star, you will see this.

                                  Enjoy the Moon! And clear skies always to you, my friend. 🙂

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