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Astrophotos
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| Date/Time |
Description |
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2/29/00
9:00pm - 10:00pm |
- Comments
- The night looked very clear on the drive home from work and
still looked so when I got outside. However, through the scope, the sky was
distinctly blue - as if there was a bright moon eventhough the moon hadn't risen. My
observing location (my front steps) was fully exposed to a streetlight and this may have
been the problem. Most everything I looked at was above and around that light (which
was about 10 deg. below Sirius). I used my DewBlocker and had no dew problems.
After studying the Trapezium for a while at 200x I decided that my scope had not
cooled down (out of focus star patterns looked like they had burning flares shooting off
in all directions) and was not collimated (general V shape to stars).
The scope tracked very well, keeping some targets at in the FOV of my 6mm Vixen
Lanthanum for 10 or 20 minutes. No runaways or other mishaps though the fork arm
very nearly knocked a $110 eyepiece off the kitchen stool I was using for a tripod.
- Trapezium
- The four stars were easy to resolve at any power. At
200x I occasionally saw a fith but not distinctly.
- Messier Tour
- I saw:
- 78, 35, 36, 37,
- 1 - just a gray fuzz,
- 38,
- 44 - stars are bright but sparce
- 67 - looks like it has nebulosity around it
- 48 - nothing fancy
- 50,
- 46 - very faint
- 47 - much brighter than 46, faint double visible in the 32mm
that I could clearly see at 6mm where they looked to be about 1/8" apart. SMP6
indicates that M47 is full of doubles. Didn't get the RA/DEC coord. to be able to
look it up.
48 - nice bunch of stars
93 - can't see hardly anything
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10/30/99
9:00pm - 11:00pm |
- Comments
- What started out a clear and beautiful night in central NJ
turned foggy, misty, and ultimately cloudy by midnight. Jupiter and Saturn were
great; most impressive of all was that I would slew to Jupiter and leave the telescope
tracking it for a 45 minutes or so and it would seem as if the planet hadn't moved at all
in the eyepiece.
Used the portable power pack for the first time - worked great. However, I
found that initially with everything (N5 + dew control) plugged into the same cigarette
lighter jack the display faded within minutes. Turns out the lighter plug wasn't
inserted all the way so the dew heater was drawing power from the N5 AAs. Not
recommended.
Not much more to talk about as we were socializing with friends more than star
hopping.
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10/11/99
9:30pm - 2:30am |
- Comments
- My first "star party"... but it was really just a
gathering of 8 guys. The others were all members of a local astronomy club; I work
with one of them and he invited me along. We were at Colliers Mills NJ, which is
just south of the Six Flags Great Adventure theme park in central NJ. The others
described it as only average seeing but it was my first time in nearly 20 years of
seriously looking at a really dark sky. We saw a bunch of shooting stars and one
fireball (so big it left a trail of "sparks"). Most of the other scopes
were Dobs; there was a 10" Meade LX200, a 10" Newtonian and me, with the scope
they immediately started calling the "Princess Phone". However, throughout
the night folks would call out targets and I and the LX200 guy (also computer controlled)
would find them right away while the Dobs guys would be struggling a bit ("wait... I
think I got it... is that it?..."). The N5's inaugural set of batteries faded
to the point of really slow slewing with no display so I popped in new ones and realigned
and finished out the night.
Dew set in about 1/2 way through. By the end, everything had beads of water
on it. Unfortunately, while I had a borrowed Kendrick Dew remover for the corrector
and eyepiece, it had a short in the power cable and didn't work. Around one or so I
realized that I was looking though a 1/2 fogged corrector though there wasn't much
deterioration obvious to me.
The N5 worked great - tracking was fine with the 25mm, keeping planets and stars
close to center for 45 min or so (while I was off looking through other scopes).
Other data: I had the N5 sitting on a plywood adapter mounted to a borrowed C5
tripod. Very sturdy, very nice - I would recommend Celestron's tripod. The N5
was very quite in the environment of the party - the LX200 was definitely grinding coffee.
Note that the star pointer dews up too - need a heater for it. Tried tour
mode but it was difficult to use because as a newbie I didn't know what anything was and
the abbreviations were terse enough that even some of the more experienced guys didn't
know what it was referring to. Definitely need to plan observing sessions in
advance.
Unfortunately, I am writing this report so long after the event that I have
forgotten much of what I saw. Next time, I will bring my dictating recorder.
- Planets
- As usual, spent some time with Jupiter and Saturn - they
looked great! Nice clouds on Jupiter and you could see the shadow of the ring
against the planet on Saturn. Still haven't seen the Great Red Spot on Jupiter or
the Cassinni Division on Saturn (even through the Meade 10").
- Orion Trapizium
- We stayed up late enough to see Orion and the Trapizium - a
collection of 4 stars in Orion which are very close together and in the shape of a
trapezoid. The N5 displayed it clearly (even though Orion was about 15 degrees above
the horizon).
- Eta Cassiopeia
- Picked this from the tour. It was a definitely orange
star (If I remember correctly...) and as I was focusing I suddenly realized that there was
another star right next to it, maybe .002 degrees away? Picking these two out seems
like a good test and rewarding. I would recommend this target for fun and plan to
try it again next time I am out.
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9/30/99
9:35pm - 10pm |
- Comments
- Moon didn't rise until 11:45pm so nice dark sky. One
great thing about a goto scope is that I can take it out on a barstool in my driveway, set
it up, and see three things in 25 minutes!
- Jupiter with 4 moons
- 2 dark stripes, numerous lighter bands, 4 moons. 25mm,
8mm - looked good in 8mm.
- M11 - Wild Duck Cluster
- Real "wow" effect with this one, like jewelry.
There appeared to be a dark cloud in the middle with a couple of bright stars in
it. 25mm
- M27 - Dumbbell Nebula
- Fuzzy, gray, bow-tie shaped. 40mm, 25mm, and 8mm.
Clearly visible in 8mm
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9/18/99
11pm |
- Comments
- First Light! 3/4 moon so skies not so good. Pam
joined me.
- Jupiter with 3 moons
- Real "wow" here, first object we looked at. 2
dark stripes, 3 moons. 25mm, 15mm, barlow - looked good with 25mm and barlow.
Didn't think the 15 looked so good. Seeing wasn't good enough for 15 and
barlow. Looked much better than I ever saw with the ETX.
- Saturn
- Very nice - clear ball of a planet with nice rings. No
Cassini division though. 25mm, 15mm, barlow - like Jupiter, best with 25 and
barlow.
- M31 - Andromeda Galaxy
- Fuzzy, gray, oval shaped. It was a real thrill to look
through the eyepiece and see it right there in the center. It was quite obvious.
40mm, 25mm, and 8mm. Clearly visible in 8mm.
- Alberio
- Another real "wow". Very pretty double star
with a big orange one and a small blue one.
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