by Tom Campbell
| Observer | Tom Campbell |
|---|---|
| Location | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95 30' W Lat: 37 55' N) |
| Equipment | 8" Discovery DHQ dob |
| Eyepieces | 1.25" Plössls (25mm, 15mm, 10mm, 6.5mm, 4mm) |
| Time | 9:45pm - 11:00pm CDT |
| Transparency | Clear |
| Seeing | Mostly Stable |
| Weather | Temperature in upper 50s. There was little to no wind. |
I had no real plans for observing tonight, as I had a pretty successful session the night before. But the weather was just too good to pass up the opportunity. I quickly gathered together a list of objects I had overlooked in some of my previos sessions, in an effort to do a little "housecleaning" on my observing lists.
I noticed right away that the skies were darker and I could see more stars than I could the previous night. Too bad I couldn't stay out all night! I noticed that Coma Berenices was positioned nicely in the sky, so I began my observations there.
| M64 (Blackeye Galaxy) (Galaxy) [Coma Berenices] - 9:45pm CDT |
|---|
| This is a fairly large and bright galaxy. It's easily found about a third of the distance between Alpha Com and Gamma Com. The core is bright, and the arms appear much fainter and are pretty short. Although I could detect some mottling within the core, I was unable to really make out the "black eye" dust lane. This galaxy is pretty much a face-on galaxy (as opposed to an edge-on galaxy). |
| M67 (Open Cluster) [Cancer] - 10:10pm CDT |
|
I finally found this one! I've looked several times in Cancer, trying to
pick it out unsuccessfully. Tonight, I had a pretty good look at Cancer (all
the main stars were easily naked-eye visible, and realized that I had been
going the wrong direction from Alpha Cnc all this time. So, I aimed my
telescope again, and there is was! It's a good thing that it's dark at
night, or somebody might've seen my red face!
At 49x, the cluster is a nice little knot of stars, taking up about 1/4 to 1/5 of the field of view across. Approximately 20-30 stars are visible, in an irregular circle shape. Bumping up the magnification to 122x, the cluster barely fits within the field of view. Several more stars became visible, as some of the cluster's mottled appearance resolved into individual close-knit stars. The two brightest members of this cluster are at opposite ends, and help to define the outer boundary. The brighter stars are fairly evenly distributed throughout the cluster, with small strings and knots of fainter stars scattered about here and there. This makes for a decent open cluster for just about any size of telescope. The brighter stars are far enough apart from each other that they can be resolved in the smallest of telescopes, and yet there are enough fainter members of the cluster to make it an interesting sight in larger telescopes as well. |
| 54 Leo (Double Star) [Leo] - 10:20pm CDT |
| This double star was on one of my observing lists, so I thought I'd take a peek. Even at 49x, it is clearly split, with just a hint of black between the two components. The main star is a bright white, and the companion appears a few magnitudes dimmer, possibly yellowish-white in color. Increasing the magnification makes the split much more obvious, and causes the second star to have more of a bluish cast to it instead of yellow. |
| Gamma Vir (Porrima) (Double Star) [Virgo] - 10:40pm CDT |
| This is a really close double. At 305x (my highest magnification), I could tell that the star was elongated, and in moments of steady seeing, I could make out two complete airy discs with almost no separation between them. Both components are nearly the same magnitude and are bright white in color. |
I really hated calling it quits tonight. The temperature was nearly ideal, with me only needing a light windbreaker to be comfortable. This was one of the darkest nights I've had so far this year. But, with tomorrow being Mother's Day, I had a busy schedule, so figured I better call it a night. I took a quick look at M13 before packing it in. I remembered to look for the nearby NGC-6207, and may have seen it by using my averted imagination, but it wasn't definite enough for me to make an official log entry.