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 | 10:20pm - 11:30pm CDT |
| Transparency | Clear |
| Seeing | Fair |
| Weather | Temperature in the mid-60s. There was a slight breeze. |
Although the sky was clear tonight, the air felt a bit damp. I decided to go ahead and take out my equipment anyway. It's awful difficult for me to pass up clear skies.
| M 106 | Spiral Galaxy | Canes Venatici | 10:20pm CDT |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGC 4258 | RA: 12 19.0 | Dec: +47 18 | Mag: 8.3 |
| This is a fairly large galaxy, and nicely elongated. Because of the skyglow tonight, my best view was as 49X. By slightly jiggling the eyepiece, the arms showed up better. Even though the brightness is listed as being about the same as M94, this one appears to be much dimmer because of the larger area. It was difficult to make out any detail at all tonight. | |||
At this point, I knew that the moisture in the air wasn't going to let me view galaxies. Cepheus was just clearing the trees, so I decided to look at some clusters and doubles there. Dew was starting to become a problem, and I didn't want to spend all my observing time moving my telescope around and wiping dew off my eyepieces.
| Beta | Double Star | Cepheus | 10:45pm CDT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alphirk | RA: 21 28.7 | Dec: +70 34 | Mag: 3.2, 7.9 |
| At 49X, the split is obvious, but due to the primary's brightness, it looks much better at 81X. It is a magnificent double. Alphirk is a bright white and the companion is pale blue. Because of the brightness contrast, this makes for an interesting pair. | |||
| NGC 6939 | Open Cluster | Cepheus | 10:55pm CDT |
| RA | 20 31.5 || Dec: +60 38 || Mag: 7.8 | ||
| This is a small and fairly faint open cluster, consisting of dimmer stars. It can be easily found, as it forms an equilateral triangle with the naked-eye stars Eta and Theta. The best view seemed to be about 188X, where it takes up about half of the field of view. 20 or so stars could be seen, but it hinted at being much richer. It is irregular in shape, and not very impressive at this aperture (at least with these viewing conditions). | |||
| IC 1396 | Open Cluster | Cepheus | 11:00pm CDT |
| Elephant Trunk | RA: 21 39.1 | Dec: +57 30 | Mag: 3.5 |
|
This is a pretty large open cluster, and fairly loose. It takes up more than
the field of view in my 25mm (49X) eyepiece. The brightest member of the
cluster is actually a triple star (Struve 2816). A few other doubles are in
the cluster, but they aren't nearly as impressive.
The shape of the cluster is pretty irregular. The area surrounding Struve 2816 is almost circular in shape, with a few branches of stars trailing off in different directions. Without being able to use a lower magnification, I couldn't really tell which of the branches was actually the elephant trunk. This is a fairly rich region of sky and makes it somewhat difficult to tell where the cluster's edges are. | |||
| Struve 2816 | Multiple Star | Cepheus | 11:00pm CDT |
| RA | 21 39.0 || Dec: +57 29 || Mag: 5.6, 7.7, 7.8 | ||
| This is a beautiful triple star. The brightest star is in the middle, with a fainter companion on either side of it, almost, but not quite in a straight line. Both companions are about the same magnitude. The brightest star is yellow, and the companions are white or perhaps bluish-white. | |||
| Xi | Double Star | Cepheus | 11:15pm CDT |
| 17 | RA: 22 03.8 | Dec: +64 38 | Mag: 4.4, 6.5 |
| These stars are pretty close together. At 81X, however, they are nicely split. The brighter star is white, and the companion is pale yellow. | |||
| Delta | Double Star | Cepheus | 11:25pm CDT |
| 27 | RA: 22 29.2 | Dec: +58 25 | Mag: 3.9, 6.3 |
| This double is nice and wide, easily separated at 49X. The main star is yellowish-white and the second star is medium blue. In the same field, there is another double, but it is much less impressive. | |||
The dew was really bad at this point. My Telrad was fogging up almost as soon as I finished wiping it off. After a quick peek at Mars (in honor of today being its closest approach in 12 years), I decided to call it a night.