by Tom Campbell
| Observer | Tom Campbell |
|---|---|
| Location | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95°30'W Lat: 37°55'N) |
| Equipment | 8" Discovery DHQ dob |
| Eyepieces | 2" 51.5mm Modified Plössl, 1.25" Plössls - 25mm (49x), 15mm (81x), 10mm (122x), 6.5mm (188x), 4mm (305x) |
| Time | 8:30pm - 10:15pm CST |
| Transparency | Mostly Clear (7/10) |
| Seeing | Fairly Stable (6/10) |
| Weather | Temperatures in the mid 40s, dropping to near freezing as the evening progressed. There was no wind. |
The weather was beautiful all day today, with nary a cloud in the sky. After supper, the sky continued to look good. I was supposed to have barbershop quartet practice tonight, but the weather looked so great, I called and cancelled (sorry, guys).
As I was finishing up my telescope setup outside, my aunt and uncle and their two kids pulled up. They immediately came over to me and asked if they could look through my telescope again. They noticed the crescent Moon hanging just above the trees, and wanted to see it first. I put in my 49x eyepiece, which allowed the entire moon to be visible in the field of view. I asked them if they could see the craters, and they both replied that they could.
Next came the planets. The girls took turns viewing Jupiter, Saturn, and even tiny Mars. I quizzed them both on how many cloud bands they saw, how many moons, etc., and compared it with my own view. They didn't do too badly. At 49x, they both claimed to have seen at least one cloud belt on Jupiter, and several moons (they didn't know which "stars" were moons and which ones were actually stars, of course). I put in my 122x eyepiece before showing them Saturn, and the youngest one was able to see three of its moons.
After a couple of open clusters, such as M35, the oldest girl was getting cold, so she went inside to warm up. The youngest one (age 8) was dressed in her winter coat, and was ready for action. She did so well on seeing the planets that I thought I'd give her eyesight a bit of a test. I swung over to the Andromeda Galaxy, and told her that she was going to look at a fuzzy patch of light that was a galaxy. She asked what a galaxy was, and was suitably impressed when I told her that it was a collection of millions and millions of stars. She then peered through the eyepiece, and said she saw it. I then told her that the galaxy we live in is called the Milky Way. She said she liked that name better than Andromeda because it reminded her of a candy bar.
OK. Now that she basically knew what a fuzzy patch of light looked like, I was going to give her a good test. I swung the scope over to M82, and had her look through the eyepiece. At first, she didn't see anything. I told her to look for a really faint streak of light. After a few seconds, she said she found it. I asked her what direction the streak was going. She showed me the correct direction with her hands. This girl may become an astronomer yet!
Since it was nearby, I gave her M81 as a final test. "I like galaxies," she giggled. Right away, she saw it and showed me the correct orientation with her hands. I was convinced.
She hadn't brought any gloves and her hands were getting cold, so I suggested that we both go inside and warm up. She agreed, and she ran in to tell her mom and sister what she saw. I asked her what her favorite object was that she had looked at tonight, and she said the Moon.
After they left, I went outside to start my official observing session. The images were getting a little steadier now that the mirror was cooling down, so it was a good time to start. There was a few times during the night when a lot of my vision was obscured by smoke overhead. I found out later that someone had been setting hay bales on fire throughout the county that night. It helped to explain why the seeing wasn't nearly as good as I had thought it would be.
| M 79 | Lepus | Globular Cluster | 8:15pm CST |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGC 1904 | RA: 0524.5 | Dec: -2433 | Mag: 8.0 |
| At 49x, this globular is obvious and fairly bright. It has a bright, almost
stellar core, which fades out quickly to the edges. The best view seems to
be at 88x. At the extreme edges of the cluster, a few stars could be
resolved. This actually isn't a bad little globular. I only wish it were a
bit farther North.
Because it is situated below the trees from my usual backyard observing spot, I had to move my telescope to a brighter location. This resulted in having to use my hands as a light shield while looking through the eyepiece, and probably hindered my viewing somewhat. Under darker skies I might be able to resolve this one a little better. | |||
| Gamma | Lepus | Double Star | 8:30pm CST |
| 13 | RA: 0544.5 | Dec: -2227 | Mag: 3.7, 6.3 |
| Since I had already moved my telescope, I decided to stick with the Southern sky tonight. This is a wide double, easily splittable at my lowest power. The brighter component is a yellowish-white, and the companion is light yellow. Even at 49x, the separation is almost too wide to appreciate the double as a pair. This won't make my favorite list, but it would make for a nice bright double to show off to beginners who want to see a binary star system. | |||
| NGC 2362 | Canis Major | Cluster+Nebula | 8:40pm CST |
| RA: 0718.8 | Dec: -2457 | Mag: 3.8 | |
| This cluster is nice. I couldn't detect the associated nebulosity tonight. In the middle of the cluster is a bright yellow star. The brightness of this star could be masking the nebulosity. The remaining members of the cluster are fainter. Some of the brighter stars of the cluster form an arc around either side of the bright central star, making an incomplete heart shape. At higher magnifications, a few more stars become apparent along the outer edges of the cluster and the heart shape is lost. 122x seems to be about the best magnification to show the cluster in its entirety. Overall, I'm fairly impressed with this open cluster, and will probably be visiting it again in the future. | |||
| NGC 2354 | Canis Major | Open Cluster | 8:45pm CST |
| RA: 0714.3 | Dec: -2542 | Mag: 6.5 | |
| This cluster is fairly faint, not having very many bright members. The brightest stars form a parallelogram. This isn't a very impressive-looking cluster, and the entire cluster can be seen within the field of view at 188x. | |||
| NGC 2360 | Canis Major | Open Cluster | 8:55pm CST |
| RA: 0717.8 | Dec: -1537 | Mag: 7.2 | |
| This is a nice and rich open cluster. Despite the star-rich region of the sky, this cluster still stands out. 88x offers a good view. It is defined by several small chains of 3-4 stars forming lines and arcs along the outer edges. The middle of the cluster is somewhat sparse. This is a neat-looking cluster and definitely worth a look-see. | |||
| M 47 | Puppis | Open Cluster | 9:00pm CST |
| NGC 2422 | RA: 0736.6 | Dec: -1430 | Mag: 4.4 |
| If M46 was a little brighter, M46 and M47 could easily be known as the Southern Double Cluster. Both will almost fit into the field of view at 49x. M47 is larger than M46 and contains much brighter stars. The M47 cluster is elongated and has several chains of 3-5 stars of varying magnitudes. | |||
| M 46 | Puppis | Open Cluster | 9:00pm CST |
| NGC 2437 | RA: 0741.8 | Dec: -1449 | Mag: 6.1 |
| M46 is more compact and rounded than M47. The stars are a little more even magnitude-wise. The brightest star of this cluster is just about in the center. There are a couple of noteworthy stars between the two clusters that seem to be acting somewhat as a bridge between them. | |||
| Rosette Nebula | Monoceros | Bright Nebula | 9:10pm CST |
| NGC 2237 | RA: 0632.3 | Dec: +0459 | Mag: 5.5 |
| The Rosette Nebula can just barely be detected tonight by moving my eyepiece around and noticing the changes in the background sky. Just for fun, I tried my O-III filter on it, but it didn't help. This is one big nebula. Even with my 51.5mm eyepiece, the entire nebula wouldn't quite fit into the field of view. | |||
| NGC 2244 | Monoceros | Open Cluster | 9:15pm CST |
| RA: 0632.2 | Dec: +0452 | Mag: 5.5 | |
| The cluster is very obvious and bright. A few dozen stars were visible. Despite this, I couldn't detect any real patterns in the stars and it was somewhat unremarkable. There were a couple of pairs of stars at one side of the cluster, which drew my attention. | |||
At this point, I was really wondering about how bad my seeing was. I turned to the Trapezium inside M42 and could only barely detect the E component at 305x. The other night, the E star was obvious, so I knew the fires had really degraded the sky.
The temperature was starting to fall rapidly now, so I decided to call it a night. Besides, my nose was getting cold. I should invest in a ski mask one of these days, but then I'd probably get turned in to the cops by somebody. I'm currently working on three different observing lists put out by the Astronomical League, and I was able to check off at least one object from each of the lists tonight, so it wasn't too bad.