by Tom Campbell
| Observer | Tom Campbell |
|---|---|
| Location | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95°24'W Lat: 37°55'N) |
| Equipment | 8" Discovery DHQ dob |
| Eyepieces | 1.25" Plössls - 25mm (49x), 15mm (81x), 10mm (122x), 2" 51.5mm Modified Plössl (24x) |
| Time | 7:00pm - 8:30pm CST (01:00-02:30 UT) |
| Transparency | Clear (8/10) |
| Seeing | Mostly Stable (7/10) |
| Weather | Temperatures in the mid 40s, dropping as the evening progressed. There was no wind. |
After an overcast dawn, the midmorning skies began to clear. As I checked my email this morning, a plea regarding volunteers for timing an asteroid occultation caught my eye. I had been wanting to do this for some time, but hadn't had the opportunity. I checked out the magnitudes of the star and asteroid, and found that both were faint, but still within reach of my telescope. I decided that regardless of temperature, if the weather held up, I was going to do this.
Besides, I've been trying to catch a glimpse of the newly-discovered comet Ikeya-Zhang for the last couple of weeks, but cloudy western skies had prevented me. The weather reports were looking good, so my short observing plan was set.
| Ikeya-Zhang | Pisces | Comet | 7:40pm CST |
|---|---|---|---|
| C/2002 C1 | RA: 0119.4 | Dec: +3018 | Mag: 3.5 |
| By the time the twilight sky darkens enough to see it, the comet is pretty
low on the western horizon. I was unable to see it naked-eye, so I grabbed
my binoculars and scanned the sky in the general area of where it was
located. I was expecting the comet to be brighter than it really was, so I
overlooked it the first time. But on my second, slower scan, I saw a fuzzy
star with a cone of nebulosity around it. Aha! I had found it.
I moved my telescope in the yard until I could see that part of the sky without a tree limb or house being in the way, and popped in my 51.5mm 2" eyepiece (24x). The nucleus is bright and slightly elongated. The center is even brighter and appears nearly stellar. The tail is visible, but the bright gibbous Moon wipes out a lot of it. By jiggling the scope slightly, the tail appeared more obvious and longer. It is shaped in a narrow cone and extends about half the field of view of the eyepiece. I couldn't detect any structure within the tail, and it seemed to just slowly fade to nothingness. Although this comet is the brightest one I have seen since Hale-Bopp, I find myself wishing that it were another 20 degrees or so higher in the sky, where its beauty could be fully appreciated. | |||
| Jupiter | Gemini | Planet | 7:55pm CST |
| RA: 0629.0 | Dec: +2326 | Mag: -2.2 | |
| At 122x, the view was incredible tonight. In moments of good seeing, several
bands were visible, and Europa was real close to the gas giant, ready to
hide behind it any minute. Besides the banding, a large oval or barge
appeared right along the central meridian of both equatorial bands. A lot of
detail was visible, and made me really appreciate my telescope's
capabilities.
I tried to view Jupiter at higher magnification, but no more detail was visible. | |||
| Zelinda | Canis Minor | Asteroid | 8:20pm CST |
| 654 | RA: 0717.4 | Dec: +0310 | Mag: 11.6 |
| Tonight, I tried to time my first asteroid occultation. The occulted star
was the mag. 9.7 TYC-0168-02620. The gibbous Moon was hindering my efforts
quite a bit, so I had to put in my 51.5mm eyepiece and starhop all the way
from Procyon. It was the most complicated starhop I had ever tried, but with
the help of three starcharts (widefield, 5 degrees, and 2 degrees), I
finally found the right star. I tuned my portable shortwave radio to one of
the WWV frequencies and turned on my tape recorder. I was ready to watch an
asteroid.
I knew I was right on the edge of the predicted occultation path. But I also knew that the asteroid's shape and orientation have a lot to do with the exact boundaries of that path. If conditions were right, I would still be able to see it. After a couple of minutes, disappointment began to set in. Try as I might, I couldn't detect movement in any of the pinpoints of light. The Moon must be washing out the faint asteroid. Oh well, even if I couldn't see the asteroid, I might at least be able to detect a dimming of the star. The occultation was supposed to occur about 8:24pm, but that time came and passed without any visible change in the star patterns. After 8:30pm, I gave up, deciding I must've been just outside the path. I reported my negative results to the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA), where they informed me that indeed, based on the other incoming reports, I was just a bit too far north. Maybe I'll catch the next one. | |||
Since I had completed my observing plan, I decided to call it a night. Even though it was early, I didn't want to sit outside in the cold night air searching through star charts to find bright-sky targets.