Observing Reports
September 2004
-30th September 2004-
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So far I have had no luck getting up early to view Saturn, as it has always been too cloudy.
There was quite a lot of cloud cover tonight with the West having the best viewing condition. That’s quite lucky, as I can’t see any of the East skies.
I set the scope up and tried to locate M101, still without any luck!!!
The Moon was high in the sky and very bright drowning out a lot of deep sky objects. I did manage to locate M57 but the view still seems too fuzzy.
Had a quick look a Cassiopeia and noticed that this constellation is packed full of stars. I didn’t view it for long as the clouds were rolling in, but next time I shall take a closer look and try to view some of the many open clusters.
I remember someone from the Cloudy Nights forum commenting on another report I had written, that I should take a look at Beta Cygni (otherwise known as Albireo) as it is one of the most beautiful double stars. This could not be any truer as I viewed with awe at the bright red star and its smaller blue companion. I tried to take a few images but they did not come out very well or even show the magnificent colour difference. I really need to learn more of the Greek alphabet as I kept looking at the wrong star.
The telescope seems to have quite a lot of dew accumulating on the Red Dot finder scope and also on the OTA towards the end of the night. I had a look down the aperture and the lens seems to be dew free, which was a good sign.
Lets hope that the weather is nice for me this weekend.
Clear Skies!
-23rd September 2004-
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The past few days have been quite clear and on this occasion I managed to get some viewing time in, which ended up to be very worthwhile.
My main reason for sky watching this afternoon was to capture some more images of the Moon. Positioned quite low in the sky it clearly showed the waxing gibbous phase and a very bright yellow hue.
Looking through my telescope on low power with my 25mm eyepiece, a wealth of detail came into view. Even though seeing was terrible (the Moon was shimmering quite a lot), I managed to capture a few images which I shall post on my website after I have processed them. I finally managed to see Plato, but could not make out any small craters inside.
I spent about 1/2 hour viewing the Moon and feel I am getting to grips with the different areas and features. Next purchase shall be a Moon filter.
Moving to my next viewing location under the darkening skies I tried my best to set the scope up accurately to Polaris. Managed this a lot better than any other attempt and worked towards using the setting circles. Set the co-ordinates to Vega and tried to locate Arctutus using the setting circles.
Finally it worked!!!
Tested the setting circles on the deep sky object M81, a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. Found this first time, finally another galaxy other that M31 to view. This was a very faint thin oval smug in the sky, it probably did not help that the Moon was out so when the sky is darker I shall take a closer look.
Next I thought I would give M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) a try. Located this as well, which to my surprise was very large and I could just make out the shape. Unfortunately the clouds started to move in and the view was obscured. I shall definitely be taking another look at this object.
Final object of the night was M92 the smaller version of M31 in Hercules. My second night out I managed to stumble across this object just by chance, but tonight managed to locate it using the setting circles. Had to move about just a little to bring it into the field of view as the settings must have been off just a tad.
Had a last quick look at the Moon, which was just appearing from behind a tree line. The image was still very unstable but should be good when the Moon is higher in the sky.
Still have yet to see Saturn and Jupiter, may be this weekend, if the weather holds up.
Clear Skies!
Thanks