Observation Notes:
I finally got a confirmed sighting of Neptune. The match to the finder chart I printed, and the blue-green color were the signals I needed. While the color was strongly blueish, I detected green, which doesn't correspond with the deep blue color of the planet, and I attribute this to a poor ability to judge various blueish colors. At 240X, it didn't exhibit any dimension, and simply appeared as a sturdy dot. It was about 2' NE of a star (SAO 164285). That star provided good contrast to show I was looking at a blueish (blue-greenish :) object. There's not much else to say really, other than I have now seen every planet except Pluto!
| Subject | Neptune | |
| Classification | Planet | |
| Position* | Capricornus [RA: 21:18:14 / Dec: -15:50:49] | |
| Size* | 2.29" (Equatorial diameter) | |
| Brightness* | 7.85 | |
| Date/Time | July 5, 2005 - 4:00 AM (July 5, 2005 - 11:00 UT) | |
| Observing Loc. | Anderson Mesa, AZ | |
| Instrument | Orion SVP 6LT Reflector (150 mm dia./1200 mm F/L) | |
| Eyepieces/Mag. | 32 mm Sirius Plössl (38X), 10 mm Sirius Plössl+ 2X Barlow (240X) | |
| Conditions | Clear, calm, 42°F | |
| Seeing | 3/10 | |
| Transparency | Mag 5.8+ NELM | |
| *Sources | Orion's The Sky Astronomy Software |
