Move mouse over image to see photographic overlay of the NGC 206 vicinity.Overlay photo courtesy of: Bill Schoening, Vanessa Harvey/REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF Observation Notes: This was not a particularly spectacular observation, but it was a nice catch. Fueled by an article in the December 2005 Sky and Telescope magazine by...
October 2005 Archives
What with posting my Mars observations as quickly as possible, I've just gotten around to uploading some Messier observations from last week that are a little out of place due to chronology: M21 M23 M26 M24 M18...
Observation Notes: Wow, this was a great view. The dust storm south of Mare Erythraeum was still there, and not much larger than the previous night. The southern hemisphere features were nicely visible. The North Polar Hood still showed that notch. I gave a lot of scrutiny to the color...
Click image for larger version. The above sketch is an update to the original to clean it up, scale down fainter stars, and update formatting. The original is shown below. Observation Notes: This was a small condensation of stars. In my 32 mm eyepiece, it could fit in the same...
Observation Notes: M24 is a huge fog of stars. I couldn't fit the whole thing in the view. A number of bright stars spattered the field with a mottled cloud of granular stars. Light pollution was too heavy to get very strong structure in the cloud. Open cluster NGC...
Observation Notes: This was a great night to observe Mars. A dust storm has been brewing in Chryse for the past few days, and I wanted to try and catch it in the act. When I made my first observation of the evening at OCT 22, 2005, 05:30 UT, the...
Observation Notes: This cluster didn't jump out at me. It was a hazy smudge at first glance in the 25 mm eyepiece. I took the magnification up to 120X and that helped me to see more stars. Seeing and transparency were very poor, and the rest of the cluster...
Click image for larger version. The above sketch is an update to the original to clean it up, scale down fainter stars, and update formatting. The original is shown below. Observation Notes: This cluster was rich with stars, but not strongly condensed. A box and oval asterism stood out in...
Click image for larger version. The above sketch is an update to the original to clean it up, scale down fainter stars, and update formatting. The original is shown below. Observation Notes: I spotted this open cluster in the 1.4° wide field of my 32 mm eyepiece, where it shared...
Move mouse over image to view labels. East and West noted in the sketch are Martian E/W, not celestial E/W. Observation Notes: During the first half of this observation, the sky was reasonably clear, but the scope was still cooling down. A bit later, when the seeing began to...
I had an enjoyable evening at Lowell Observatory tonight. The Coconino Astronomical Society met there at 6:00 pm, and I was asked to share the Vandenberg launch photos from last month. Brent Archinal shared some very nice shots of the launch he got from Snowbowl Road as well as photos...
Move mouse over sketch to view labels. East and West noted in the sketch are Martian E/W, not celestial E/W. Observation Notes: I wanted to catch Solis Lacus this evening, and it was in a good position. Seeing was pretty shoddy, and I was having some contrast issues with...
Move mouse over image to view labels. Observation Notes: Wind wasn't a problem this evening like it has been recently, but the seeing was still driving me crazy. It just wouldn't settle down for more than flickers of the eye. Hippalus was right on the terminator, and the rising...
Thumbnail images in this post are clickable for larger versions if you want... The evening of September 30, 2005, was incredible. My wife, two kids, and I packed things up for a stargazing field trip to Cinder Hills Overlook at Sunset Crater National Monument. This site is a cul-de-sac at...
Move mouse over image to view labels. East and West noted in the sketch are Martian E/W, not celestial E/W. Observation Notes: I really can't seem to catch a break with the gusting wind during these Mars observations. I have to keep trying to time my sketching with the...
Observation Notes: This globular had a soft profile with a mottled appearance. Granularity was hard to come by, but it was there. It appeared mainly circular and symmetrical with some faint hints of extensions. Factoids: M9 is one of the closest globular clusters to the galactic center at 5500...
Observation Notes: M19 was large and loose. Granularity appeared with averted vision. The core, while soft, hand an irregular shape with an arc running northwest to south, and an extension to the east. Factoids: M19 is the most elliptical globular cluster. This may be due to its proximity to...
Observation Notes: M62 was in horrible light pollution. It showed granularity without too much trouble. The core was strongly condensed and seemed to rest toward the south end of the cluster rather than centered. After a bit of research, it turns out that M62 is noted for an off-center...
Observation Notes: What an unbelievable planetary nebula. It was very bright and detailed. It rested about 2' south-southwest of a bright star. It was circular, and had a brighter circle within. This inner circle hinted at more detail. So I bumped the magnification up from 120X to 240X, and...
Observation Notes: This was a large, planetary nebula with a bright central star. Using the Ultrablock filter helped verify the nebula, and show it off better. The nebula was circular and centered on the main star. It seemed like there was a bright axis running northwest to southeast through...
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