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 |