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Old 03-10-2008, 10:59 AM
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goober (Doug)
No obs, raising Harrison

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Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Observation Report - October 2nd, 2008

Observation Report: 2008/10/02

Time: 1900 EST
Location: Melbourne
Telescope: 4" F5 refractor on alt-az
Seeing: 6 (Pickering)
Transparency: poor, haze
Conditions: moon=2 days old, thin crescent, dew=none, wind=breezy, east

Raced home and quickly set up before my wife came home demanding dinner. Had a quick peek before domestic duties beckoned!

Moon
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Not often I get to observe a two day old moon. The terminator cut right across the centre of Mare Crisium, as well as highlighting Langrenus and Petavius. The entire lunar disk was framed in the field, with a ton of earthshine. Stunning view.

Venus
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Set up quickly and had an instant look at Venus. The scope hadn't cooled at all, and Venus was rapidly sinking in the west. Obvious gibbous shape, bright hemisphere pointing directly at the sun (obviously!), but tiny disk.

Returned to the scope at 2130EST for another two hours observing. Plugged in the Argo Navis and aligned on Archerner and Altair. It didn't miss a beat for the next couple of hours - everything was inside the 45' field of view.

Jupiter
EP: 3-6mm Zoom, 90x, 41'
Notes: Returned to the eyepiece at 2130 EST. Jupiter was past the zenith and heading west, but I caught some nice detail in the SEB and NEB. Best views was at 108x. Viewed again later in the evening, around 2230, and the seeing had settled. Stunning detail.

Uranus - planet in Aquarius
EP: 3-6mm Zoom, 154x, 25'
Notes: I asked the Argo Navis to take me to Uranus, and it put me right on the spot. Obvious blue/green disk, around 4". Considering the fun-but-tricky star-hopping to find this and Neptune from surburban skies, the Argo makes things a lot easier.

Neptune - planet in Capricorn
EP: 3-6mm Zoom, 154x, 25'
Notes: Again, the Argo Navis put me right on Neptune. Stellar, but obvious from it's blue colour. I could barely make out a disk, but it must have been around 2" across. Mag 8.

M15 - globular cluster in Pegasus
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Easy to pick out near Enif. Couple of stars resolved, good object. Framed by a couple of mag 5-6 stars nearby. Mag. 6.5, 10'.

M28 - globular cluster in Sagittarius
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Interesting globular, appeared featureless with direct vision, but turned almost triangular with averted vision. No resolution. Mag. 7, around 10'.

M69 - globular cluster in Sagittarius
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Interesting! A very misty looking, diffuse globular right up against a magnitude 8 star. Looked almost ghostly compared to the other globulars nearby. Pleasing. No resolution.

M30 - globular cluster in Capricorn
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Easy to spot, albeit dim GC (transparency?) with direct vision. Brightened a lot with averted vision, and several stars resolved themselves. Around mag. 7, 15'.

M2 - globular cluster in Aquarius
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Very good object, large core, bright. Mag. 6, 15'.

M11 - open cluster in Scutum
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: One very bright member, couple of bright stars outside the cluster, rest of the cluster was a pleasing dusting of stars. I think this would be MUCH nicer from a dark sky site, as the sky glow really washed this out. Got even worse when I popped the 11mm in for a wider look. Better with the 5mm - improved contrast. Too low in the west for a good view.

M55 - globular cluster in Sagittarius
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: A large globular with several stars resolved, didn't look condensed. Interesting.

M25 - open cluster in Sagittarius
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Very large cluster with bright members - almost too large for the 5mm. Around 1.5 degrees across.

M22 - globular cluster in Sagittarius
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Big, >20' across, bright. Very good view despite low west location, around 30 stars resolved across the globular.

M54 - globular cluster in Sagittarius
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Small, but bright and condensed globular at 108x. Nothing resolved in it. Mag 7, 10'.

M70 - globular cluster in Sagittarius
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: A rather uninteresting globular, but a nice alignment of four mag. 8 stars nearby - almost perfectly spaced straight line. Around 10', mag. 8.

NGC253 - galaxy in Sculptor
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Had some terrific views of this last year. First view this year was not good - a very dim slash through the triangle of maag. 9-10 stars. Highlighted the poor transparency.

h1992 - double star in Sculptor
EP: 3-6mm Zoom, 90x, 41'
Notes: Easy split, around 50", magnitudes 8/9.

h3377 - double star in Sculptor
EP: 3-6mm Zoom, 90x, 41'
Notes: Nice split, around 20", magnitudes 6/8, both yellow stars.

h1957 - double star in Cetus
EP: 3-6mm Zoom, 90x, 41'
Notes: Tight, around 10" sep., blue mag. 7.5 star, mag. 9 companion.

Struve 2799 - double star in Pegasus
EP: 5mm, 108x, 45'
Notes: Pair of identical mag. 8 stars, around 3" separation, very tight, but cleanly split when I put the zoom back in at 180x.
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  #2  
Old 03-10-2008, 01:01 PM
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NQLD_Newby
Clear Skys and Open Road

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Nice Report Doug. Sounds like you had a great night viewing.
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  #3  
Old 04-10-2008, 08:14 AM
Rob_K
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Location: Bright, Vic, Australia
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Great report Doug - nice that you got the thin crescent as well!

I had a look at Venus & Mercury a week or so back, and both were boiling, dancing shapeless blobs, not even the slightest hint of the relatively thin crescent that Mercury was at the time.

Cheers -
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Old 05-10-2008, 11:27 AM
§AB
Its only a column of dust

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Good stuff Doug. A lot of fun to be had in Sagittarius for globular enthusiasts!
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  #5  
Old 07-10-2008, 03:48 PM
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ngcles
The Observologist

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Location: Billimari, NSW Central West
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Top report!

Hi Doug & All,

Good report mate -- seems like a busy night.

Interesting notes on the colour of Uranus and Neptune -- we all see colour very differently plus we all have different telescopes and EPs with different characteristics and coatings etc ...

In my 10, 12 and 18, Uranus to my eyes looks greenish/yellow while Neptune looks bluish/green ... but I think nearly everyone sees it differently.

Yep, M11 is be a teriffic object in a 4" refractor under a dark sky. I remember how it looks in a friends Tak FSQ 106 at x70 -- stunning!

Best,

Les D
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