This is MUCH shorter than the version I have written in my own log - but for anyone interested here goes!
My original aim was to view as many planets as possible between sunset and sunrise (Venus yet to rise as I write this). The plan was to view (in order): Mercury, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Venus. (Pluto would be pushing beyond the absolute limits of my scope I feel even in perfect conditions, which tonight was not!).
Sadly Mercury and Saturn were never seen - obscurred by late afternoon clouds in the west. I'm think I'm going to try an all nighter again tomorrow night and see if I can make it all work out - clouds permitting.
Anyway Mars was an easy target, if not visible for long before hiding behind the clouds, Jupiter was an easy and high target for early evening viewing. I viewed Jupe a number of times during the evening, watching the dancing moons weave around, with a closely positioned star changing the usual view somewhat.
Neptune rose at my location at 19:55 hours, I didn't try to locate it until about 21:30 ... I have only ever seen Neptune through astrorons 16" dob, I didn't know what to expect through my own 10", how bright it would be, how much disk would I be able to resolve, etc. Long story short - found it eventually after much searching - I was in the correct little area of sky straight away but I had enormous trouble conclusively identifying the right object to my own satisfaction. Seeing supported no more than the 80x I was using so I was unable to resolve any disk as such, and virtually no colour. Starry Night informs me that Neptune was displayed at mag 7.85.
Uranus rose at 21:50 so by the time I had found and enjoyed Neptune in both 30mm wide field and 15mm plossl ep's (and checked Jupiter again, plus a quick tour around Crux, etc) Uranus was in a good viewing position, and I located it with much greater ease than I had Neptune, probably due to being visible at mag 5.8 - remember that I am very new to trying to use star charts, I do not have the luxury (yet) of a goto or pushto scope, and I do not even have manual setting circles so I can't translate chart data directly to my dob base to guide me - everything is done by star hopping. Again I enjoyed the view of this planet for several minutes before being ready to move on.
I then grabbed my mag 6.5 charts (courtesy of Toshimi Taki, and the link from IIS) and went looking around Scorpio and the nearby area, a rich part fo the sky indeed for any type of viewing, mostly looking for globular clusters as they are still visible in poor seeing.
Over the next hour or so I located and observed (in rough order) M4 (the nearest of all glob clusters) and the very nearby NGC 6144 which is a surprisingly faint glob (both objects right on Antares doorstep), then I spent some time observing NGC 6397 and NGC 6352 and NGC 6388 (all glob clusters) finally slipping along a little further to find M7 (Ptolomey's Cluster) which is a pleasant open cluster "below" Scorpios tail.
After about 3 hours outside (including some naked eye sky watching) I packed my gear and came inside to research these objects. Almost every object I viewed tonight (barring Mars and Jupiter actually) was a first for me personally ie locating and viewing through my own scope, and to be honest I had a great night!
(Venus due to rise in about 3 minutes .. but I think I'll get some sleep and prepare for a full night tomorrow night instead)
Well done Steve – a great report, you have a talent for this stuff.
This brings back memories of one night a few years ago when I imaged Pluto using my 4" refractor and over a period of 3 or 4 nights. I was able to trace the movement against the background stars. As I am poor at keeping logs, my memory tells me that over those nights, I was able to observe (or image) all the planets – a real thrill.
Cheers
Dennis
PS - I used a GoTo mount for Uranus, Neptune & Pluto
OK, so I'm a sucker - and I'm doing it all again tonight!
Sky is clear to the west at sunset this time - so Mercury, Saturn & Mars were all subjected to a decent but leisurely viewing. Jupiter of course was beaming down from near overhead so I spent 15 mins or so observing it in as much detail as my eye could capture (and the seeing is way better tonight than it was last night I'm pleased to say).
So - 4 planets properly observed, no problems so far, sky cloudless, 3 to go!
I went inside again about 7:30 pm I think to organise something to eat, with the scope outside staying cool and the new Uber-fan mod that I added just today on the rear end running sweet and fast!
(There will be a separate post about this, with pics, sometime very soon. I only hope that when star gazing in the company of others I don't get noise complaints.)
Anyway I eventually went outside again around 9:30 - sky now about 40% covered by patches of clouds: fast moving, big patches, and as I watched it just got more and more cloudy. I uttered several of those special words that are reserved for just such times ("Sentence enhancers" as I once heard them called on a cartoon) so figuring my "7 planet" dream was over I brought the scope inside, packed it all up and thought about an early night.
Stupid me (eternal optemist me?) about midnight looks out the bedroom window (which faces east, though not much sky can be seen). I get a glimpse of one single semi-bright star and I'm suddenly pulling on long pants, shoes, pullover, etc all over again. Grab the dry ep's, shove in pockets, drag the OTA off the base, run outside with the base in hand - to see clouds!
[more sentence enhancers]
I can be a stubborn son of a beach when I want to be, and for the next 90 minutes or so I at on a creaky wooden chair suffering very light on and off rain. I would leap up and drag the scope out from under the BBQ area "tarp" when I saw the very brief sucker holes coming (I was getting 20-30 seconds of view through these, no more).
[LOTS of sentence enhancers, muttering to myself almost constantly]
I managed to get a couple of quick (1-2 minute) cloud breaks eventually occuring in the appropriate parts of the sky, allowing me to eventually locate and view both Neptune and Uranus, even though for very brief periods! So with both of them confirmed and added to my "viewed" list tonight that's 6 down, Pluto still beyond my reach, and only Venus yet to go.
I'm pretty tired - but it's only just over 2 hours til she rises now, I've left the scope out back in the small covered BBQ area, and glory awaits!
Hope I don't fall alseep now or I'll look like a right idiot!
Last edited by Gargoyle_Steve; 05-07-2006 at 03:07 AM.
Thanks for the positive comments folks, and thanks Ving I'm glad you enjoyed reading it, as I always enjoy your posts!
Sadly I have to report that I didn't get to view Venus after all last night (due to the fact that the view was heavily occluded by clouds, and by my eyelids) so it was a 6 planet night after all.
Mind you, if you count the way astroron told me to - including Earth - it was 7 planets after all. If you then take into account (as much as I hate to) the likelihood that after the Planetary committee meeting later this year Pluto will no longer be considered a planet - I really did observe 7 out of 8 planets!! That's actually a higher percentage success rate of possible planets than I had set as my goal!
Ain't numbers wonderful - if you try hard enough you can prove almost anything!
With the Sun setting later each night and Mercury setting earlier, and that damn moon getting fuller and brighter, and closer to Neptune and Uranus, (not to mention my work roster) I may not get another chance for now.
I'll keep you posted!
Good read Steve ,
You'll be able to see Pluto in your 10. I did albeit at Ron's. I looked at a neat asterism shaped like a kite with at extra star in the tail . Also did you use rubber bands to swing the fan off to stop the vibration. It is the only way which I found that works!
Hi Wes - see Pluto in a 10" ....... Well ... I've just got home from work, the skies are clear, and Pluto should be at a convenient 60 deg altitude at present in my WNW sky. Only problem is there's only 40 degree separation between Pluto and that big white shiny 2/3 circular thing, and the local orange haze street lights will not help. Tossing up whether it's worth a shot right now or not ......... I have some doubts about succeeding tonight, but intersting thought! Starry Night shows some easy guide stars very close - but then I've thought that before too! lol
(warming to the idea of looking for Pluto ..and pulling on warm pants as I write this)
As for the new fan ..... presently it's mounted via hot glue to a microwave dish with a matching 120mm cutout in the bottom, which is in turn (for now - needed it in a hurry the for planet hunt 2 nights back) held on the bottom end of the scope with a sponge foam ring between dish and the scopes "edge ring" , and 2 long straps of masking tape.
It WILL look prettier and more professional, I promise! Looks like I'll keep the foam ring, it seems to be working well to supress vibes, but still working on other ideas for how to hold it there. I have a half designed image in mind using some springs but ti may not work yet.
Ok ... I tried, but no banana (or Pluto for that matter either).
I am RIGHT on the nose position wise (and somewhat proud of that) but I've gone as far as I can. I know EXACTLY where Pluto should be, the local stars in ep range ARE very distinctive in pattern, and I have them in sight - most of them anyway, but Pluto and the 2 little stars flanking it closely are invisible to me no matter how long or how averted I look.
Messing around with Starry Night I reckon I'm able to see the stars down to magnitude 12, but with Pluto at mag 13.8 I'm falling short by almost 2 full magnitudes.
[First image is the stars I can see - not exactly same fov as eyepiece, but the stars that are sufficiently bright to be visible. Second image is what I NEED to see, with Pluto indicated]
It has been fun trying though, and I got a heck of a lot closer than I thought I would. I can at least say that if it WAS visible to me tonight I would definitely have seen it!
Hi Steve, I finished at 06:00 this morning, didn't look for Pluto, that could be an object for the icinspace group to look for at Duckadang! saw some of the other planets though, last being Venus. I had a good nights observing, temp down to 2deg and not agreat deal of dew seeing 7-10 trans same again.
Finished with two Irridium satalites just as I was finishing.
That's a cool night Ron to be sure! Very good to hear though that you had little dew, that's got to be a help.
As Mike said up above "that elusive -4 mag Venus" strangely enough is literally the last planet I have been able to observe recently - in fact as a morning star it is so opposite in it's movements to mine that it's just not funny, the sooner it becomes an evening star again he better! In fact since getting my scope near 4 months ago I have seen Venus only 3 times I think.
I have to say I did really enjoy the challenge of trying for Pluto - and I don't hate you at all Wes, truly - it was a great test for me in a way, and though I couldn't see it I am satisfied with my efforts and with knowing that I absolutely had it's position nailed, and that if it had been visible in my faithful dob under those conditions I would have had it! I am looking forward to trying for it again at Duckadang, though if it moves far between now and then (I haven't checked yet) I'll be stuffed, as my PC and Starry Night won't be available to guide me, and the local star patterns locked in my head will not be any help.
In preparation for Duckadang I did today order a telrad, with dew shield+ from Bintel, and a laser collimator (return beam type) from Andrew's. I am also hoping that the ETX-70 I bought off ebay arrives in the next few days too. Sadly the Orion Stratus 8mm eyepiece I ordered a few weeks ago is not going to arrive until after the Astrofest - sad, as I really hoped to give it a good try out there, but it will be a great ep anyway.
Venus is a bit disappointing this year - last year I loved watching its saturn and mercury conjunction, then its jupiter conjunction, then watched it dancing about with mars in the western sky later in the year.... this year I catch the odd glimpse when putting dogs outside for pees at 3 or 4 am! Can't wait until she is an evening star again.....
Good report Steve. I admire your stamina to tackle an all-night session. I turn into a pumpkin around 10:00... 
