Chrissyo
05-06-2005, 07:55 PM
Well, I've never made an observation log before, but there’s a first time for everything. I saw a good number of objects (for me, a very beginner) and even managed to find some thing I’ve never seen before. :D
Ok, down to business:
Started Observation at 6.30 pm using my 10” F5 Dobsonian.
Went straight to the object I view every clear night – Jupiter. Three of its moons were nicely clustered on the left hand side which I thought looked pretty cool. I didn’t spend too much time on this object as I’ve been observing it for quite some time now.
Next, I moved onto another regular, Omega Centauri. Looked as beautiful as ever, so I moved down to Eta Carina. When I got bored, I had a quick look for NGC 3918, but didn’t find it (I wasn’t expecting to anyway :P ).
It had been a while since I had searched for M104, so I tried again tonight, and actually managed to find it in record time (under 5 minutes :ashamed: ). Still looks just like stretched smudge. I decided to get familiar with the stars around it so I can easily find it again in the future. It will probably become one of my regular objects to view now.
Next, I decided to have a look for something new. I came back to my computer, opened Tasco Galaxsee (which I got with my 60mm Refractor years ago) and found my next target. I decided on the Ghost of Jupiter (NGC 3242) as it looked like a fair size, and easy enough to find. I decided it was about 1.5 times the distance from Jupiter to Algorab, only obviously in a different direction. Using my finger as a rough guide, I located the general area in the sky and had a quick look around. Using just the 9mm eyepiece, I managed to find what I think is it. It was larger than everything around it, and was in the shape of a round grey blob. Using the 32mm eyepiece, it looked like a tiny blue star. Does this sound right? Or was I way off?
After viewing this, and attempting to take a few pictures with my 35mm camera in long exposure mode through the eyepiece (I am fairly sure it won’t come out :P ) I lifted my head to see a cool large shooting star. It was an interesting one as the tail was short, but sort of wavy. Less than a minute later, I spotted another one which traveled about half the length of the sky.
End time: 7.30pm.
Anyway, that’s it for my first observation log. Perhaps in the future I will take a small table out and write down everything as I do it so I’m not just relying on my memory. Also, I might like to take up sketching some of the things I saw, to make it easier to visualize.
Hope this hasn’t bored you all to death, thanks for reading :D. If you have any ideas on what could make any future observation logs of mine better, please tell me. :D
Ok, down to business:
Started Observation at 6.30 pm using my 10” F5 Dobsonian.
Went straight to the object I view every clear night – Jupiter. Three of its moons were nicely clustered on the left hand side which I thought looked pretty cool. I didn’t spend too much time on this object as I’ve been observing it for quite some time now.
Next, I moved onto another regular, Omega Centauri. Looked as beautiful as ever, so I moved down to Eta Carina. When I got bored, I had a quick look for NGC 3918, but didn’t find it (I wasn’t expecting to anyway :P ).
It had been a while since I had searched for M104, so I tried again tonight, and actually managed to find it in record time (under 5 minutes :ashamed: ). Still looks just like stretched smudge. I decided to get familiar with the stars around it so I can easily find it again in the future. It will probably become one of my regular objects to view now.
Next, I decided to have a look for something new. I came back to my computer, opened Tasco Galaxsee (which I got with my 60mm Refractor years ago) and found my next target. I decided on the Ghost of Jupiter (NGC 3242) as it looked like a fair size, and easy enough to find. I decided it was about 1.5 times the distance from Jupiter to Algorab, only obviously in a different direction. Using my finger as a rough guide, I located the general area in the sky and had a quick look around. Using just the 9mm eyepiece, I managed to find what I think is it. It was larger than everything around it, and was in the shape of a round grey blob. Using the 32mm eyepiece, it looked like a tiny blue star. Does this sound right? Or was I way off?
After viewing this, and attempting to take a few pictures with my 35mm camera in long exposure mode through the eyepiece (I am fairly sure it won’t come out :P ) I lifted my head to see a cool large shooting star. It was an interesting one as the tail was short, but sort of wavy. Less than a minute later, I spotted another one which traveled about half the length of the sky.
End time: 7.30pm.
Anyway, that’s it for my first observation log. Perhaps in the future I will take a small table out and write down everything as I do it so I’m not just relying on my memory. Also, I might like to take up sketching some of the things I saw, to make it easier to visualize.
Hope this hasn’t bored you all to death, thanks for reading :D. If you have any ideas on what could make any future observation logs of mine better, please tell me. :D