DougAdams
10-10-2007, 11:42 AM
Oakleigh, Melbourne
4" Refractor
11pm - 12:30am.
Seeing: 2 (good)
Transparency: 3.5 (haze, some high cloud)
A cool evening in Melbourne, with high cloud scudding over. It seemed to be moving quickly so after 10 minutes outside with the binoculars, I bit the bullet and set up the scope. I wanted to test out the new 5mm Nagler, and it may be another week before I got the chance.
M31 - low, low down in the north. I found it easily enough, an obvious large, round glow. I couldn't see any sign of definition or elongation, just a large blob. I tried to spy M32, but couldn't see it. The light pollution, low elevation, and possible haze defeated me. Still, the Andromeda galaxy from suburban Melbourne is good enough!
NGC253 - the Silver Coin. I've never viewed this, but star hopped my way from Deneb Kaitos. It's quite easy from there - you immediately come across an asterism of 3 stars in an equilateral triangle, then continue on through a trapezium of equally bright stars (7th Mag.?). Turn to the east from there and you have it. Wow, I wasn't expecting much, but this is a lovely object. A large, long glow slashing its way through an extended isosceles triangle of 8-9 magnitude stars. I estimated the length at about 20'. This object looked great at various magnifications, from 23x to 154x (my maximum). I could resolve three stars on the galaxy itself - I assume these must be field stars. The galaxy seemed to be only slightly brighter in the centre, compared to the rest of the disk. Nice - it must look marvelous from dark skies.
NGC288 - this was in the same field of view as the Silver Coin at 23x, so I centered it and had a long look. Very faint globular cluster, really barely more than a smudge at the eyepiece. I increased the magnification and resolved 3 stars, but that was it. From Melbourne, if I didn't know it was there, I doubt I'd have spotted it.
47 Tuc - this really has to be the king of globulars. Amazingly bright, condensed core, surrounded by hundreds of sparkling stars. I spent 25 minutes gazing at this object, with the best view being at 77x - the cluster was framed nicely against the background sky, with stars resolved everywhere - even across the bright core. This reminded me of my only dark sky telescope view of this object at Heathcoate, years ago.
M45 - Subaru was rising (and I drive a Honda), so I couldn't resist a look. At 23x and nearly 3 degrees field of view, the entire cluster was framed. I couldn't see any nebula, but didn't expect to. Just for fun I began counting stars, but got lost at around 40.
M42 - Orion was half up over my neighbours house. I moved the scope and had a look at the Trapezium. I used to bag six stars all the time with my 8" Starhopper, but could only manage five stars with my 12" GSO (go figure). I wasn't expecting much here, with M42 so low. Five stars, straight away! I could see the E star clearly, which is magnitude 11 from memory. I struggled for the F star, but no luck. Given how easy E was, low down, I'm sure F will be within reach over summer. The other weird thing was seeing a steady Airy disk over the A star at 154x.
The sky and seeing was getting clearer and steadier. I wrestled with inner demons as to wait for Mars or get some sleep and be a zombie in the office tomorrow. I defeated the demons and went to bed.
4" Refractor
11pm - 12:30am.
Seeing: 2 (good)
Transparency: 3.5 (haze, some high cloud)
A cool evening in Melbourne, with high cloud scudding over. It seemed to be moving quickly so after 10 minutes outside with the binoculars, I bit the bullet and set up the scope. I wanted to test out the new 5mm Nagler, and it may be another week before I got the chance.
M31 - low, low down in the north. I found it easily enough, an obvious large, round glow. I couldn't see any sign of definition or elongation, just a large blob. I tried to spy M32, but couldn't see it. The light pollution, low elevation, and possible haze defeated me. Still, the Andromeda galaxy from suburban Melbourne is good enough!
NGC253 - the Silver Coin. I've never viewed this, but star hopped my way from Deneb Kaitos. It's quite easy from there - you immediately come across an asterism of 3 stars in an equilateral triangle, then continue on through a trapezium of equally bright stars (7th Mag.?). Turn to the east from there and you have it. Wow, I wasn't expecting much, but this is a lovely object. A large, long glow slashing its way through an extended isosceles triangle of 8-9 magnitude stars. I estimated the length at about 20'. This object looked great at various magnifications, from 23x to 154x (my maximum). I could resolve three stars on the galaxy itself - I assume these must be field stars. The galaxy seemed to be only slightly brighter in the centre, compared to the rest of the disk. Nice - it must look marvelous from dark skies.
NGC288 - this was in the same field of view as the Silver Coin at 23x, so I centered it and had a long look. Very faint globular cluster, really barely more than a smudge at the eyepiece. I increased the magnification and resolved 3 stars, but that was it. From Melbourne, if I didn't know it was there, I doubt I'd have spotted it.
47 Tuc - this really has to be the king of globulars. Amazingly bright, condensed core, surrounded by hundreds of sparkling stars. I spent 25 minutes gazing at this object, with the best view being at 77x - the cluster was framed nicely against the background sky, with stars resolved everywhere - even across the bright core. This reminded me of my only dark sky telescope view of this object at Heathcoate, years ago.
M45 - Subaru was rising (and I drive a Honda), so I couldn't resist a look. At 23x and nearly 3 degrees field of view, the entire cluster was framed. I couldn't see any nebula, but didn't expect to. Just for fun I began counting stars, but got lost at around 40.
M42 - Orion was half up over my neighbours house. I moved the scope and had a look at the Trapezium. I used to bag six stars all the time with my 8" Starhopper, but could only manage five stars with my 12" GSO (go figure). I wasn't expecting much here, with M42 so low. Five stars, straight away! I could see the E star clearly, which is magnitude 11 from memory. I struggled for the F star, but no luck. Given how easy E was, low down, I'm sure F will be within reach over summer. The other weird thing was seeing a steady Airy disk over the A star at 154x.
The sky and seeing was getting clearer and steadier. I wrestled with inner demons as to wait for Mars or get some sleep and be a zombie in the office tomorrow. I defeated the demons and went to bed.