goober
20-11-2007, 11:37 AM
Location: SE Melbourne
Scope: 4" Refractor
Time: 11:30pm - 1:00am
Seeing: 7/10
Transparency: 4/10
An impromptu “grab and go” session, however I’d created a list of targets to hunt down so the session wasn’t entirely without focus. Conditions were cool, not cold. Seeing was steady, but I suspect the transparency wasn’t the greatest. I’d noticed a bit of high, light cirrus floating around just before sunset – I think that affected things. Struggled to get to magnitude 4 naked eye from suburban Melbourne. The eyes weren’t the greatest either – 5 hours sleep on the previous two nights – bit weary.
NGC 247 – seems to be a bit of chat about this lately, so I thought I’d have a crack at this faint galaxy in Cetus. I put the overlap star that the galaxy is transposed on into the field of view and had a good look. The faintest suggested of something there with deep breathing and averted vision. It’s remarkable how breathing helps – invisible stars suddenly pop into view. I’ll mark this as a failure – couldn’t confirm it.
NGC 253 - to evaluate the conditions I flipped over to this favourite galaxy. It was bright, but not as bright as I’ve seen it from Melbourne. I suspect the transparency wasn’t great tonight.
NGC 288 – an easy to locate globular cluster in Sculptor. Hazy, quite bright, no stars resolved. Went up to 108x on it.
NGC 1999 – a nebula near M43 and M43. Quite easy to spot as a rounded, almost oval patch of nebulosity. There is a very faint star stamped right in the centre of it.
Theta Orionis – studied the Trapezium at 108x and resolved five stars easily. The sixth star near the C star was visible at times.
Gamma Caeli – ah, the wonders of the constellation of Caeleum. It blazes like a … not very bright thing between Canopus and Rigel. This is apparently a fairly tight double (mag. 5 and 8, with a 3” separation). I couldn’t split it – and I suspect I may not have had the correct star. The primary I was looking at was a yellow/orange colour around magnitude 4.5, but there was no faint, tight companion. Weird.
NGC 1851 – while I was blundering around Caleum, I had a look at this bright globular in nearby Columbia. Easy to pick out, although not large. Bright core, with just a hint of resolution at 108x. I tried for the galaxy pair NGC 1792 and NGC 1808, no luck, but not surprising as they are magnitude 9-10.
Rigel – love checking it out. Best ever split tonight – very steady, and a very clear separation at 108x.
M1 – checked out the Crab Nebula – very faint, almost invisible about a degree away from Zeta Tauri.
Mars – a couple of degrees above the neighbours house at 1am. I had no right to expect a good view, and I didn’t get one. Large pink/orange disk with a hint of a grey surface marking. Tons of quiver off the neighbours still cooling roof
Scope: 4" Refractor
Time: 11:30pm - 1:00am
Seeing: 7/10
Transparency: 4/10
An impromptu “grab and go” session, however I’d created a list of targets to hunt down so the session wasn’t entirely without focus. Conditions were cool, not cold. Seeing was steady, but I suspect the transparency wasn’t the greatest. I’d noticed a bit of high, light cirrus floating around just before sunset – I think that affected things. Struggled to get to magnitude 4 naked eye from suburban Melbourne. The eyes weren’t the greatest either – 5 hours sleep on the previous two nights – bit weary.
NGC 247 – seems to be a bit of chat about this lately, so I thought I’d have a crack at this faint galaxy in Cetus. I put the overlap star that the galaxy is transposed on into the field of view and had a good look. The faintest suggested of something there with deep breathing and averted vision. It’s remarkable how breathing helps – invisible stars suddenly pop into view. I’ll mark this as a failure – couldn’t confirm it.
NGC 253 - to evaluate the conditions I flipped over to this favourite galaxy. It was bright, but not as bright as I’ve seen it from Melbourne. I suspect the transparency wasn’t great tonight.
NGC 288 – an easy to locate globular cluster in Sculptor. Hazy, quite bright, no stars resolved. Went up to 108x on it.
NGC 1999 – a nebula near M43 and M43. Quite easy to spot as a rounded, almost oval patch of nebulosity. There is a very faint star stamped right in the centre of it.
Theta Orionis – studied the Trapezium at 108x and resolved five stars easily. The sixth star near the C star was visible at times.
Gamma Caeli – ah, the wonders of the constellation of Caeleum. It blazes like a … not very bright thing between Canopus and Rigel. This is apparently a fairly tight double (mag. 5 and 8, with a 3” separation). I couldn’t split it – and I suspect I may not have had the correct star. The primary I was looking at was a yellow/orange colour around magnitude 4.5, but there was no faint, tight companion. Weird.
NGC 1851 – while I was blundering around Caleum, I had a look at this bright globular in nearby Columbia. Easy to pick out, although not large. Bright core, with just a hint of resolution at 108x. I tried for the galaxy pair NGC 1792 and NGC 1808, no luck, but not surprising as they are magnitude 9-10.
Rigel – love checking it out. Best ever split tonight – very steady, and a very clear separation at 108x.
M1 – checked out the Crab Nebula – very faint, almost invisible about a degree away from Zeta Tauri.
Mars – a couple of degrees above the neighbours house at 1am. I had no right to expect a good view, and I didn’t get one. Large pink/orange disk with a hint of a grey surface marking. Tons of quiver off the neighbours still cooling roof