13 April 2005

12 April 2004

Observing
Location		TotL
Observational
Period		2030-0100 EDT
Atmospheric
Conditions		Although it appeared to be cloudless there was a haze that sometimes obscured the fainter stars. Seeing was not that good. The air felt raw to me.
Instruments Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie
Teleport 10" Dobsonian Refractor - Peter
Orion SkyView Pro 6LT EQ Reflector - Derick
Observing
Party		 Charlie Ridgway
Peter Tagatac
Derick

TargetMoon
ConstellationTau
CategoryLunar
Time12Apr05; 2100 EDT
Comments The moon was higher up on the ecliptic tonight than last night but was still pretty much laying on its side. Earthshine was visible across the entire hemisphere but it was difficult to discern detail in most of it the only feature easily identified being Mare Imbrium. There appeared to be more gradation in the transition from daylight to darkness than I remember seeing before both in my binoculars and in Peter's Teleport. Using the moon maps in How to Identify Night Sky I was able to identify the following features:
FeatureType
Messalacrater
Cleomedescrater
Macrobiuscrater w/central peak
Mare Crisiummare
Picardcrater
Condorcetcrater
Mare Fecunditatesmare
Langrenuscrater w/central peak
Cocleniuscrater
Colombocrater
Petaviuscrater w/central Peak

TargetM35, NGC2168
ConstellationGem
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time12Apr05; 2126 EDT
CommentsSince I found the wrong object while looking for M35 last night I came back here to fix the hop in my memory. Peter calls it the "teacup." The bottom two stars of Castor's foot and one other star form a right triangle. M35 is just to the tight of the leg of the triangle formed by the last star of the foot and the odd star and is just below that star. Peter counted 10 stars and I counted 6 with dimmer stars sensed.

TargetM36, NGC1960
ConstellationAur
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time12Apr05, 2222 EDT
CommentsAn area of faint nebulosity. Peter resolved one star in it. 9:00 to the right corner of the Cheshire Can's mouth.

TargetM38, NGC1912
ConstellationAur
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time12Apr05; 2223 EDT
CommentsRight above the Leaping Minnows and in the right cheek of the Cheshire Cat. There are supposed to be a lot of stars and a haze or glow there but we can only see two of them in my binoculars. I need to look at this again to make sure I know which two stars to look at. Follow the curve of the mouth of the Cheshire Cat and the two stars will be visible.

TargetM37, NGC2099
ConstellationAur
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time12Apr05; 2147 EDT
CommentsI tried getting to this one from M35 since it is close but didn't find it. Peter says the False Kids point to a T and M37 is right inside it. Place the single False Kid at 2:30 and slew a little left and it comes into the field at around 8:30.

TargetM65 & M66
ConstellationLeo
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time12Apr05; 2250 EDT
CommentsTwo galaxies in Leo, part of the Leo Treo with NGC3628. The three galaxies all fit within a 1º field of view. M66 is an elongated galaxy. M65 was not seen.

TargetM51, Whirlpool Galaxy, & NGC5195
ConstellationCVn
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time12Apr05; 2258 EDT
CommentsM51 is supposed to be easier to see but I picked them up at the same time. I couldn't hear my dictated notes due to ambient noise. Seen in Peter's Scope.15:11 13/04/2005

TargetM13, Hercules Cluster, NGC6205
ConstellationHer
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time12Apr05; 2301 EDT
CommentsA fairly bright snowball more easily seen tonight with averted vision.

TargetM108
ConstellationUMa
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time12Apr05; 2320 EDT
CommentsNot even seen in Peter's Scope.

Target02 Pallas
ConstellationCom
CategoryAsteroid
Time13Apr05; 0011 EDT
CommentsA narrow triangle of brighter stars pointing to 2:00. Pallas is on the right arm of the triangle. Yesterday it was more centered in the triangle.

TargetM85
Constellation
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time13Apr05; 0040 EDT
CommentsIt is so small or dim, or both, that it doesn't show up on my planetarium program until I am zoomed in so far that I can't see any bright landmark stars. Seen in Peter's scope.

TargetSigma Sigma Rho
ConstellationUMa
CategoryStars
Time10Apr05; 0042 EDT
CommentsThese are three faint stars off the ears of the Great Bear.
StarMagnitude
σ1 UMa5.16
σ2 UMa4.82
ρ UMa4.78
I saw two stars and Peter saw two stars but we apparently did not see the same two stars. I saw two stars oriented 11:00 to 5:00 and Peter saw his oriented 7:00 to 1:00.

TargetMeteor
Constellation
CategoryMeteor
Time13Apr05; 0043 EDT
CommentsA fairly bright meteor tracking S to N across the park. Observed by Peter and myself while observing Sigma Sigma Rho. It was coming right out of Virgo.

TargetLittle Dipper
ConstellationUMi
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time13Apr05; 0046 EDT
CommentsWe were able to see both of the dim bowl stars (η UMi, Mag 4.97 and ζ UMi, Mag 4.34) but not Pherkad Minor.

TargetM82, Cigar Galaxy, NGC3034
ConstellationUMa
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time13Apr05; 01 EDT
CommentsElongated in the 1:30 to 6:30 direction. Fainter than M81. Right next to a bright star. Seen in Peter's scope.

These appear to be labeled incorrectly.

TargetM81, Bode's Nebula, NGC3031
ConstellationUMa
CategoryDeep Sky Objects
Time13April05; 01 EDT
CommentsA large and fairly bright central core that fades into space. Seen in Peter's scope.

posted by Charlie at 18:01

Disclaimer
This is my personal record of my astronomical observations. It was written for my personal reference. The only reason it is in a blog is that a blog is a very convenient way to get the records formatted more or less uniformly and they will, hopefully, have greater longevity at Google where the servers are backed up than on my hard drive which never gets backed up. I occasionally include copyrighted material in my posts. I do this to make it convenient for me to access things I think I might want to refer to again. I think of this like making a photocopy of something I read that I put in a file where I can find it when I want it. As I understand copyright law, as explained in the DVD series Copyright Compliance by Chip Taylor Communications, this use is allowed under the Fair Use doctrine since I am not making any money on this blog, I don’t publicize the blog, and only occasionally post small excerpts of copyrighted works.


Disclosure
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog does not accept any form of advertising, sponsorship, or paid insertions. We write for our own purposes. However, we may be influenced by our background, occupation, religion, political affiliation or experience.

The owner(s) of this blog will never receive compensation in any way from this blog.

The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.