Observation Report: 6-25-2007
Well, the clear sky alarm clock went off yesterday so I did some hasty preparation (more on that later) and headed out to the parent's house for some observations. I wanted to bag a couple of double stars (and one triple) in the constellation Ophiuchus so I recorded their Hipparcos (HIP) catalog numbers and headed out. The air was humid and their was not a breeze to be bought at any time during the night. That having been said the views were still a little soupy but were better the closer to zenith I got.
Because there was still a lot of ambient light when I set up (21:15 or 21:30) I went to the moon (waxing gibbous) and Venus first off. Venus was showing a nice crescent but was setting and was not as sharp as I would have liked it to be. Jupiter was next on the list and all four of the Galilean moons were visible. It was getting darker and the first star I saw was Vega so I thought I would try and alignment.
Things went well and my second alignment went to Vega and Arcturus (the second star I saw). My goto was just a little low and off center in my 25mm eyepiece, but some of the targets were so spot on I was amazed. This is when I realized that the doubles were going to be out of reach because I did not have the SAO (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) number - only the HIP - and my hand controller only knows SAO input. Rats. Oh well, time to try something else because I was not in the mood to star hop.
I went to all of my summer favorites beneath the great Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb, and Altair): M13, M92, M57 (which was murky and I could not resolve the central star - I can't remember the last time that I did not resolve that), and Albero (did not push the magnification on this too much). Soon the mosquitoes were too vicious to ignore and I packed it in.
All in all a great night. I need to get those HIP and SAO catalog numbers figured out and I will be out again with my light bucket firmly trained on and hunting through the serpent bearer.
Because there was still a lot of ambient light when I set up (21:15 or 21:30) I went to the moon (waxing gibbous) and Venus first off. Venus was showing a nice crescent but was setting and was not as sharp as I would have liked it to be. Jupiter was next on the list and all four of the Galilean moons were visible. It was getting darker and the first star I saw was Vega so I thought I would try and alignment.
Things went well and my second alignment went to Vega and Arcturus (the second star I saw). My goto was just a little low and off center in my 25mm eyepiece, but some of the targets were so spot on I was amazed. This is when I realized that the doubles were going to be out of reach because I did not have the SAO (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) number - only the HIP - and my hand controller only knows SAO input. Rats. Oh well, time to try something else because I was not in the mood to star hop.
I went to all of my summer favorites beneath the great Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb, and Altair): M13, M92, M57 (which was murky and I could not resolve the central star - I can't remember the last time that I did not resolve that), and Albero (did not push the magnification on this too much). Soon the mosquitoes were too vicious to ignore and I packed it in.
All in all a great night. I need to get those HIP and SAO catalog numbers figured out and I will be out again with my light bucket firmly trained on and hunting through the serpent bearer.
Powered by ScribeFire.
Comments
Post a Comment