Observation Log for April 2nd, 2008

Finally! After a month of cloudy nights, I was able to take my telescope outside and view some celestial objects. The temperature was near 40F, there was no wind and seeing conditions were fair. The night was also moonless. My only problem was light pollution. Four of my neighbors decided to turn on their proch lights, and one in particular chimed in by running two ground-level flood lamps. Gee! Thanks Mike!

Because of the light pollution, I was unable to take any pictures due to light glare glossing over everything in my camera's viewfinder.

I am not allowed to use a shroud (a mini-tent that covers my head) to block ambient light, because I do my viewing in the front yard and my 'young bride of 31 years' said NO! Something about being viewed by the neighbors as being wierd. :(

In Lieu of pictures, I have added links to Wikipedia articles for each celestial object I viewed. Please bear in mind that the Wiki pictures are from Hubble and other multi-million dollar telescopes. My view of each object was much less detailed.

• - M36, M37, and M38 (Star Clusters) in the constellation Auriga
• Observation: M36 & M38 appeared as richly dense star fields with thousands of visible points of light. M37 was an impressive open cluster. This is my first sighting of these Messier objects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_36

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_37

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_38

• - M42 (Orion Nebula) in the constallation Orion
• Observation: The view of M42 was great through my 5mm, 13mm and 24mm eyepieces. The stars in the 'Trapezium' were razor sharp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_42

• - M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper)
• Observation: The galaxy was faint and I did not see the cloud aligned near the tail due to light pollution and some haze near the horizon, where this object sits. This is my first sighting of M51.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_51

• - M66, M67 and NGC3628 (Galaxies) in the constellation Leo (called the Leo Triplet)
• Observation: I was able to see all three galaxies, though NGC3628 was more like a smudge because of local light pollution. This is my first sighting of these Messier objects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_65
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_66
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_3628

• - M81 and M82 (Galaxies) in the constellation Ursa Major
• Observation: I was able to make both these Messier objects out in descent detail using an 8mm eyepiece, and better detail using 13mm and 24mm eyepieces. Very impressive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M81
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_82

• - Saturn near the star "Regulus" in the constellation Leo
• Observation: Using the Baader 5mm eyepiece I was able to make out faint hints of the Cassini divide in the rings and some surface details. This has been my best view of Saturn to date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn


I was offered to take my telescope to a co-workers home in a more rural area. I think I may take him up on that offer when the weather warms a little more.

Clear Skies!

StarPilot

Out With The Old, and In With ...

Hi All!

Here are a few photos to round out the year. I've been busy the entire month and haven’t been able to write any BLOG entries.

My star gazing opportunities have been few and far between because of cloudy nights.

Photo 1 is Comet Holmes taken December 14th with a jet flying through my field of view while I was taking the shot.

Photo 2 is the Constellation Perseus portion of the Milky Way Galaxy. The star field is very dense in this portion of the sky. You can see Comet Holmes in the upper-right portion of the picture.

Photo 3 is M42 "The Great Orion Nebula". The Pinkish-Purple colors are the actual colors of the nebula. Some photographers doctor the colors, but you'll not see that with my pictures. I believe in showing what can be seen with the naked eye through a telescope or binoculars.

Photo 4 is M31 "The Andromeda Galaxy. It's our closest neighboring galaxy. The fuzzy spot just below Andromeda is M32, and just above Andromeda is M110, two dwarf galaxies.

Photo 5 is uhmmm ... Mars. It's the best I could do with a shaky camera tripod. I got a new camera tripod for Christmas, but haven't had a chance to use it yet.

That's it for this entry. I've been studying visible constellations for this time of year and am planning some star gazing sessions to locate new (to me) galaxies and other deep space objects.

See you in 2008!

Star Pilot

P.S. – Comments are always appreciated.