my CHANGE log

Began: 2/10/13 3:25 AM
Finished: 2/10/13 3:44 AM
Seeing: II. Mostly stable
Transparency: Clear
Site: Norton, Johnson Rd Farm

Once back home, I wanted to attempt to spot M13 in the binouclars to see if it could be done. While touring the night sky with my eyes, I saw Saturn and gave it a whirl as well.

Began: 2/9/13 7:41 PM
Finished: 2/10/13 1:10 AM
Seeing: II. Mostly stable
Transparency: Clear
Site: Leeville

Today/tonight was forecast (correctly) to be a good night for astronomy so I decided to pack up and head for green sky conditions leaving my orange sky behind. An hour and twenty minutes later I was in green sky teritory.

What fun! Constellations jumped out and grabed you, I could see all sorts of faint fuzzies that have been elluding me for a while now. Well worth the time and effort. I’ll be making this trip several more times. Next time, however, I think I will make it around 2am or so to observe during the morning hours instead of the evening hours, as I have already observed quite a bit of the early-mid evening Messier objects visible this time of the year.

I didn’t expect the trip to be this successful and was able to observe all but one of the objects on my list, so I started observing things I could find on my star charts. That morning was church and then a birthday party for one of my daughters, so when I exhausted my list, I decided to head home.

With this session complete, this places me at 50 of 110 Messier objects observed!

What’s up with all the recent Astronomy Observation Reports? Recently I began using AstroPlanner to plan my observing sessions and record data about them. AstroPlanner is a great product and one of its many features is the ability to script it. Today I wrote a simple script that exports my observing sessions, notes and observations made during that session as Markdown files, which is then processed by the static file generation tool I use for this website, PieCrust. Once I get the script fine tuned, I’ll be happy to share it with others.

Thus, you will now see my latest astronomy observations here. Hope it doesn’t cause too much traffic but be prepared to see these posts as well as more astronomy based posts in the future!

Began: 2/6/13 8:14 PM
Finished: 2/7/13 12:35 AM
Seeing: III. Somewhat stable
Transparency: Clear
Site: Norton, Johnson Rd Farm

Learning my new Celestron AVX mount. Bryan was also over and was showing some things off to him.

This session was interupted for an hour or so by clouds moving through. I took that opportunity to drive a bit SW to a yellow sky zone that didn’t have clouds at the time to do a quick compare of the sky there vs. my house. A change, but not as much as I would have thought. I took my UltraView 10x50’s and observed Jupiter, Pleiades, Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy.

My mount worked great. I did learn very quickly, though, that I need something more than a planisphere to identify the stars that the AVX wants to align with. For my first alignment, pointed the best I could to Polaris, then just centered Polaris through the bore of the mount. I then did a 2-star align plus an additional 2 stars. Some of my GOTO objects were in the center, others were not exactly there but all were within the FOV of my 18mm Gary Russel 2” EP. I have on order an illuminated reticle EP by Celestron that I am sure will help out, in addition to doing a full 2+4. I was just too anxious to give GOTO a try, being my first GOTO mount/scope.

Being new, I know people are looking for photographs of the Celestron Advanced VX Mount and Tripod. This post is nothing but pictures. I’m still a beginner astronomer, so I will not attempt to offer any real views on it, but I will post some photographs. If anyone wants detailed photos of the mount that I have not taken, please let me know what you want to see and I’ll do my best to take a picture that will show the detail you wish.

Began: 1/30/13 9:22 PM
Finished: 1/30/13 9:53 PM
Seeing: IV. Unstable
Transparency: Poor
Site: Doylestown, Cowgars

My dad recently purchased the Orion BigView 20x80 binoculars. We played with them looking at ground based objects, but not until tonight did we see any stars. The observing was terrible conditions, just spot holes through the clouds here and there but we couldn’t resist looking up.

1. M42 a Open+D Neb in the Orion constellation (also named Great Orion Nebula, Orion A, NGC1976,Trapezium) observed at 9:22 PM - with my BigView 20x80, UltraView 10x50
2. M31 a Galaxy in the Andromeda constellation (also named Andromeda Galaxy, NGC224, UGC454,Andromeda A,Andromeda Galaxy) observed at 9:38 PM - BigView 20x80’s did a better job with more light gathering power and a bit more magnification. The visible part of Andromeda easily fit in the 20x80’s. - with my UltraView 10x50, BigView 20x80
3. M45 a Open in the Taurus constellation (also named Pleiades, Seven Sisters, Subaru,Pleiades,Seven Sisters,Subaru) observed at 9:31 PM - The BigView 20x80 binoculars provided the better view of Pleiades. It was just the right FOV while the 10x50’s was a bit wide. - with my BigView 20x80, UltraView 10x50

Began: 1/19/13 5:15 AM
Finished: 1/19/13 7:04 AM
Seeing: III. Somewhat stable
Transparency: Mostly clear
Site: Norton, Johnson Rd Farm

1. Saturn a Planet in the Libra constellation observed at 5:15 AM - Never get tired of looking at the planets. I couldn’t get a crisp view w/the 12mm 2x barlow combo, but still easily see the separation of the rings from the planet. Could not detect separation of the rings from the rings. - with my Z10 (GR 12mm and a 2X Barlow)
2. M63 a Galaxy in the Canes Venatici constellation (also named Sunflower Galaxy, NGC5055, UGC8334) observed at 5:20 AM - Found easily with Az/Alt. Initial wasn’t spot on but just a tiny bit of browsing I could see the galaxy easily as well as easily identify it by its two brighter, wider spaced stars below and two dimmer, closer stars above. Spoted it with the 18mm then moved to the 12mm. There is a little breeze out here yet this morning, a far cry from the 20mph forcast, but enough to have it jiggle the scope now and then making anything more than 12mm impracticable. - with my Z10 (GR 18mm), Z10 (GR 12mm)
3. M51 a Galaxy in the Canes Venatici constellation (also named Whirlpool Galaxy, Question Mark Galaxy, NGC5194, UGC8493,Lord Rosse’s Nebula,Question Mark,Rosse’s Galaxy,Whirlpool Galaxy) observed at 5:36 AM - Initially found with the 18mm then moved to the 12mm for what was a better view. Easily found and identified for its two distinct fuzz patches. - with my Z10 (GR 18mm), Z10 (GR 12mm)
4. M64 a Galaxy in the Coma Berenices constellation (also named Black Eye Galaxy, Sleeping Beauty Galaxy, NGC4826, UGC8062,Black Eye Galaxy,Sleeping Beauty Galaxy) observed at 6:17 AM - This was a fun one as it was nearly centered from the start w/my Az/Alt setting and using the 18mm EP. I then switched to the 12mm EP and did a sketch as it was something a bit simpler to sketch, but complicated enough to give me some practice. Not sure about sketching in 24 degree weather though, but this was my second sketch of the night! - with my Z10 (GR 18mm), Z10 (GR 12mm)
5. M97 a P Neb in the Ursa Major constellation (also named Owl Nebula, NGC3587) observed at 6:25 AM - I found it with little difficulty! I thought it was M108 to begin with (close by and much brighter) but I easily identified it by the 6 stars below it that make a vertical rectangle (with the left side dipping in a bit). I enjoyed this one because things just worked and I didn’t have to double, tripple check to make sure I was observing the right one. It’s fun when things just work! I was really thinking of sketching this one also but my fingers are hurting still from the cold of the last sketch. - with my Z10 (GR 18mm), Z10 (GR 12mm)
6. M108 a Galaxy in the Ursa Major constellation (also named NGC3556, UGC6225) observed at 6:31 AM - A short jump from M97 and what fun! This is one of the first galaxies I’ve observed where I could see a distinct shape to it. WOW! I jumped to this one with the 12mm EP already in the scope and that helped with this one. Going out for a wider view with the 12mm, I could still see it but not as clearly. In the past when going to more magnification on galaxies it seems to have just made the gray ball larger, in this case I got more definition. - with my Z10 (GR 12mm)
7. M13 a Globular in the Hercules constellation (also named Hercules Globular Cluster, Great Hercules Cluster, NGC6205) observed at 6:49 AM - Beautiful! This is going to be one of my favorites! At 30mm, it looked just like a fuzzy patch of gray. I didn’t recognize it as a Globular Cluster but I didn’t see any Nebula or Galaxies at this point from my charts, so I began zooming in. At 12mm I was able to see distinct stars and realized it was the cluster I was looking for. Putting on the 2x barlow allowed me to see more distinct stars but they were very tightly packed. - with my Z10 (Z 30mm), Z10 (GR 18mm), Z10 (GR 12mm), Z10 (GR 12mm and a 2X Barlow)

Began: 1/18/13 6:56 PM
Finished: 1/18/13 7:34 PM
Seeing: III. Somewhat stable
Transparency: Mostly clear
Site: Norton, Johnson Rd Farm

Wind is picking up, was forecast to be 18-25mph but was much less at the start of the evening. Viewing will allow more but the wind will not.

1. M31 a Galaxy in the Andromeda constellation (also named Andromeda Galaxy, NGC224, UGC454,Andromeda A,Andromeda Galaxy) observed at 6:56 PM - Found first so I could easily branch off to M32. - with my Z10 (GR 18mm), Z10 (GR 12mm)
2. M52 a Open in the Cassiopeia constellation (also named The Scorpion, NGC7654,Cassiopeia Salt-and-Pepper,October Salt-and-Pepper) observed at 7:10 PM - Pretty small cluster, but easy to identify as there are many faint stars grouped together. - with my Z10 (GR 18mm)
3. M77 a Galaxy in the Cetus constellation (also named Cetus A, NGC1068, UGC2188) observed at 7:19 PM - Easily detectable, once you put your Az pointer back on! I knocked it off with my foot, realigned and there it was. I love galaxy hunting! Once found with the 18mm, the 12mm provided a better view. - with my Z10 (GR 18mm), Z10 (GR 12mm)

Began: 1/15/13 1:59 AM
Finished: 1/15/13 2:53 AM
Seeing: III. Somewhat stable
Transparency: Clear
Site: Norton, Johnson Rd Farm

I had taken a screw out of my secondary mirror looking for a hand screw at the local hardware store (didn’t find any). After a quick collimation, I took my scope out to adjust to the WX. An hour later, I started viewing. Everything was dim and off color. I couldn’t quite figure it out. Bringing it back in I realized my quick collimation was pretty far out. Not sure how I did such a poor job. I also noticed moisture on the secondary and primary mirrors. I am not sure if that happened because of the warming when bringing it in the house or not. Anyway, collimating the scope, taking it outside and running the fan on it this time made everything work like a charm.

Began: 1/11/13 9:35 PM
Finished: 1/11/13 9:50 PM
Seeing: III. Somewhat stable
Transparency: Somewhat clear
Site: Norton, Johnson Rd Farm

Clear Sky Chart said it was suppose to be clear with good seeing, civilian reports said cloudy. Turned out to be a mixture of the two. I got my new EPs from Garry Russell in that afternoon and spent time looking around at objects I knew where they were comparing things before starting to search for something new.