Michael: Very good observing report, I wouldn't consider you a beginner with this level of skill. We have all done the "left it home" dance. Consider it a rite of passage. What I do is have a box that contains all the small items necessary for observing and these objects live in that box. I may take them out to work on them but when done with them I put them away in the box. Then when it's time to go observing, I only have to remember the box. DT --- On Fri, 11/27/09, Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> wrote:
From: Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Black Friday galaxy hunt results To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Friday, November 27, 2009, 11:09 AM On Fri, 27 Nov 2009, Joe Bauman wrote:
Nice observing report! What time did you set up? And how long did you stay at it to accomplish so much? Thanks, Joe
Thanks. Mostly I wanted to share with anyone who hasn't gone there that Rockport isn't so bad a place.
I set up at about 3:30, maybe a little earlier. I started observing right away, without letting the mirror cool. The first objects were a little fuzzy because of that, and maybe that's why I couldn't find M98 on my first try (also, I hadn't looked to see that it was edge-on, so I think I was looking for a different shape). I was out about 2 hours. The session was sort of smash-and-grab. Sometime when it's a little warmer I'd like to spend more time examining the galaxies. I spent a little time trying to see the lane in M104, but I can't say for sure that I did.
If I had had the finder with me, I would have stayed a little longer. The double cluster and the beehive were naked eye, so I would have liked to look, but pointing was tedious. Anyway, for such a short drive, I'll just go back sometime. For being on the shore of a lake, with moderate humidity and low temperature, dew and frost were not a problem.
---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com