I took my 20x80 binoculars out to the Salt ponds near Stansburry Island and bagged 55 Messier objects before the dewfall became too heavy to cope with. I didn't get all the Virgo and Coma galaxies but I was able to nibble around the edges of them. Next time I'll do better. Here is my report. Time: 2010 March 16 0300-0600 UT (monday night MDT). Location: Stansbury Island. Equiptment: 20x80 binoculars hand held. Pocket Star atlas for confirming locations. Conditions: Clear with a slight wave of haze passing from west to east over the session. Temp 46F falling to 38F. No wind. Humid with a heavy dewfall at end of session. Stadium of haze due to low level humidity half way to the height of Polaris. But Transparency above this was good. All seven stars in UMI visable with direct vision. Venus set just after arrival. Saturn visable in VIR. Zodiacal light stands vertical ending at the Pleides. At 21:10 MDT M79, M41, M46, M47. At 21:15 M103, M52, M31, M32, M110. At 21:17 M33, M34. AT 21:23 M77 (with averted vision), M45. At 21:27 M81, M82, M42, M43, M78. At 21:31 M93, M50. At 21:33 M1, M35, M36, M37, M38. At 21:37 M44, M67, M48. At 21:51 M40, M92, M109. AT 21:53 M101, M51. At 21:59 M63, M106. At 22:09 M108, M97. At 22:18 M65, M66, M95, M96, M105. At 22:34 M3, M49. At 22:55 M104. At 23:09 M53, M64. At 23:28 M61, M68. At 23:49 M58, M59, M60. At 00:02 M98, M99, M100.
Met Jay and Joe at Pit 'N Pole last night. Poor Joe has some serious equipment trouble... Attempted a Messier marathon, but ran out of gas waiting for the last few objects to come up. At 4:00, I had been up for 24 hours, and there was no sign of Sagittarius yet. There was a lot of dirty air, up to about 10 degrees. It was more humid than I expected. Lots of frost on everything. There were a couple of clouds to the west, so I started with what I could see. First batch: M42/43, M41, Cald 64 = Tau Can Maj cluster, M93. These were done in twilight. Then I looked up and saw M45 and C41=Hyades. A few minutes later, M41 was naked eye, too. Then M50. M44, M46, M47 naked eye. Back to Orion for M78. I missed M74 and M77. M74 was low in the dirty air, and M77 was washed out in the zodiacal light. Second batch: M33 was nice and large. So I think I could have done better on M74/77. M31/32/110. Cald 28, M34. M79. M103, Cald 8, Cald 10, other NGC cluster in that area. M52. Cald 13. M76 Third batch: M1, M35, M37, M36, M38, M48, M67 Leo Galaxies: M65, M66, M95, M98, M105 Next group: M53, M3, M64. Ursa Major: M51, M101, M40, M106, M108, M97, M81, M82, M109, Coma/Virgo: M63, M94, M68, M104, M61, M49, M60, M59, M58, M87, M86, M84, M98, M99, M100, M89, M90, M91. After a rest: M13, M92, M83, C60/61 - Antennae, NGC 5866, M85, C21, M78, M5, M107, M10, M12, M14, M4, M9, M19, M62, M80, M27, M71, M29, M39. I forgot to look for M56, and didn't do the stuff that rose after 4:00. So a few more than 80 Messiers, 12 others, and some things that I forgot to write down. Now that I'm home and warm, I wish that I had stayed longer. ---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu
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daniel turner -
Michael Vanopstall