The Monte Cristo star party a couple of weeks ago turned out real nice. The viewing was great. I was out Weds. through Sat. night. The seeing was great Weds., Thurs. and Friday. By Friday night I was done playing with the Messier objects and decided to do some NGCs. I started looking for 3998 in my 10" f/4.5. I saw two fuzzy stars and since my Orion map only showed one of them I decided to go and have Doug point BOB (18.5") at them. In the BOB we saw 3 galaxies. We looked at a more detailed map (Sky Atlas 2000.0) and identified which galaxies were which. We then spent the next several hours touring around and looking at NGC galaxies with BOB. While we were in the area of M101 we took a look at it. I think this was the most impressive thing I saw the whole week. The spiral arms were clear and well defined. There were knots of stars visible in the arms. It was absolutely beautiful. The next night it was a fuzzy blob with the spiral arms barely visible. Friday night taught me a couple of things. One, I need a bigger scope and two, I need a Sky Atlas 2000.0 and maybe even a digital setting circle. I guess I better hurry and put the 16" mirror I finished into a scope. Thanks. David Dunn PS - How was Wolf Creek?
--- David Dunn <david.dunn@albertsons.com> wrote:
I started looking for 3998 in my 10" f/4.5. I saw two fuzzy stars and since my Orion map only showed one of them I decided to go and have Doug point BOB (18.5") at them. In the BOB we saw 3 galaxies. We looked at a more detailed map (Sky Atlas 2000.0) and identified which galaxies were which.
Friday night taught me a couple of things. One, I need a bigger scope
Dave, understand that the seeming disparity between the views in the 10" and the 18.5" is due not just to aperture, but image scale. The 10" has a faily short focal length of around 45", while the larger scope must be about twice that. I'll bet that if you had bumped the magnification up on the 10", you would have noticed more detail, and possibly made a positive ID. Increasing magnification is a way to increase contrast, up to a point -and- seeing conditions permitting. It can make a telescope seem like a much larger instrument when everything clicks. I have used this technique often on galaxies, and not just the small faint ones...sometimes the detail seen in objects like M31, M33, M51, etc., is surprising, at high powers. A 10" scope will support some gawdawful magnification if the seeing will allow; give it a try. Of course, none of this is any excuse to slow-down on the big scope- get busy! ;) Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com
Wolf Creek was very good on Friday night. I took my 10" f10 and looked at several double stars. Perhaps the most memorable was that we split Beta Delphinium. It is a very close double (.5") and mag 4.0 and 4.9. This was a real test, with even the Clark not doing any better than the 10". We also looked with the 18" but not any better split. We looked at many others like Nu Scorpii and Eta Coronae. Had a great time. I left Saturday morning, and I heard that Saturday night was clouded/rained out. Alpha Scorpii (Antares) was split in all scopes at the first of the night. Brent --- David Dunn <david.dunn@albertsons.com> wrote:
The Monte Cristo star party a couple of weeks ago turned out real nice. The viewing was great. I was out Weds. through Sat. night. The seeing was great Weds., Thurs. and Friday. By Friday night I was done playing with the Messier objects and decided to do some NGCs. I started looking for 3998 in my 10" f/4.5. I saw two fuzzy stars and since my Orion map only showed one of them I decided to go and have Doug point BOB (18.5") at them. In the BOB we saw 3 galaxies. We looked at a more detailed map (Sky Atlas 2000.0) and identified which galaxies were which. We then spent the next several hours touring around and looking at NGC galaxies with BOB. While we were in the area of M101 we took a look at it. I think this was the most impressive thing I saw the whole week. The spiral arms were clear and well defined. There were knots of stars visible in the arms. It was absolutely beautiful. The next night it was a fuzzy blob with the spiral arms barely visible.
Friday night taught me a couple of things. One, I need a bigger scope and two, I need a Sky Atlas 2000.0 and maybe even a digital setting circle. I guess I better hurry and put the 16" mirror I finished into a scope.
Thanks. David Dunn
PS - How was Wolf Creek?
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Saturday night at Wolf Creek turned out to pretty amazing after all. (Siegfried, you should have stayed!) We had much better transparency after the late afternoon storm cleared out the air. Kim Hyatt and his brother showed up as well as Rich Tenney and Debbie (?) from Utah Valley. Debbie was finding all sorts of obscure little gems in Rich's 16" dob...she's got quite a memory. We hunted down Neptune, Uranus and Pluto as well. I think we made a few more Wolf Creek converts this new moon. I should have pic's of the weekend up on my site soon...check back in a few days. Dave Bennett P.S. Brent forgot to mention that we were seeing the central star of the Ring in his 10" f/10 with certainty. I couldn't quite hold it like I could in Don Colton's 18" but it was definitely there. Thanks Brent, Siegfried, Don, Rich, and Debbie for the wonderful views. dlb Wednesday, July 24, 2002, at 07:54 PM, Brent Watson wrote:
Wolf Creek was very good on Friday night. I took my 10" f10 and looked at several double stars. Perhaps the most memorable was that we split Beta Delphinium. It is a very close double (.5") and mag 4.0 and 4.9. This was a real test, with even the Clark not doing any better than the 10". We also looked with the 18" but not any better split.
We looked at many others like Nu Scorpii and Eta Coronae. Had a great time. I left Saturday morning, and I heard that Saturday night was clouded/rained out.
Alpha Scorpii (Antares) was split in all scopes at the first of the night.
Brent
David Dunn
PS - How was Wolf Creek?
Dave, Brent, Dave, etc., Debbie Whitaker had her TV-102 up there Saturday, but can't wait to bring along her 15-inch Obsession next time. And yes, she does have an amazing memory when it comes to recalling the obscure. The DSC's were working well on my 16-inch Telekit -- I bagged close to 30 Herschel-400 objects Saturday night, not to mention seeing clearly that nice trio of Galaxies in Draco, one of which was not even listed in Sky Atlas 2000, NGC 5981: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010608.html I am definitely a convert to the Wolf Creek site! Debbie and I didn't get back to Lindon/A.F. until after 6 a.m. Sunday morning -- we literally observed from dusk to dawn. It was wonderful. -Rich --- David L Bennett <dlbennett@mac.com> wrote:
Saturday night at Wolf Creek turned out to pretty amazing after all. (Siegfried, you should have stayed!) We had much better transparency after the late afternoon storm cleared out the air. Kim Hyatt and his brother showed up as well as Rich Tenney and Debbie (?) from Utah Valley. Debbie was finding all sorts of obscure little gems in Rich's 16" dob...she's got quite a memory. We hunted down Neptune, Uranus and Pluto as well. I think we made a few more Wolf Creek converts this new moon. I should have pic's of the weekend up on my site soon...check back in a few days.
Dave Bennett
P.S. Brent forgot to mention that we were seeing the central star of the Ring in his 10" f/10 with certainty. I couldn't quite hold it like I could in Don Colton's 18" but it was definitely there. Thanks Brent, Siegfried, Don, Rich, and Debbie for the wonderful views. dlb
Wednesday, July 24, 2002, at 07:54 PM, Brent Watson wrote:
Wolf Creek was very good on Friday night. I took my 10" f10 and looked at several double stars. Perhaps the most memorable was that we split Beta Delphinium. It is a very close double (.5") and mag 4.0 and 4.9. This was a real test, with even the Clark not doing any better than the 10". We also looked with the 18" but not any better split.
We looked at many others like Nu Scorpii and Eta Coronae. Had a great time. I left Saturday morning, and I heard that Saturday night was clouded/rained out.
Alpha Scorpii (Antares) was split in all scopes at the first of the night.
Brent
David Dunn
PS - How was Wolf Creek?
ATTACHMENT part 2 image/jpeg x-unix-mode=0644; name=Moon and Venus.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/dlbennett/
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Re David's comment, "I need a bigger scope .... " Boy, that's the story of my life! jb
participants (6)
-
Brent Watson -
Chuck Hards -
David Dunn -
David L Bennett -
Joe Bauman -
Richard Tenney