Re: [Utah-astronomy] Observing report
Joe, I love barred spirals. Have you checked out M61 in Virgo? I think my favorite barred spirals are NGC 1097 in Fornax and NGC 1300 in Eridanus. They are often imaged by astrophotographers. I look forward to reading your article. Debbie On Sun Apr 18 22:58 , Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> sent:
Baby (my telescope) and I spent last night at the Wedge, Campground 7 as my favorite site was taken. Actually, I was lucky to find that place, with so many other campers present. The next campground, I think it was called 7A, had a huge house-size camper with sometimes squally kid, a generator and a barking dog -- but I drowned 'em out when I got my generator going. Temps dropped pretty swiftly but I was all right with a heavy jacket, parka and watch cap. The night was supposed to be clear, according to the NWS, but actually there was a dark cloud mass to the east and I suspect thin clouds overhead. It never got really dark, even after moonset. I attribute that to light bouncing off a cloud cover. But mostly the viewing was all right. I enjoyed studying the Ring Nebula (M57), the Dumbell (M27), M51, and a new favorite, M66. I could barely make out M100, a big face-on sprial galaxy in the Virgo Cluster; basically I saw only a vague oval mottling with my least powerful eyepiece. I was taking a couple of preliminary luminance views of M66, a beautiful S of a barred spiral, when a breeze kicked up and bounced my scope around so badly that Igave up on longer exposures. I had trouble with balancing Baby with the guidescope refractor attached, with two CCD cameras and a finder scope. So it didn't track as well as it should have. But thanks to Steve Dodds' fine resurfacing of my secondary, and my cleaning the corrector plate, the telescope is delivering better views than ever. My generator either ran out of gas or gave up because it needed oil, and I turned in to sleep in the Jeep before dawn. I think I'll do a blog about M66 because barred spirals are so interesting. -- Joe
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Thanks AstroDeb! I haven't seen M61 yet, but have NGC1300 an I think 1097. If I can find time I hope to write my blog today. Best wishes, hope to see you on another outing -- Joe ________________________________ From: Debbie <astrodeb@beyondbb.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wed, April 21, 2010 11:15:07 AM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Observing report Joe, I love barred spirals. Have you checked out M61 in Virgo? I think my favorite barred spirals are NGC 1097 in Fornax and NGC 1300 in Eridanus. They are often imaged by astrophotographers. I look forward to reading your article. Debbie On Sun Apr 18 22:58 , Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> sent:
Baby (my telescope) and I spent last night at the Wedge, Campground 7 as my favorite site was taken. Actually, I was lucky to find that place, with so many other campers present. The next campground, I think it was called 7A, had a huge house-size camper with sometimes squally kid, a generator and a barking dog -- but I drowned 'em out when I got my generator going. Temps dropped pretty swiftly but I was all right with a heavy jacket, parka and watch cap. The night was supposed to be clear, according to the NWS, but actually there was a dark cloud mass to the east and I suspect thin clouds overhead. It never got really dark, even after moonset. I attribute that to light bouncing off a cloud cover. But mostly the viewing was all right. I enjoyed studying the Ring Nebula (M57), the Dumbell (M27), M51, and a new favorite, M66. I could barely make out M100, a big face-on sprial galaxy in the Virgo Cluster; basically I saw only a vague oval mottling with my least powerful eyepiece. I was taking a couple of preliminary luminance views of M66, a beautiful S of a barred spiral, when a breeze kicked up and bounced my scope around so badly that Igave up on longer exposures. I had trouble with balancing Baby with the guidescope refractor attached, with two CCD cameras and a finder scope. So it didn't track as well as it should have. But thanks to Steve Dodds' fine resurfacing of my secondary, and my cleaning the corrector plate, the telescope is delivering better views than ever. My generator either ran out of gas or gave up because it needed oil, and I turned in to sleep in the Jeep before dawn. I think I'll do a blog about M66 because barred spirals are so interesting. -- Joe
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_______________________________________________ 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
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Debbie -
Joe Bauman