This report is a bit dated by now but I decided to post it anyway.
On Tuesday, August the 6th, an alteration in the jet stream brought a very welcome change in the weather, a brief respite from the onerous heat that has been so much a part of the summer of 2002. The evening sky was cerulean and beautifully transparent when I arrived at a friend's observatory.
When I entered the dome housing a 20" classical Cassegrain I found M80 already in view at 159x (32mm Edmund Scientific Erfle). I decided to peruse a few more summer globular clusters so I logged M10, M12, M14, M107, M19, and NGC 6712, all at 159x.
I moved the shutter to the east in order to observe Comet Hoenig but before locating that shallow-sky object I looked at the fine galaxy NGC 7331 and the open cluster M52 at 159x.
C/2002 O4 (Hoenig) was rather dim and very diffuse with a slight central condensation as I had mentioned in a previous posting. I used magnifications of 127 (40mm Orion UltraScan), 159, 203 (25mm University Optics MK-70), and 302x (16.8mm Orion MegaVista).
I informed the guys that I had tracked down the comet and after everyone had a look I moved on to M31 (127x). As I was looking at it a satellite emerged directly from the core and bisected M31 at 3:33 UT. Afterwards I hopped to the star cloud NGC 206, M32, and M110. We also spent some time on the Veil Nebula complex (NGC 6960 and NGC 6992) using the 40mm and a Lumicon O-III filter. The tendrils and eddies of the Waterfall region of NGC 6992 were displayed very well indeed.
The time for me to depart was drawing close. My final object for the all too short observing session was NGC 6822, Barnard's Galaxy. Several of the brighter HII regions were visible without filtration at 127x. We also used a handheld Orion UltraBlock filter at 127 and 159x while observing NGC 6822.
Dave Mitsky
On Tuesday, August the 6th, an alteration in the jet stream brought a very welcome change in the weather, a brief respite from the onerous heat that has been so much a part of the summer of 2002. The evening sky was cerulean and beautifully transparent when I arrived at a friend's observatory.
When I entered the dome housing a 20" classical Cassegrain I found M80 already in view at 159x (32mm Edmund Scientific Erfle). I decided to peruse a few more summer globular clusters so I logged M10, M12, M14, M107, M19, and NGC 6712, all at 159x.
I moved the shutter to the east in order to observe Comet Hoenig but before locating that shallow-sky object I looked at the fine galaxy NGC 7331 and the open cluster M52 at 159x.
C/2002 O4 (Hoenig) was rather dim and very diffuse with a slight central condensation as I had mentioned in a previous posting. I used magnifications of 127 (40mm Orion UltraScan), 159, 203 (25mm University Optics MK-70), and 302x (16.8mm Orion MegaVista).
I informed the guys that I had tracked down the comet and after everyone had a look I moved on to M31 (127x). As I was looking at it a satellite emerged directly from the core and bisected M31 at 3:33 UT. Afterwards I hopped to the star cloud NGC 206, M32, and M110. We also spent some time on the Veil Nebula complex (NGC 6960 and NGC 6992) using the 40mm and a Lumicon O-III filter. The tendrils and eddies of the Waterfall region of NGC 6992 were displayed very well indeed.
The time for me to depart was drawing close. My final object for the all too short observing session was NGC 6822, Barnard's Galaxy. Several of the brighter HII regions were visible without filtration at 127x. We also used a handheld Orion UltraBlock filter at 127 and 159x while observing NGC 6822.
Dave Mitsky
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
