Sunday I noticed that the clouds had cleared off after dark and decided to take a look. I asked my daughters if they wanted to see Jupiter and Saturn through the telescope.
I used the 90mm refractor at 40X, 80X, and 133X. The seeing was very good, and the clarity was excellent. My daughter easily found "the Little Dipper" - the Visual Limiting Magnitude was around 6. The street lights in town weren't lighting up any haze or fog in the sky tonight.
Started out with Jupiter, 133X showed the excellent seeing even though it was only about 20 deg. elevation in the southeast. I could only detect a little waviness in the image. The equatorial bands showed dimension and many narrow bands were easily visible toward the poles. I could probably use higher power this night.
Saturn was very well placed about 10 degrees from the zenith. 40X showed lots of brightish background stars near the planet. At 133X the shadow of the planet on the rings was the best ever (near quadrature). Also For the first time I saw the Cassini division around the rings easily.
I didn't want to bore my daughter. She was generous and said I should look at whatever I had planned. So we identified a few constellations and discussed who originally picked the constellation names and shapes. She named the large triangle of stars at south end of Canis Major and brighter stars curving eastward into Puppis "a broken sword".
CMa: Found M41 at 40X, nice and bright at 80X.
Pup: My daughter saw "millions of stars" in M46 at 80X before I did. She has better vision than I have. M46 was the best I've ever seen. We looked for a long time. I didn't observe the NGC2438 planetary nebula in M46, but I should have paid more attention. I probably would have found it. M47 was much brighter but sparser than M46. The little open cluster NGC2423 just north of M47 was easy.
Gem: M35 was beautiful and bright at 80X, richer than M47. My daughter noted many double stars in the cluster. The nearby open cluster NGC2158 was easy to see at 80X.
I hunted in Leo at 40X and found M65 and M66 for the first time. But I didn't see the third NGC galaxy in the triangle, I was probably looking in the wrong place. The two galaxies seemed fairly dim at first, but it was very easy to keep both in same FOV. Switching to 80X helped a lot, and darkened the background. Both looked like narrowish ellipses and were easy to see.
Hunted in Ursa Major at 40X again and found M81 and M82. M81 was obviously bigger and brighter than M65, M66, and M82. Changing to 80X the darker background helped a lot again. I noted the arrangement of the four stars to the 'left' of M81. Also noted the bright core, but not as much of the elliptical form was visible as in an earlier observation. I would do well to spend a longer time on this. M82 at 80X showed its familiar shape. These two galaxies were crossing the meridian as I observed them.
A great night and I was happy my teenage daughter got to observe with me. Thanks for reading my long-winded report.
Rick W
McCartyville, Ohio
I used the 90mm refractor at 40X, 80X, and 133X. The seeing was very good, and the clarity was excellent. My daughter easily found "the Little Dipper" - the Visual Limiting Magnitude was around 6. The street lights in town weren't lighting up any haze or fog in the sky tonight.
Started out with Jupiter, 133X showed the excellent seeing even though it was only about 20 deg. elevation in the southeast. I could only detect a little waviness in the image. The equatorial bands showed dimension and many narrow bands were easily visible toward the poles. I could probably use higher power this night.
Saturn was very well placed about 10 degrees from the zenith. 40X showed lots of brightish background stars near the planet. At 133X the shadow of the planet on the rings was the best ever (near quadrature). Also For the first time I saw the Cassini division around the rings easily.
I didn't want to bore my daughter. She was generous and said I should look at whatever I had planned. So we identified a few constellations and discussed who originally picked the constellation names and shapes. She named the large triangle of stars at south end of Canis Major and brighter stars curving eastward into Puppis "a broken sword".
CMa: Found M41 at 40X, nice and bright at 80X.
Pup: My daughter saw "millions of stars" in M46 at 80X before I did. She has better vision than I have. M46 was the best I've ever seen. We looked for a long time. I didn't observe the NGC2438 planetary nebula in M46, but I should have paid more attention. I probably would have found it. M47 was much brighter but sparser than M46. The little open cluster NGC2423 just north of M47 was easy.
Gem: M35 was beautiful and bright at 80X, richer than M47. My daughter noted many double stars in the cluster. The nearby open cluster NGC2158 was easy to see at 80X.
I hunted in Leo at 40X and found M65 and M66 for the first time. But I didn't see the third NGC galaxy in the triangle, I was probably looking in the wrong place. The two galaxies seemed fairly dim at first, but it was very easy to keep both in same FOV. Switching to 80X helped a lot, and darkened the background. Both looked like narrowish ellipses and were easy to see.
Hunted in Ursa Major at 40X again and found M81 and M82. M81 was obviously bigger and brighter than M65, M66, and M82. Changing to 80X the darker background helped a lot again. I noted the arrangement of the four stars to the 'left' of M81. Also noted the bright core, but not as much of the elliptical form was visible as in an earlier observation. I would do well to spend a longer time on this. M82 at 80X showed its familiar shape. These two galaxies were crossing the meridian as I observed them.
A great night and I was happy my teenage daughter got to observe with me. Thanks for reading my long-winded report.
Rick W
McCartyville, Ohio
8" Zhumell Dob
90mm f11 achro refractor
4-1/2 f4 rich field newt reflector
