Observing Report 04/14/04
Equipment: Heep ('umble 4.5" DS Newtonian on EQ mount, 900mm, f/8)
Eyepieces: 20mm, 10mm, 6.7mm Meade Plossls, Orion 2x barlow
Location: Newmarket, Ont. 44 degrees N, 79 degrees W
============================================================
Wow, what a night. Watched the Leafs get creamed by Ottawa last night. During second intermission, I set up Heep in the back yard whilst I grabbed some groceries. Return from shopping at 9:00 EST (01:00 UT) and point scope at Venus for kicks. Never seen it less than half full, kind of a neat sight. Back inside to put daughter to bed, have beer and watch a bit of Colorado-Dallas overtime (who won, BTW?). Return outside at 03:00 UT.
Spring having arrived and snow melted, I am now able to move Heep from my light-bathed front yard to my back yard, which is significantly better, as there are no street lights and few outside patio lights. I train on Saturn, but it's kind of low in the northwest by now, and seeing wasn't that good. Made a half-hearted attempt at NGC2392 (the Clown-Face Nebula) but couldn't locate it. Perhaps Gemini was too low. I have only seen this planetary once before, and didn't find it easily.
As the skies were fairly dark, I figured I'd try for M81 and M82, just for the hell of it. I had tried to find these two before, but with no luck, especially since they're near the zenith right now, and lining up the scope is a real pain. You've pretty much got to get down on all fours and really crane your neck up to ensure you're in the right neck of the woods. So: Line up scope, slew around for a while, scratch head, re-line up scope, slew around some more. Third pass... wait: there it is. Small but fairly bright oval smudge a wee bit south of an 8th magnitude star. Bright round core, faint glow around it. Well, if that's M81, then ... move scope up (south) just a hare ... yes! long, slim, hotdog-shaped glowing patch - M82. Both fairly bright, as galaxies go, not hard at all. Beautiful sight. No details visible in either 20mm or 10mm EP, but neat to see both objects in the same FOV, framed nicely by a scattering of stars.
(cont'd)
Equipment: Heep ('umble 4.5" DS Newtonian on EQ mount, 900mm, f/8)
Eyepieces: 20mm, 10mm, 6.7mm Meade Plossls, Orion 2x barlow
Location: Newmarket, Ont. 44 degrees N, 79 degrees W
============================================================
Wow, what a night. Watched the Leafs get creamed by Ottawa last night. During second intermission, I set up Heep in the back yard whilst I grabbed some groceries. Return from shopping at 9:00 EST (01:00 UT) and point scope at Venus for kicks. Never seen it less than half full, kind of a neat sight. Back inside to put daughter to bed, have beer and watch a bit of Colorado-Dallas overtime (who won, BTW?). Return outside at 03:00 UT.
Spring having arrived and snow melted, I am now able to move Heep from my light-bathed front yard to my back yard, which is significantly better, as there are no street lights and few outside patio lights. I train on Saturn, but it's kind of low in the northwest by now, and seeing wasn't that good. Made a half-hearted attempt at NGC2392 (the Clown-Face Nebula) but couldn't locate it. Perhaps Gemini was too low. I have only seen this planetary once before, and didn't find it easily.
As the skies were fairly dark, I figured I'd try for M81 and M82, just for the hell of it. I had tried to find these two before, but with no luck, especially since they're near the zenith right now, and lining up the scope is a real pain. You've pretty much got to get down on all fours and really crane your neck up to ensure you're in the right neck of the woods. So: Line up scope, slew around for a while, scratch head, re-line up scope, slew around some more. Third pass... wait: there it is. Small but fairly bright oval smudge a wee bit south of an 8th magnitude star. Bright round core, faint glow around it. Well, if that's M81, then ... move scope up (south) just a hare ... yes! long, slim, hotdog-shaped glowing patch - M82. Both fairly bright, as galaxies go, not hard at all. Beautiful sight. No details visible in either 20mm or 10mm EP, but neat to see both objects in the same FOV, framed nicely by a scattering of stars.
(cont'd)
