A Brief Spring Session at Lewisberry, 2003/4/25 UT

Started by Dave Mitsky, 04/25/2003 03:01PM
Posted 04/25/2003 03:01PM Opening Post
I spent about two hours at the ASH Naylor Observatory (http://www.astrohbg.org) last night (Thursday, 4/24). The transparency was poor, with high clouds covering a good portion of the sky periodically, but the seeing was very good indeed. Using the 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain I had a fine view of the Great Red Spot transit of the central meridian. The atmosphere was steady enough that I was able to use magnifications as high as 404x (16mm Brandon). Other magnifications employed were 162 (40mm University Optics MK-70), 202 (32mm U.O. Koenig-II), 216 (28mm Edmund Scientific RKE), 259 (25mm U.O. MK-70), and 381x (17mm Pro-Optic Ploessl). The GRS crossed the CM at 9:47 p.m. EDT (1:47 4/25 UT). A dark barge in the North Equatorial Belt followed about half an hour later.

Since the early night had not lived up to the forecasts, I didn't look at very much else but I did spend some time viewing Saturn (162 and 216x), Jupiter and M44 through the 5" f/5 finder scope, a few binary and multiple stars, and M67 (162x). I also witnessed a fairly bright flare low in the northeast at 10:48 p.m. (2:28 UT) from Iridium 80.

Dave Mitsky

Chance favors the prepared mind.

De gustibus non est disputandum.