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Posts Made By: Rick Wiseman

May 9, 2005 07:21 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

This weekend observations

Posted By Rick Wiseman
Floyd,

Thanks for the observation report. Sorry to hear about the tough weather. As you can find in some of the other forums, about everyone is choosing these same objects at this time of year.

Regards,
Rick

May 11, 2005 12:31 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Old book

Posted By Rick Wiseman
Rick,

I LOVED those "All About" books when I was a kid. The library in town had a whole set. The one I remember most was "All About Dinosaurs". grin

I found a few old astronomy books in used bookstores with a dated 1890-1910. Talk about advances. They were speculating about what the living beings on Mars might look like! The Martian canals were accurately plotted and named. I'll have to dig those out again.

Thanks,
Rick W

May 18, 2005 12:32 PM Forum: After Dark

Tuesday, May 17

Posted By Rick Wiseman
Dave,

Plato was indeed well placed last evening. Beautiful, round, flat bottomed crater. Easy for the kids to pick out. We also had a great look at Eratosthenes and the lines of tiny craterlets to its west. The Sun should be rising on Copernicus tonight.

Jupiter's "fifth moon" is still in the field of view, appearing high above the moons' orbit plane but closer to the planet than Callisto.

Rick W

May 23, 2005 07:06 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

with your significant other

Posted By Rick Wiseman
My wife made her "once a year" peak through my scope last Friday night. She bought my scope as a father's day gift last year, and this was her second look through it. Oh, well.

My daughters held a sleepover Friday night. My wife encouraged me to get the scope out so the ten !!girls could take a look. "You should see the moon!", I said. "Hey, I got it on Jupiter now!", I said. "Does anybody want to see Saturn?", I said. Nah! They were more interested in "The Return of the Jedi", and never did come out. >sad

I got a good long look at Jupiter!

Rick W

May 23, 2005 07:14 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Jupiter last night.

Posted By Rick Wiseman
Floyd,

Happy to hear about the great views of Jupiter you've been getting. Also read in another forum you were having good looks at it.

I have been pounding Jupiter myself every night lately too. Did you get a look at the "fifth moon" last week? Maybe if you are able to see the disks of the moons using your aperture, the extra star in the field didn't fool you.

Until the moon passes full and I can look at some DSO's again.

Rick W

June 6, 2005 07:27 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Last Messiers from Caribbean

Posted By Rick Wiseman
Dmitri,

Congratulations on finishing the hunt for the Messier objects. I still have a long way to go, but have just recently picked up M68 and M104 myself.

M68 is indeed dim. I hunted for a long time for that one. I finally found it just after dusk and it could only be seen with averted vision. As the night darkened, it appeared more globular-like.

I found M104 by finding the tiny "Sagitta" asterism to its west that "aims" at it. With my 90mm refractor and poor viewing, I had about the same view as you did.

I have not yet found M83, but did a little searching for it. My southern skies often have heavy light pollution from the large city of Dayton.

Regards,
Rick Wiseman

July 5, 2005 12:38 PM Forum: After Dark

M51 Supernova

Posted By Rick Wiseman
Is it possible to have seen the supernova on Friday, July 1 using a 90mm refractor?

I could 'fleetingly' see a star near the center of M51A using averted vision. Skies were around 6.0 magnitude. I was resolving stars around globulars M3, M4, M5, etc. all evening using the same setup.

Rick W

July 21, 2005 07:12 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Mars as big as full moon!

Posted By Rick Wiseman
We must be hearing echoes from something in outer space one light year away! wink

August 22, 2005 02:30 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Near Full Moon Nights

Posted By Rick Wiseman
All,

I am back from the weekend. Thanks for all your responses.

Last night I got less than an hour to look at DSO's in Sco and Sag. Then all of the sudden I couldn't see them very well any more. Even M22 became blahhh with very few stars visible in my 90mm. You guessed it, the moon rose in the mean time.

I did get a look at the double Graffias and M6 and M7 looked good. Incidentally, I often view Alberio, and I ran across gamma Delphinus last year. I haven't yet put together a nice collection of doubles to fall back on on bright moonlit nights.

I do follow the lunar 100 articles in S & T, but I haven't made an organized search for them.

Better tonight, and tomorrow night.

August 25, 2005 04:53 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Digital Indexing for Dobson Mounts

Posted By Rick Wiseman
Raleigh,

Since you seem to like the simplicity of the Dobsonian mount, you may not be wanting to get into the digital stuff yet. You might be able to find two larger protactors to mount on your altitude and azimuth axes. Then when the book says the thing you want to see is 2 degrees west and one degree north of Deneb, you can find Deneb, set your protractors to zero and move 2 degrees west and one degree north. There is probably an elegant term for the process I just described.

From a 51 year old fart to a 50 year old fart - regards! smile

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