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Posts Made By: Antonino Carnevali

September 22, 2012 04:18 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Moon eclipses bright star tonight

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

Around 9:25 EST tonight, the Moon should be seen eclipsing the star Polis, of magnitude brighter than 4. It will be on the unlit side of the Moon and it should be fun to watch at low powers from around 8:45 EST as the Moon approaches it and finally eclipses it.

September 25, 2012 07:24 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

Polaris B (double star)

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

Polaris B is always a target every night I'm out there observing. I was disappointed that I could rarely see it with my Vixen 80ED. In the past few nights I have been able to see it with the WO66 and AT66 even with a bit of Moon out. I think that the difference is in the magnification ..... I was trying "too hard" before. It actually seems to be easiest around 40x - 50x. If you haven't tried it yet, take a look, it's a pretty pair with the companion being so dim.

November 11, 2012 10:46 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

ngc 206: star cloud in M31

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

Experience looking for these dim objects really seems to help! I always had to struggle to detect this slightly brighter spot in the Andromeda galaxy in a 10" reflector. Now instead I can pretty much immediately see it (my site is reasonably dark, about 5.3 or so limiting magnitude). And last night I even saw it - with averted vision - in my 4" Traveler!
What's your experience sighting this stellar cloud?
By the way, the emission nebula NGC 604 in M33 is smaller but much easier to see.

November 18, 2012 02:44 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Visible emission nebulae in M33

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

Notwithstanding a crescent moon out, last night seemed perfect to take the 18" truss Dob out, clear, dry and not too cold. I hadn't collimated it in months and .... I forgot how to do it! So the focus wasn't quite sharp and decided to just look at nebulae and galaxies. The giant HII cloud NGC 604 in the Pinwheel galaxy really stood out. In the past I had seen it in 6" aperture and even caught a glimpse of it in a 4" refractor. But this time I looked for the second brightest emission nebula and for the first time I found it .... and caught a third one as well! Thanks to this labeled photo http://www.astropix.com/HTML/A_FALL/M33_O.HTM I was able to identify them: NGC 592 and NGC 595. I suspect that they should be visible in a 10" aperture from a dark site. I'll try again in two weeks when the Moon will be gone.
P.S. I could also clearly see the "Y" shape of stars just to the right of the galaxy nucleus in the photo. In fact I used them to locate the two dimmer emission nebulae.

November 24, 2012 05:00 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

GRS: what a disappointment!

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

I thought I had seen Jupiter's GRS a number of times ..... but now I realize I didn't.
What I saw was the larger cream-colored oval within which lies the great red spot.
I'll have to try again now that I know.
What's your experience sighting the GRS: any tip as needed magnifications or anything else?

December 25, 2012 01:55 PM Forum: Beginning Astronomy?

What you need to get started

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

I am building up a set of economical equipment for the astronomy class I'll be teaching in the Spring, where I want to emphasize the observational part. And this is what I'm finding out: very satisfying views can be had in cheap telescopes and eyepieces! My expensive top-of-the-line telescopes provide better views but not by that much. I've now purchased four $ 100 telescopes (used) - Celestron and Meade from 80 to 102 mm refractors - and a bunch of $ 12-40 eyepieces and the views are WAY better than expected, they're pretty good in fact. The biggest expense ends up being the tripod and mount, and it's also difficult to figure out which one will work for your needs, that's the hardest part of the whole process. I have previously used a Vixen L70 refractor and R130sf reflector on Porta mounts (complete systems for $ 350-400 new from the stores) and they gave excellent performance. Now I'm trying even lighter mounts and tripods, but it gets tricky selecting one and they're still in the $ 200-400 range. Anyway, what I'm finding out is that it's just fun to be out there observing and there are many targets and good views even in used, small, and inexpensive telescopes, just figure out which mount will do the job for you.

January 5, 2013 02:07 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Saw all five of Jupiter's moons last night

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

That's what it looked like, exactly, it was eerie: five Galilean moons closely around Jupiter. One of course was a star, but they all lookd so similar that I couldn't easily tell the difference. I had to check on software to determine which one was the star. Anyone observing Jupiter last night? And how frequent is this kind of line-up with a star of the proper magnitude and position to be taken for a moon? And what do you look for visually to figure out which one is the star?

December 18, 2013 06:06 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

GRS visible under full Moon?

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

The GRS should be on the meridian at 10 p.m. EST tonight, with Jupiter sufficiently high above the horizon, but the full Moon is going to be nearby, 5-6 degrees away. Will it make it more difficult to see the GRS?

September 8, 2014 04:14 PM Forum: Ask rating questions here

I have lost two ratings (92 to 90): what happened?

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

I've had 92 ratings received for a while but this morning it reads 90. Anyone know how that would happen? I noticed that I still have my very first and very last rating listed.

Oh, I see, this could be related to the "Blue Dealers" announcement then .... that wouldn't seem fair though if ratings that they gave were also dropped as well as those that they received.

December 27, 2012 02:59 PM Forum: Refractors

4 inch scopes

Posted By Antonino Carnevali

I have not looked through a 4" SV, but I can say that the Tak TSA 102 and AP 105 Traveler are both wonderful telescopes, optically and mechanically, but I guess I'm stating the obvious .....