Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

Louis,
The book, Vol #2 The Observer's Guide, notes the central star will twinkle in and out of resolution in 8"/10" instruments and is easily resolved in 12/14" instruments. It makes no mention of a foreground star and does not state the magnitude of the central star.

I just noticed the transparency prediction disappeared from the clear sky clock. It had been uniformly white for Mt Pinos eralier in the day. Now, other clocks don't show it either. Is this a temporary glitch or what?

I viewed NGC 6946 in Cepheus Saturday evening from Mt Pinos in my 16" and in another amateur's 25" dob and I was blown away by this object. This galaxy is roughly the same size as the whirpool but it appears more like m33 with distinct arms evident at high power. It nearly filled the field in my 10.5mm pentax xl eyepiece in my 16" f4.5 dob.
The observer's guide provides descriptions of the object at various apertures and, at magnitude 8.8, it can be seen in modest instruments.
For optimum views of this object, scopes of 16" or greater are needed to appreciate the spiral arms at higher powers.
I'd be interested in reading accounts from other amateurs regarding this object.

Well, I had plans to view from Mt Pinos on Friday and/or Saturday night but the current weather forecast is now for windy conditions on both evenings. :C
So, I thought I'd reflect on my most memorable observing experiences (and ask for yours):
1. Viewing the veil through Randy Hopkins 15" scope (Swayze mirror). Even the guy next to him with an 18" scope at the time at Pinos said, "That's a nice view!" Talk about filaments in a nagler!
2. Viewing the planetary nebula/cluster combination in Puppis through Don Pensack's 12.5" discovery with a nagler and paracorr. Definitely worth the price of admission!
3. Showing Borjn up at Pinos the monster galaxy in Sculptor and hearing him exclaim, "WHAT EYEPIECE IS THIS?!"
4. Viewing the Omega globular cluster dipping near the horizon at Lockwood valley.
5. Viewing the eskimo nebula through Oren's super compact 17.5" scope at an insane mega power and seeing the object take it!
6. Showing Floyd Blue the helix in my 16" at Pinos and viewing structure in it... through the clouds.
7. Viewing filaments in the structure of the ring nebula in a 25" scope equipped a collins electro-optical eyepiece.
8. Views of most objects through Kennedy's scopes at Pinos.
9. Digging out the central stars in the ring and viewing the horsehead under favorable viewing conditions.
10. Picking out the faint fuzzies from the observers guide and beyond.
11. Viewing Saturn for the first time.
12. Showing others Saturn for the first time.

Had a great time observing at the LAAS site in Lockwood Valley. Friday had very good seeing with my best sky quality meter reading at 21.56 at 2:00am. Floyd Blue was imaging next to my site and we had some splendid views of Thor's Helmet, Medussa's Head and the Rosette nebula through my 16" dob. Leo and Leo minor were near the zenith with superb views of their galaxies. Ditto for Ursa Major and Virgo. Overall, the filamentous structure in Thor's Helmut and the distinct demarcation between the bright nebulosity and the dark nebulosity in the Rosette nebula stole the show. Floyd Blue also picked out some nearby nebulosity with associated clusters from his starry night pro and we viewed them in close proximity to Thor's Helmut in my scope. The baader O111 filter with a 27 mm wideangle eyepiece really helped bring out the details. It also produced a great view of the Medussa's head and much better than an ultra-contrast filter.
What a great series of views!...

Andreas Saldivar said:

I spent some of this weekend catching up my observation log spreadsheet. I found that on November 7th I observed my 1500th different NGC Object. Number 1500 was NGC 7398. It is a mag. 13.6 galaxy which I described as a: Small faint oval with some core brightening, in the same 255x FOV as 7396.

I added some more to my total last night bringing it to 1546. It breaks down as:
1173 Galaxies
82 Globular clusters.
53 Nebula
162 Open Clusters
76 Planetaries.

If the sky permits I hope to get to 2,000 by some time in 2011. I love this hobby. There are endless things to see.

Andreas

I think that's great and I hope you observe many, many more. I'm curious, how long do you figure it took to observe all of these, what guide or data base did you use, and what scope(s) were utilized. Also, do you feel higher or lower powers worked best on galaxies.

Ala,
Thanks for your interesting report. Perhaps you could also share a bit more about Portal, AZ. I'd also like to know what eyepiece(focal length,power etc) you were using to make your observations.

I just had to comment on what I saw on the evening of Monday February 15th in Castaic. Despite the high light pollution from nearby Santa Clarita and the moderate light pollution of Castaic itself, excellent seeing and transparency combined to astound me with the night time splendor of the winter skies. I didn't have a chance to take the scope as I was busy in the early evening but when I took the dogs out for the last walk of the evening, I marveled on how steady the starlight was and I could see some of the milky way around Orion. There was a slight and gentle breeze, the kind that Steve Kennedy once mentioned up at Mt Pinos that serves to hold the boundary layer at the primary at bay. Mars was virtually at the zenith and rock solid. Capella was visually stunning and full of color. The seven sisters were adorned with their fellow stars and I wished I had the time to pull the scope out and let it cool and go deep sky. I haven't seen a night like this one in Castaic for a long time but I won't forget it, ever...

Depends a bit on what size scope you're looking through and what object you're looking at but here's a good review:
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=2389

Certainly one of the more interesting and peculiar galaxies I've observed in awhile. At magnitude 9.6, it's bright enough to be seen from my home in my 16" dob and it responds fairly well to my broadband filter. It basically reminds me of a smaller version of M76. The Observer's Guide calls it, "an interesting galaxy with a rough rectangular halo showing considerable detail."
I'd call it a "must see"...