You are looking at posts in the category Observation Report.
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Posted on November 23rd, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Messier, Observation Report, Planetary Nebula.
| Subject | M57 The Ring Nebula |
| Classification | Planetary Nebula |
| Date/Time | 11-19-06 - 8:00 P.M. CST |
| Location | 39N 92W (WildHaven Location) |
| Instrument | Orion XT10i - 10″ f/4.7 Dobsonian |
| Eyepice/Mag. | 19mm Televue Panoptic + Televue Powermate 2.5x + Oxygen III Filter - 158x |
| Conditions | Clear |
| Seeing | Average |
| Transparency | Above Average |
| Darkness | 3 |
| Notes | After viewing M57 with two members from my local astronomy club, I decided to sketch M57 before it got any closer to the horizon this year. The Ring Nebula gave off a slight blue/green color with a darker core area. I was not able to see the central star in this planetary nebula but was able to see the faint star to the west of its ring shaped cloud. After my initial observation, I used an Oxygen III filter to see more of the color and cloud formation in M57. When using the OIII filter the central core seemed filled in more and the color had a darker hue, which made it more visible. The cloud itself also seemed fuller when using the OIII filter. However, I felt that the image was sharper without the filter. The sketch was made without the filter in place. |
Posted on October 15th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Galaxy, Messier, Observation Report.
| Subject | M82 |
| Classification | Irregular Galaxy |
| Date/Time | 10/14/06 - 8:30 P.M. CST DS |
| Location | 39N 92W |
| Instrument | Orion X10 - 10″ f/4.7 Dobsonian |
| Eyepice/Mag. | TeleVue 7mm Nagler T6 - 171x |
| Conditions | Partly Cloudy |
| Seeing | Average |
| Transparency | Average |
| Darkness | 4.5 - 5 |
| Notes | M82 looked rather interesting because of its slender shaped disc. The disc was oblong, flat, and seemed to taper at each end. However, the East end of the galaxy displayed this feature more prominently. The nickname “Cigar Galaxy” suits the appearance of M82 well. Due to the darkness of skies, I was not able to observe any internal cloud structures. The edges of M82 created a soft outline that made the overall form of the galaxy recognizable. |
Posted on September 27th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Galaxy, Messier, Observation Report.
| Subject | M31 and M32 |
| Classification | Spiral galaxy and elliptical galaxy |
| Date/Time | 9/26/06 - 9:00 CST |
| Location | 32W 92N |
| Instrument | Orion XT10i - 10″ f/4.7 Dobosonian |
| Eyepice/Mag. | 32mm Orion HL Plossl / 37.5X |
| Conditions | Clear |
| Seeing | Average |
| Transparency | Average |
| Darkness | 6 |
| Notes | The M31 area in Andromeda could be made out with the unaided eye. Initially, my scopes optics were off alignment but a quick adjustment of my primary mirror fixed this. I found it difficult to see the edges of M31 because the object as a whole was faint and blurry. I was also unable to observe any detail or finer structures in M31’s “cloud”. However, the outline of an oval disk could be seen. The core of this disk was brighter then the edges and seemed to make the whole “cloud” a very faint yellowish color. This faint yellowish color faded to grey the further away from the core I observed. M31’s smaller companion M32 was seen as a small roundish haze. M32 diplayed a round shape and cloud like appearance with no other details. |
Posted on September 17th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Observation Report, Open Cluster, NGC.
| Subject | NGC 869 |
| Classification | Open Cluster |
| Date/Time | 9/15/06 - 5:00 UT |
| Location | 39N 92W |
| Instrument | Orion XT10i - 10″ f/4.7 Dobsonian |
| Eyepiece/Mag. | 19 mm TeleVue Panoptic |
| Conditions | Clear and Breezy |
| Seeing | Poor |
| Transparency | Transparent |
| Darkness | 6 |
| Notes | The double cluster in Perseus was visible with the naked eye and was easy to spot in my finder scope. After looking over the double cluster using a 26 mm eyepiece I decided to sketch NGC 869 because of the tighter star formations it displayed. The sky was very transparent making the higher magnitude stars in this cluster show up well while using the 19 mm TeleVue Panoptic eyepiece. The slight breeze that was blowing and low humidity kept dew from forming on any of my equipment and made for a dry and enjoyable observing session. After sketching for around an hour I had only completed the center of NGC 869. The attached sketch has two FOV circles. The outer circle represents the whole FOV I was looking through while the inner circle is the area in the FOV I was able to sketch. |
Posted on September 14th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Messier, Observation Report, Open Cluster.
| Subject | M103 |
| Classification | Open Cluster |
| Date/Time | 9/13/06 4:00 UT |
| Location | 39N 92W |
| Instrument | Orion XT10i - 10″ f/4.7 Dobsonian |
| Eyepiece/Mag. | TeleVue 20 mm Plossl + TeleVue 2.5x Powermate - 150x |
| Conditions | Clear |
| Seeing | Good |
| Transparency | Above Average |
| Darkness | 6 |
| Notes | I did not have any difficulty locating M103. From delta Cass I moved my scope slowly Southwest until I noticed a tight formation of stars that fit the description. Close to the center of the cluster one star displayed the color yellow. Do to time restrictions I was not able to finish sketching all the stars I saw in the in the eyepiece. While looking around the area I found many clusters and had no trouble hopping from object to object. The area between epsilon and delta Cass seems like a great place to view multiple open clusters. |
Posted on September 11th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Messier, Observation Report, Open Cluster.
| Subject | M29 |
| Classification | Open Cluster |
| Date/Time | 9/05/06 5:00 UT |
| Location | Columbia, MO - Downtown |
| Instrument | Orion XT10i - 10″ f/4.7 Dobsonian |
| Eyepice/Mag. | Orion Sirius 10 mm Plossl - 120x |
| Conditions | Clear |
| Seeing | Poor |
| Transparency | Average |
| Darkness | Light and moon polluted skies |
| Notes | At first M29 did not seem that impressive. I was only capable of reaching around 11 magnitude due to light pollution and an almost full moon. After sketching M29 I gained an appreciation for the asterisms the brighter stars create in this open cluster. |
Posted on September 10th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Observation Report, Open Cluster, NGC.
| Subject | NGC 6910 |
| Classification | Open Cluster |
| Date/Time | 9/2/06 6:00 UT |
| Location | Columbia, MO - Downtown |
| Instrument | Orion XT10i - 10″ f/4.7 Dobsonian |
| Eyepice/Mag. | Orion Sirius 10 mm Plossl - 120x |
| Conditions | Mostly Clear |
| Seeing | Average |
| Transparency | Average |
| Darkness | Light pollution from city |
| Notes | I liked the formation of these stars in the cygnus region. For some reason the pattern they create catches my attention when I’m looking around Cygnus with a low power eyepeice. The brightest star in the group is HIP100548 and is a variable supergiant or gaint. HIP100548 gave off a sublte yellow/orange color in the eyepiece. I made the attached sketch not knowing this was a NGC object. After doing some research and having a discussion with other amateur astromers regarding the distance of HIP100548, I found out that it belonged to the NGC 6910 open cluster. |
