NGC 869

Posted on September 17th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Observation Report, Open Cluster, NGC.

NGC 869
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.

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M103

Posted on September 14th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Messier, Observation Report, Open Cluster.

M103

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.

2 comments.

M29

Posted on September 11th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Messier, Observation Report, Open Cluster.

M29
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.

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NGC 6910

Posted on September 10th, 2006 by Archon.
Categories: Sketch, Observation Report, Open Cluster, NGC.

NGC 6910
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.

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