Date: 1/28/2000 to 1/29/2000
Location: Southern New Jersey - Greenwood Forest
Skies: Very Clear
Temp: VERY COLD AGAIN!!! (10 to 15 degrees!!!)
About 6" of snow on the ground!!!
Time: 10:30PM Est to 2:00AM Est
My Equipment: 10" f/5.6 1422mm Discovery Telescopes Dob with Pyrex
Mirror
and 2" focuser and a Telrad.
Well, it was another GREAT night!!! I have to say, no wind at all, 10 to 15 degrees, and GREAT seeing! Not a cloud in sight the whole night! Was just Charles and I so we had the whole place to ourselves. :)
There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground and although the main roadway in was somewhat plowed it was extremely icy. Charles brought cardboard for us to stand on to keep our feet off of the snow. Lifesaver!!!
When we arrived at 10:30pm or so Jupiter was already low as was Andromeda. I made it a point to find the Little Dumbell again tonight. We "warmed" up with Jupiter, Saturn, and m42. I took a long gander at the trapezium with my 10mm. 4 stars. Really nice. I used Charles' 32mm Teleview Plossyl most of the night and was treated to some sharp images through it.
Here's the list pretty much in order:
Jupiter, Saturn, m42, m76 (The Little Dumbell - I found it quite easily this time), M1 (The Crab - Looked better than I have ever seen it. Even looked at it through my 17mm and found that it can be more than just a wisp in the sky), m34 (Cluster), m35 (Cluster), NGC2158 Galaxy Cluster (.5 degrees SW from m35 and viewable in the same eyepiece when using the 32mm and my 40mm - Very impressive!), 3 Clusters in Auriga m36,37, and 38, m40 (Double Star off the Big Dipper), m41 (Cluster in Sirius), m44 (The Beehive Cluster), m48, m67 (Cluster in Cancer), m61, m60, m49 (All Galaxies in Virgo), and lastly, m104 (The sombrero galaxy which was breathtaking - looked great and was more distinguishable than m31).
By this time I could not feel my toes and my fingers were so cold that I could barely grab my eyepieces. Time to call it a night. Time check shows 2am with Orion getting ready to set.
Again, a fantastic night even with the cold temps and the snow on the ground. I would do it again anytime.
Date: 1/14/2000 to 1/15/2000
Location: Southern New Jersey - Greenwood Forest
Skies: Clear
Temp: VERY COLD!!! (10 to 15 degrees!!!)
Time: 9:30PM Est to 2:45AM Est
My Equipment: 10" f/5.6 1422mm Discovery Telescopes Dob with Pyrex Mirror
and 2" focuser and a Telrad.
Ok, I must start by saying that last night was amazing. We certainly had our work cutout for us. The sky was extremely clear for most of the night but later on before we packed up it got slightly cloudy with a few blowing
around up there. Most moved fast so it did not hurt. We got down there around 9:30pm and got set up. Chris O was rather impressed with the views from Greenwood as he has never been to a dark site before. I myself was in awe again considering this was only the second time I had been to one also!
We started out slowly, everyone looking at things they wanted to see then compared views by trading scopes as we went along. After getting warmed up (yeah right...cooled down is more like it!) we started getting into a rhythm to find as many objects as we could. Using the messier object books that Don O lent me and the Messier Marathon book that Charles had, we went from one object to the next. Here is what we saw pretty much in order. I seperated the order by object type though to make it easier to explain the different
experiences.
Planets: Saturn and Jupiter (and I think Mars) as well as the Moon. Again, I brought down my NEW Nikon Coolpix 900 and now that I had learned more of its features I tried a bit with over and under exposure to take some shots of the moon, Jupiter, and Saturn( at 83x and 142x). I will post the (good) results (if any) sometime today. I will say that later in the evening before the moon set I got one REALLY nice picture of some sleek clouds covering up half of the moon. Can't wait to see it. The moon set around 12:45am or so and then it got really dark!
Galaxies:M31, M81, M82, M51 (Whirlpool), M101, M106, M63 (Sunflower), M94 Wow. So many galaxies. Some up to 30 Million LYs away. Of all of them, M31 looked better than normal. It actually looked much brighter and larger. For the galaxies I used a 40mm most of the night (35x) and it seemed to have been fine for me. A few times I stepped up to a 25mm or maybe my 17mm but not too often. The 40 makes it much easier to find most of these objects. The Whirlpool was not TOO bad but was kinda like a wisp. This was definately a candidate for averted vision. M81 and 82 were as fantastic as always. Two
in one eyepiece. It will never cease to amaze me.
Nebulas: M42 (Orion), M1 (Crab), and the HIGHLIGHT of the night - M76 (The Little Dumbell) I actually got to toy around with a filter last night. Mike L was kind enough to lend me his LP2 filter and I can honestly say that it DOES show more nebulosity!! M42 filled my entire 40mm EP. Absolutely amazing! M76 was funny. We were all working on clusters when Charles said something about M76. After we found M34 I started to look for the Dumbell. Needless to say it took a LONG time. I spent about 10 minutes looking through a section of
space that I was told to look but was not seeing it. I tried over and over, and then, just like when I found M1 for the first time, there it was. M76. Very easy to overlook even at this dark site! Very small in my 40mm too.
After having Charles and Chris take a look through, we confirmed with our books and my telrad location that this was in fact M76. Then I took my 25mm and my 17mm out. I also used Mike L's LP2 filter to help me. As it got bigger you could see the dumbell clearer and clearer. The 17mm let us see it great with averted vision but I was not done yet! I decided to try my 10mm. Because I had a Dob I asked Chris to keep it in my FOV for I was afraid to lose it. He tracked it with my 17mm while I got the 10mm. Chris got it centered and we swapped place and EPs. There it was. As good as it was going to get without a barlow. (142x) It was really amazing. We were all in awe of the object we were looking at. Boy was it a tough one!
Clusters: M35, M36, M37, M41, M93, M45, M34, M44 (The Beehive), M46, M47,
M67, M50, M48
The beehive was clearly visible to the naked eye. All of these clusters were
stunning. We seemed to have seen so many!
To top it all off, we saw M40, a Double. :)
All in all, we had one of the best observing sessions I have ever had. 25 Total Messier Objects in one night. We all found them on our own and if we didn't each of us helped the other. I hope that many of these objects are on the S*T*A*R 100 list so I can add them. I look forward to doing it again really soon!!!
Date: 1/7/2000
Location:
Southern New Jersey - Greenwood Forest
Skies: Clear
My Equipment: 10" f/5.6 1422mm Discovery
Telescopes Dob with Pyrex Mirror
and 2" focuser and a Telrad.
Well I gotta say that this was clearly (pun intended) the best night I
have had to observe. After HOURS of aggravation trying to find the place
(I passed right by it 4 times!!!) and contemplating turning back I finally
found it. As soon as I got there all I could do was look up at the sky. It
was amazing and completely dark. I saw more stars in the sky that night
than I have probably seen at any time in my life.
I setup right away and was quickly initiated by Dan and Don. (I won't get into too much detail here but most of you know what I am talking about I am sure.)
Heheh...
Charles Kirby was to meet with us as well but ALSO
got lost and forgot to bring my cell phone number with him!!! (Tisk Tisk!)
Had he done so we may have found it together. :) Either way, next time I
lead the way ok Charles? Hehehe!
Don let me borrow his two Messier books with the Telrad sites to make
finding the onjects a little easier. I used my 40mm 1.25 most of the night
but a few times I popped the 17mm 1.25 in for a few closer views. Like Dan
said, I saw quite a bit in the time that I was there. More than I have
seen at all in the total time I have been into Astronomy. It was a serious
rush for me which explains my description of "overly enthused".
:)
Glenn and I stayed around after everyone left and talked about scopes and jobs and hobbies and the like while polishing off our coffee. We heard some kids out in the fields all night long and at one point heard them screaming for help and that the car battery was dead. Over and over. I giggled because they were playing that awfull music at extremely loud volumes the whole night so they got what they deserved. Either way, Glenn and I went over to give them a jump. Ahhh....to be young and reckless.....I remember the days....
I plan on doing it again as soon as I can. I am seriously hooked on Greenwood and it's dark skies. Thanks go out to Dan, Don, and Glenn for making it a fantastic night.
Location: Central New Jersey - A Baseball Field
Date: 12/24/1999
My
Equipment: 10" f/5.6 1422mm Discovery Telescopes Dob with Pyrex
Mirror
and 2" focuser and a Telrad.
Cold night but really clear in Central New Jersey. Had great views of the usuals like Saturn and Jupiter. Even got to play around with my barlow and
got down to 5mm with my 10mm EP. (About 284x) Focusing is really sensitive
at high power and objects seem to move pretty fast. So far I must say that
my favorite EPs are my 40mm and my 17mm.
Best of all, tonight I FINALLY found the Andromeda Galaxy on my own. It
took me a while but the great square was easy and a friend showed me an easy
way to find it from there. Got it once then moved to the Orion Neb then tested
myself and found it again. I tried for a 3rd time but it was too low in
the horizon for me to see.
I also tested high power looking at the moon. Tycho is amazing and tonite the edge of the moon showed the most detail.
I had my mother over for the holidays and told her the things I was
looking at. She did not believe me until I showed her. When she saw the Orion Neb
she said something about the 3 Marias? Anyway....she was amazed and said this was one incredible gift. She froze after a while and went in but I
stayed another hour or so.I tried (in vane) to find the Crab Nebula. Still trying to find an easy
shortcut to get there. I have been playing around with a few Astronomy programs for my PC and found that Skymap Pro is the one that I feel most
comfortable with. I am most certainly going to buy it. Any recomendations before I do? Just want to make sure that I have tried a few before I buy.
One real nice feature of Skymap Pro is the Red View you can switch to when
out observing.
Anyway, that is about it for the night. Looking forward to a little more observing tommorow night but I hear it is supposed to snow.
Date: 12/22/1999
Location: Central New Jersey - Red Bank at Work and later a Baseball Field
Note: Night of the Perigree Moon - REALLY BRIGHT OUT!
My
Equipment: 10" f/5.6 1422mm Discovery Telescopes Dob with Pyrex
Mirror
and 2" focuser and a Telrad.
My First Light was last night as well. I had received my Discovery
10" f/5.6 with Pyrex Mirror, 2" R&P Focuser, Telrad, and 10 and 25mm EPs a
few days ago and was waiting for the first clear night. I also ordered a 17mm, a
40mm Sirius Plossyl and Celestron Ultra Shorty Barlow from Orion. Since the
scope
was being delivered to my place of employment everyone at my office knew
it was coming and were also very excited. When I told them that I was going
out to use it last night they BEGGED me to let them look through it! I was
very pleased.
I decided to take it out of my 1999 Ford Expedition right in the back parking lot to show 4 people from my office around the sky. The Perigree
Full Moon was EXTREMELY bright but I still had some fantastic views of
Saturn, Jupiter, Tycho on the moon (We had spots in our eyes for 10
minutes and had to re-adjust to dark it was so bright!), The Pliedes <sp?>,
and more. The reactions I heard from them were very pleasing. They were so
interested. Many could not believe what they were seeing and said that it looked fake. <G> This went on for about an hour and a half when we
decided to wrap up.
I went home to get some dinner and grab my wife. We proceded to my
"dark site" which was not so dark last night. I could actually read my
starmap without a flashlight! We got a good look at the previous mentioned objects
but I found it rather difficult to spot much of anything because of the
full moon. I did see something that was so amazing I will not forget it. A view
of the Orion Nebula in my 17mm that was incredible! I looked at it for
about 10 minutes. The detail was fantastic.
All in all, Discovery has made me a fine telescope. I am extremely pleased
with the support that Terry and Bill (The owners there) gave me in my time
of purchase. Everyone take a look at thier site for more info:
http://www.discovery-telescopes.com
I look forward to more great sessions in the near future. (Weather
permitting!)