[AZ-Observing] Re: [amastro] Supernova Hanging In

From: "Wayne (aka Mr. Galaxy)" <mrgalaxy@xxxxxxxx>
To: amastro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2011 22:00:27 GMT
Benson, AZ 85602
hm ph: 520-586-2244 Despite the smell of smoke permeating the area, the skies 
after midnight last night (June 6/7) were quite good here in the Benson area. 
Earlier in the day, especially to my west, the skies were filled with brown 
haze. I thought I was going to have the night off from observing and get some 
rest! We've been having great seeing and transparency for the past couple weeks 
(except for a couple days around the M51 SN explosion...) and I have been 
trying to observe while attempting to settle moving problems for my Mom who is 
suffering from early Alzheimers. I had recently cleaned out her house in 
Florida and moved her and her belongings to be near me. Needless to say, I am 
exhausted and frazzled by all the logistics, but observing is my medicine.  
Anyway, I sat down on the couch at about 8pm and had a couple books on double 
stars to glance at while watching some tennis on the TV. That idea lasted about 
five minutes and next thing I knew I woke up about midnight to see my wife 
writing emails on the computer. I decided to poke my head out the door and 
could smell the overwhelming odor of smoke, but when I went outside I could see 
the Milky Way blazing away and decided I could spend an hour or two scanning 
the skies. I'm always glad when I decide to go out to observe, because whenever 
I don't I regret it. I'm lucky, the trip is not very long, only in my backyard. 
Since I thought it was going to be a short night, I rolled out my trusty 
13-inch Dob (instead of the more difficult to manage 25-in) and started out 
making observations of SN2011dh in M51 at about 1am (the only good thing about 
being unemployed). I thought the SN had brightened again so that now it is 
about as bright as the nearby comparison star just outside the periphery of the 
galaxy, but not as bright as the foreground star superimposed on M51. The three 
of them form a nearly straight line going across the face of the galaxy. I used 
135x and 250x, the higher power giving better contrast. I also observed the 
interesting Nova Scorpii 2011 through the 13-in and noted that despite its 
precipitous plummet detected in the previous night's sighting, it seemed to 
hold steady at about magn 11, no further dimming seen in this observation. I 
spent the rest of the night, until about 4am (so much for a short night), 
scanning around the Milky Way, not looking for anything in particular, but 
enjoying the tranquility of the scenery as I moved around picking up objects 
here and there. M27, M71 and M57 were particularly nice, and the elusive, but 
mesmerizing ancient open cluster, NGC 6791, looked good, too. I ended up the 
night going outside our Galaxy once again to observe M31 and its companions and 
M33.
Clear skies, 
Wayne (aka Mr. Galaxy)
---------- Original Message ----------
From: Chris Beckett <cabeckett@xxxxxxxxx>
To: amastro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [amastro] Supernova Hanging In
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2011 09:03:15 -0600


> 200x, despite the moonlight. I even glimpsed it with my binoviewer in place,
> although that made it quite a bit more difficult.
>
> Joe Bergeron
>
> Fellow, International Association of Astronomical Artists
>
> http://www.joebergeron.com
>
> 
>

-- 
&radic;B

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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[AZ-Observing] Re: [amastro] Supernova Hanging In

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