[sac-forum] Re: Messier Marathon results questions

Tim, the only really bright star in that area IS Delta Ceti, so either your
alignment was not as tight as you thought (although your grabbing what-- 108
-- M's shows it was on target), or your FOV is bigger than you thought it
was?  There is a 9.02 mag star about 15 min NE of M77, but that was not
bright enough to be the one Bob saw, is it??  But then you did say you were
able to "SEE" Delta-- did you mean through the EP or just with the naked
eye, binos or a spotter?  

Have you ever measured your FOV diameter using the timing of a transit of a
star?  


Richard Harshaw
Cave Creek, AZ

-----Original Message-----
From: sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Tim Jones
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 5:04 PM
To: sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [sac-forum] Re: Messier Marathon results questions

Bob has updated me - it apparently wasn't Delta Ceti as Delta Ceti  
would have been out of the FOV with both eyepieces, so now I'm lost  
as to what the star was that we saw, but it was bright enough to see  
even before astronomical twilight.  Is it possible that we were  
seeing the core of M77 and not a star?  I'm now totally confused :-O.

Tim


On Apr 11, 2008, at 3:46 PM, Tim Jones wrote:
> As an added note to our tracking, we were able to see Delta Ceti  
> for almost 10 minutes before we lost it behind the mountain.
>
> On Apr 11, 2008, at 3:39 PM, Tim Jones wrote:
>
>> I have to add my voice to the questions that have come up  
>> concerning the viewing of M77.  With two observers reporting that  
>> they visually saw M77, I am curious as to the method used and  
>> what, if any, filters were employed.  Bob and I tracked M77 with a  
>> Celestron 9.25" SCT with 36MM and 25MM Plossel eyepieces until M77  
>> was physically below the mountain and the background light  
>> continually obscured any chance of our seeing this Mag 8.9  
>> object.  Of course, our attempt at sighting M77 cost us M33... :-(
>>
>> I'm not trying to cast doubt on the two reported sightings, just  
>> trying to understand what we could have done differently from what  
>> we did.
>>
>> Tim
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>

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