[sac-forum] Re: Messier Marathon results questions

Tim, there are no other references by Dr. Aguirre or George Robinson on what they did to bag this elusive object. At least nothing more than what I've said earlier. Perhaps they did try tapping the telescope tube, but there isn't any reference on the list nor would I expect this to be mentioned.
To your earlier reference - perhaps you saw the core of M77 and not a star. Quite possible. What I'd suggest is to wait until M77 affords a better view, some months from now, and make an observation and see if it comes close to what you saw. 

AJ Crayon
Phoenix, AZ
----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Harshaw" <rharshaw2@xxxxxxx> 
To: <sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 5:17 PM
Subject: [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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