[AZ-Observing] Vekol Observing Report
- From: "Chris Adamson" <adamsonfamily@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 23:27:55 -0700
Hello;
Went to Vekol Ranch Saturday night. There was a pretty good showing,
probably 30 people or more during part of the night.
The weather was comfortable, slightly cold. There were a few high clouds
here and there, but in general it was very clear, especially as the night
progressed. Though transparency was a bit below average for this site,
seeing was definitely above average (again, for this site in particular).
It was mainly an open cluster night for me, with a few exceptions. Observed
with a 16" Starmaster and 4" TV NP101.
Object stats from NSOG and/or The Guide.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right as the Sun was setting we all turned to Jupiter. Good thing I had my
scope out since mid afternoon with a fan blowing the mirror, as seeing was
very steady early in the night and my mirror was equilibrated and ready.
Right as we started viewing, with the Binoviewer at 400x+, Io was a few
minutes into a shadow transit, a nice black bead heading straight down the
SEB (with the GRS just a number of minutes from rotating out of view on the
other end of the SEB). Interestingly, there was a dark brown, round, oval
precisely across on the NEB that looked very much like a second transit
(thought the brown obviously gave it away). Good detail. The other moons
showed as nice round disks. Before wrapping up at the end of the night,
Europa began a transit, we watched as the white disk began traversing nearly
the same path as Io earlier (I packed it in just before the shadow joined
it).
Saturn was, as always, the most spectacular in the binoviewer. At around
500x, it was stunning early in the night. Hard to describe really. More
than three dimensional with the disks shadow on the rings, the Crepe's
gradient's of grey, Cassini ink black and wide as a highway, and, on each
corner, Encke holding reasonably steady at times. Best view of Saturn for
me since October 2000.
NGC1545 Open Cluster in Perseus (H85). A triangle asterism is near center,
the brightest stars in the cluster are made up of these. The northern star
is yellow, eastern is orange and west is blue/white. A very nice color
combination. A very nice double (Struve519) is off a bit to the north.
This is another very nice color combination, with the primary looking orange
(actually more so than the eastern triangle star just mentioned). Cluster
is real spread out, not real defined. Mag 6.2v, Brightest star is 7.13v.
18'. 91x.
NGC1647 Open Cluster in Taurus (H8). Very wide, very open. Not any color I
could see. A lot of triangular and square shaped asterisms, including a
bent parallelogram. Stepping down in power, it is easier to see asterisms
of big circles and a long chain that cuts through the middle. 91x. Mag
6.4v, Brightest star is 8.61v. 45'.
NGC1817 (H4) and NGC1807 Open Clusters in Taurus. A double cluster of sorts
in Taurus. 1807 is to the west, with a bright chain of 6 or 7 stars that
runs north/south through the cluster, otherwise unremarkable. A bright
chain, running almost parallel (also north/south) runs through 1817,
anchored on both ends by nice doubles. The chain has a couple stars that
are slightly yellow, and one of the mentioned doubles has an orange star.
1817 is very rich and a fine object to observe, especially with 1807 to
compare in the same field. Particularly rich on the east side. 1817 is
15', Mag 7.7v, Brightest star 11.17v. 1807 is 17', mag 7.0v, Brightest star
8.60v. 66x and 91x.
NGC1857 Open Cluster in Auriga (H33). Nice cluster, reasonably rich,
smaller, with a nice, bright yellow star in the center which is part of a
chain of three stars running north/south making up the center of the
cluster. Other chain eliminate from the center star to WSW. Yet another
from the southern star that winds it way about 3/4 of the way to the
northern star, ending up just to the east. West and South are the richest
concentration of stars looking like a smattering of dust. Mag 7.0v,
Brightest star is 7.38v, 5', 118x.
NGC1964 Galaxy in Lepus (H21). Has a triangular asterism of three stars
point right to it, from the NNW. There are four stars or more you can see in
the halo, sort of in a zig zag pattern. When you look straight on, you
lose some of the halo and see the stars. When you use averted vision, a
nice halo jumps into view. The center of the halo is very bright, hard to
tell if it is a bright star or the core! Mag 10.7v, surface brightness
13.1, 5'. 224x.
NGC1980 Emission Nebula and Open Cluster (H31). This is right to the
south of M42. The cluster is anchored by Iota Orionis, a very nice triple.
Bright white primary, yellow secondary and blue/white tertiary. Also in
the cluster is Struve747, looks like white, nearly equal magnitude stars.
With the Ultrablock, a bit more nebulosity comes out (though does not help
much at all). An interesting patch, almost like a big planetary, is just to
the east of Iota. 14'x14x. 66x and 91x.
NGC1961 Galaxy in Camelopardalis (H747). It sits in a sparse field, but
within a box of stars. Somewhat stellar core, a dim star right off the SE
edge of the halo. Unremarkable. Mag 11.0v, Surface brightness 13.9,
4.3'x3.0'. 224x.
NGC2169 Open Cluster in Orion (H24). This must make it to your "must see"
list! Laying SSW to NNE is an asterism that simply says "37"! Really,
check it out. Or as some I was observing with said, the Greek symbols for
Epsilon and Lambda. To top it off, the stars are much brighter than the
others in the area, so they are nice and really stand out. There are a
couple red/orange stars that stand out in color from the others. Mag 5.9v,
Brightest star is 6.94v, 6', 91x and 118x.
The wide field views of the night (courtesy of the 4.6 degrees in the NP101
and an O-III) was the Rosette Nebula. With such a large frame, it actually
looked small (unlike how huge it looks in the larger scopes)! Also, the
Double Cluster looked very interesting at this scale, as it also included a
third open cluster connected by a chain of reasonably bright stars (I
believe NGC957(?), about a degree and a half east from NGC869). Great view!
Cold and tired, it was time to leave!
Chris
---
This message is from the AZ-Observing mailing list. If you wish to be
removed from this list, send E-mail to: AZ-Observing-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
with the subject: unsubscribe.
The list's archive is at: //www.freelists.org/archives/az-observing
This is a discussion list. Please send personal inquiries directly to
the message author. In other words, do not use "reply" for personal
messages. Thanks.
Other related posts:
