CCD Observing at the Bradstreet Observatory, 2004/8/7 UT

On Friday, August 6, 2004 the monthly meeting of the Delaware Valley
Amateur Astronomers, one of the three astronomy clubs to which I
belong, was held at the campus of Eastern College in St. Davids,
Pennsylvania. Dr. David Bradstreet, who is a very active binary star
researcher, gave an excellent talk on eclipsing binaries. "Binary
Maker", a program that he wrote, produced very vivid visual
representations of various types of eclipsing binary star systems when
light curve and radial velocity measurements were inputted.

When Dr. Bradstreet had completed his lecture we were invited to tour
the Bradstreet Observatory, which features two 16" f/10 Meade
Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes housed in two ASH domes. Using one of
the instruments DVAA members were able to watch as an SBIG CCD camera
imaged a variety of deep-sky objects.

The first was M57, the justly famous Ring Nebula in Lyra . Its central
star was easily visible on the computer monitor, of course. Next came
the eastern segment of the Veil Nebula complex, NGC 6992, which
resides in Cygnus. Without a focal reducer only a portion of this
majestic supernova remnant could be seen. We then traveled to
Vulpecula to view another planetary nebula, M27 (the Dumbbell Nebula).

Someone wanted to see a globular cluster. I suggested M10 in Ophiuchus
since M13 and M5 were not well placed at the time. The imaging system
portrayed the compact stellar city quite well.

I then asked to see NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula, in Cygnus but it
was a bit too large to be imaged in its totality.

NGC 7331 in Pegasus was our next target. A one minute exposure did a
fine job on this fine spiral galaxy.

Before leaving I made another request. NGC 7662, a planetary nebula in
Andromeda with the nickname of the Blue Snowball, was the final DSO I
was to see that night.

For more on the Bradstreet Observatory see
http://beacon.eastern.edu/academic/t...acilities.html

Dave Mitsky