Black River Astronomy Society 2005 Ohio Turnpike Astronomy Association Convention Observing Report

Part One:

September 10, 2005 Observing Report



Black River Astronomy Society 2005 Ohio Turnpike Astronomy Association
Convention, Birmingham Methodist Church, Birmingham, Ohio.



I arrived about 4:00, signed in, and bought door prize tickets. There were
two categories, general door prizes, and a 80mm refractor on an EQ mount
that had been donated by Hardin. I bought tickets for each group, put the
food I brought for the potluck dinner on the general food table and then
went back to my car to unload and set up.



I have a Meade 90mm multi-coated refractor on a Celestron CG-4 mount with a
R.A. motor drive that I bought at this convention in 2004. I set the scope
up with a Telrad finder and a 25mm Celestron Ex-Cel eyepiece. Auxiliary
equipment consisted of a folding table for my charts and books, Night Watch,
Night Sky magazine’s September sky chart, Sky and Telescopes September sky
chart, and charts for the local sky at 9:00 P.M. and 1:00 A.M. that I
printed out from StarryNight before driving out. (I had ambitions of
observing Mars once it was high enough.) I also brought my 9mm ortho, a
40mm e.p. and a 15mm e.p. I also brought C.J. Cherrington’s book on
observing the Moon.



Nice potluck dinner at 5:30. After eating and talking, I went back to my
scope and sighted on the Moon, which was about half full and clearly visible
in the clear blue sky. The door prize drawing was held at 6:30, so I went
in for that, and found a good aisle seat, and important consideration for my
severely arthritic right knee. I had six tickets for the general drawing,
which considering the turnout, I thought were decent odds. Quite a few
people had winning tickets, and most of what I would have chosen was
selected. I did get lucky, however, and had two of my ticket numbers
called. I won two $25.00 gift certificates from Scope City. To use them, I
have to spend a hundred buck each, but this way better than last year when I
won a pair of blinking red lights.



The drawing was over, and I went back out at 7:22 to observe the Moon. I
had my copy of Night Watch open to its moon map on page 143, and identified
the seas of Crisis, Serenity, Tranquility, and Nectar. I could see several
craters, especially along the terminator line. Usually, with the help of a
may I can usually identify a few. For whatever the reason, this wasn’t the
case last night. I think this is partly because so few are named in Night
Watch, and Cherrington’s map labeling can get rather busy, which for me,
makes it difficult to tell one crater from another.



I did pick crater in the upper northwest quadrant of Tranquility. I _think_
this was Ross, but I am not sure. Just after 8 I inserted my Orion Moon
filter, which tremendously improved the contrast. At 8:08 I was able to
make a naked eye observation of Venus in the WSW. This is only the second
time this year I’ve been able to sight Venus. My usual viewing location at
home makes observing anything in WSW direction virtually impossible.

Hi John,

Thanks for your report, sorry to hear about your
drive giving up at a bad time.

I managed to get out observing the night before and
had some decent seeing, but was busy the following
night.

Regards
Esmail

Hi Esmail,

I got it fixed on Sunday. I'm hoping this time the repair holds, else I may
just replace the unit just to get better wires. I'm keeping my fingers
crossed for Hidden Hollow at the end of the month.

John