not really an observing report

But a report that contains some observing, nevertheless.

I've been having trouble finding both the time and the skies to go out
observing lately (mostly the time). Not much time last night, either,
but I managed to get the scope out, and take a quick look at M11. The
kids came out, and while M11 was up, it was still rather low, and not
an awe-inspiring sight for them. So I backed up Opus (the C5+) from the
trees to the southeast, and pointed it at Jupiter. That was a bit more
interesting to them. Seeing was bad at that altitude, but at 50x, not
much of an issue. Fun to see them get a little excited about it.

After the kids went to bed, I took out the binoculars and skimmed the
sky for a bit. These are 10x30 IS's by the way--very nice, I've always
liked them. They allowed me to split Albireo with ease, something that,
while possible, is difficult with my old 10x50 binoculars, when held by
hand. Jupiter's NEB and SEB can also be seen, with some difficulty.
It was even possible to see the hard corner of M11 with them.

My last binocular target was M4. It took me a while, but I finally did
see it, with averted vision. (The sky is too bright to see it with
direct vision.) I tried to detect the north-south bar embedded in M4,
but M4 is small and dim under these skies, and I finally gave up,
figuring that any detection would be suspect, given that I already knew
it was north-south!

--
Brian Tung
NOTE: Below addresses changing soon...
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.html
My posts do not represent the views of either Aerospace of USC/ISI.

"Brian Tung" wrote

But a report that contains some observing, nevertheless.

Nice report, Brian. Observing reports need not be elaborate to be enjoyable
to read.

Howard Lester

Hey, I was out last night too! First time "observing" in a long time.
A quick thunderstorm went through and evidently cleared the sky a bit,
and it was a nice night... After just enjoying the constellations for a
while, I went back in and grabbed the 11x80 binocs and just rattled
around the sky looking at old friends, everything from all the neat
stuff puffing up from Sagittarius in the South on up to Kemble's Cascade
in the North. The only binocs I've been able to split Albireo in
though, are some 50mm zooms that aren't much good for too much else.
Marty

Marty wrote:
Hey, I was out last night too! First time "observing" in a long time.

One would think that when you are out all the stars go away.

:-)

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Observing: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html
Comets: http://comets.skyhound.com

To reply take out your eye

One would think that when you are out
all the stars go away.

Greg Crinklaw

I can't even make the mosquitos go away. Marty

On Jun 30, 9:07*am, (Brian Tung) wrote:
But a report that contains some observing, nevertheless.

I've been having trouble finding both the time and the skies to go out
observing lately (mostly the time).
(snip...)

Good report!

I got out Saturday night, and once it got as dark as it was going
to get (ridiculously late at this latitude at this time of year),
wandered
around the sky. A 12" Dob does nice things to M13, M27 and M57,
and lots of other goodies too. My new binoculars (Zeiss Victory FL
8x42s) have the image quality of an apo refractor. Nice. But for
what those things cost they had better be nice...

M4 was too low and the sky in that direction was too light
polluted to do much with it, but I watched Io transit Jupiter while
I was peering south.

My highlight for the night was M51. At low power I could see two
smudges. At high power I could glimpse spiral structure with
averted vision. Look right at it and see a glowing blob. Look to
one side and see a galaxy. Cool.

Just before I packed up I wandered around M31/M32/M110 and
the Double Cluster. Low enough and enough sky glow that it
didn't really do them justice. They'll keep.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Non sequitur. Your ACKs are
Grid: CN89mg uncoordinated."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Nomad the Network Engineer

I've been having trouble finding both the time and the skies to go out
observing lately (mostly the time). Not much time last night, either,
but I managed to get the scope out, and take a quick look at M11. The
kids came out, and while M11 was up, it was still rather low, and not
an awe-inspiring sight for them. So I backed up Opus (the C5+) from the
trees to the southeast, and pointed it at Jupiter. That was a bit more
interesting to them. Seeing was bad at that altitude, but at 50x, not
much of an issue. Fun to see them get a little excited about it.

When my two sons were younger, I found that a big motivator to joining me
and staying at the scope(s) was asking them to find stuff. A red light, a
chart (e.g. Bright Star Atlas, FireFly Planisphere) and binos kept them busy
for awhile, and finally locating and pointing the scope at the target was
very satisfying for them. Now, we can go to a public event, presentation,
etc. and I can ask them to move the scope(s) to any one of many dozens of
targets without a second thought. I guess that I have created my own goto
add-on. Instead of batteries, I feed them coffee+cocoa. However, the more
expert one of the pair is now in college, so I often find myself having to
rely on my own skills.

Dennis

Dennis was saying
Now, we can go to a public event,
presentation, etc. and I can ask them to
move the scope(s) to any one of many
dozens of targets without a second
thought. I guess that I have created my
own goto add-on. Instead of batteries, I
feed them coffee+cocoa.

Gee, I never thought of that... My kids are pretty much grown up and
gone, but maybe we could adopt...
Marty

"Marty" wrote

Dennis was saying
Now, we can go to a public event,
presentation, etc. and I can ask them to
move the scope(s) to any one of many
dozens of targets without a second
thought. I guess that I have created my
own goto add-on. Instead of batteries, I
feed them coffee+cocoa.

Gee, I never thought of that... My kids are pretty much grown up and
gone, but maybe we could adopt...
Marty

And of course you'd name the child "GoTo." Maybe you could train a chimp to
do it -- it'd be a lot more entertaining.

Howard was saying
And of course you'd name the child
"GoTo."

Yeah, I guess I WOULD have to name the kid...
Maybe you could train a chimp to do it --
it'd be a lot more entertaining.

Naw... Probably too many government regulations on how he'd have to be
kept... shots, clean cages, proper feeding, and all that stuff...
Marty