Backyard observing, TV76, 7/19/2004

Date: Night of Monday, 19-July-2004
Location: Palm Springs, California
Equipment: Tele Vue 76 (3" f/6.3) refractor

Went out again late tonight with the TV76 after working night shift.
Similar conditions to last night with brighter patches of the Milky Way
visible overhead.

Open cluster M52 in Cassiopeia at first just a soft glow but with more
study many faint stars start to resolve. Another Cass open is NGC 7789.
Quite large but very faint. Almost not visible above the background
skyglow. Hard to tell it's actually made of stars and not a nebula.

Revisiting the NGC 281 nebula tonight with the UHC filter. This is the
Pacman nebula. Surprisingly easy to see with the 16mm Nagler. However
not quite enough contrast to see the "bite" that gives the nebula its
name. Definitely needs a visit from a darksky site.

An interesting pair from darksky sites are open cluster NGC 6939 in
Cepheus and galaxy NGC 6946 just over the border in Cygnus. From dark
sites the two are actually easy to see in 16x70mm binoculars. But
tonight through city skies it's a different story. The cluster 6939 is
just barely detectable and the galaxy 6946 is invisible.

Over in Andromeda M31 is of course bright and easy to spot. But to me
it's always oddly uninteresting with no real details seen for all its
brightness. Companion M32 easy to spot. However the other companion M110
took a bit of searching as it was farther from the main galaxy than i
remembered and dimmer than i was expecting. Before going in i tried for
the Pinwheel galaxy M33 but it was too low in skyglow to the east to
bother with.


-Florian
Stargazing.com

Florian wrote:

Went out again late tonight with the TV76 after working night shift.


Hi Florian,

It seems to me that the TV76 is getting quite a bit of use as evidenced by
the many observation reports you are posting. . .each of which I enjoy
reading. I am curious though as to whether you have ever matched this level
of intense and frequent observing with your larger scope(s) and enjoyed them
as much.

It is nice to see you apparently having so much fun.


Regards,


Martin

I am curious though as to whether you have ever matched this level
of intense and frequent observing with your larger scope(s) and enjoyed
them
as much?


Probably not. I just love using the little TV76 and bring it outside or on
trips frequently. Of course my 10" dob will show fainter objects, and will
show more detail in brighter objects, but the ease of use and quality of
image the TV provides is wonderful. I've been quite impressed with what i
can
see with the little 3" both from my mediocer backyard skies and what it can
do from darksky sites.

-Florian