Saturday Night in a Home Dome, 2004/11/14 UT

This report falls into the better late than never category I suppose.

On Saturday, November 13/14, I spent some time observing at the
eyepiece of a 20" f/10 classical Cassegrain located at a friend's
observatory. It was a fairly good night in terms of seeing and
transparency. The first object we viewed was Comet Tucker Q1 . It
appeared as a small, rather unimpressive fuzzball at 203x (25mm
University Optics MK-70).

We then had a look at the fine spiral galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegasus.
Using 203x and 302x (16.8mm Orion MegaVista) we studied the field and
eventually positively identified four of its faint companion galaxies,
namely NGC 7335, NGC 7336, NGC 7337, and NGC 7340.

After slewing the big scope slightly southward, I noticed that NGC
7320, the brightest member of Stephan's Quintet, was fairly easy to
discern. We didn't spend much time on the remaining members.

The next celestial target was another comet, Comet Maccholz Q2, at 127
(40mm Orion UltraScan), 159 (32mm Edmund Scientific Erfle), and 203x.
I noted a wedge-shaped coma and a short tail that pointed to the
northwest.

The planetary nebula NGC 1535 in Eridanus was a fine target using the
25mm with Orion UltraBlock and Lumicon O-III filters. At 127x NGC 1535
displayed a pleasing blue hue and a prominent central star.

The face-on spiral galaxy NGC 1232 (203x), also located in Eridanus,
was very faint.

I showed my friend the fine binary star 32 Eridani, which is somewhat
reminiscent of Albireo (Beta Cygni) as far as the colors of its
components are concerned.

My friend had to get going so after taking a peek at the supernova
remnant M1 we closed the dome.

Dave Mitsky

"Dave Mitsky" wrote in message
om...
This report falls into the better late than never category I suppose.

On Saturday, November 13/14, I spent some time observing at the
eyepiece of a 20" f/10 classical Cassegrain located at a friend's
observatory. It was a fairly good night in terms of seeing and
transparency. The first object we viewed was Comet Tucker Q1 . It
appeared as a small, rather unimpressive fuzzball at 203x (25mm
University Optics MK-70).

We then had a look at the fine spiral galaxy NGC 7331 in Pegasus.
Using 203x and 302x (16.8mm Orion MegaVista) we studied the field and
eventually positively identified four of its faint companion galaxies,
namely NGC 7335, NGC 7336, NGC 7337, and NGC 7340.

After slewing the big scope slightly southward, I noticed that NGC
7320, the brightest member of Stephan's Quintet, was fairly easy to
discern. We didn't spend much time on the remaining members.

The next celestial target was another comet, Comet Maccholz Q2, at 127
(40mm Orion UltraScan), 159 (32mm Edmund Scientific Erfle), and 203x.
I noted a wedge-shaped coma and a short tail that pointed to the
northwest.

The planetary nebula NGC 1535 in Eridanus was a fine target using the
25mm with Orion UltraBlock and Lumicon O-III filters. At 127x NGC 1535
displayed a pleasing blue hue and a prominent central star.

The face-on spiral galaxy NGC 1232 (203x), also located in Eridanus,
was very faint.

I showed my friend the fine binary star 32 Eridani, which is somewhat
reminiscent of Albireo (Beta Cygni) as far as the colors of its
components are concerned.

My friend had to get going so after taking a peek at the supernova
remnant M1 we closed the dome.

a nice read, thanks! makes me long for my own future observatory.

--
md