Location: home,
Equipment:
EPs:
Baader Aspheric 36mm, 72 deg (75x, 2.4mm exit pupil, 0.96 deg TFV)
Baader Aspheric 31mm, 72 deg (87x, 2.1mm exit pupil, 0.83 deg TFV)
TV Plossl 32mm, 50 deg (84x, 2.2mm exit pupil, 0.59 deg TFV)
TV Delite 18.2mm. 60 deg (148x, 1.2mm exit pupil, 0.42 deg TFV)
TV Delite 15mm, 60 deg (180x, 1.0mm exit pupil, 0.34 deg TFV)
TV Delite 13mm, 60 deg (208x, 0.9mm exit pupil, 0.30 deg TFV)
TV Delite 9mm, 60 deg (300x, 0.6 exit pupil, 0.21 deg TFV)
TV Delite 5mm, 60 deg (540x, 0.3 exit pupil, 0.11 deg TFV)
For the last month we had mostly sunny days, but clouds would arrive every night, even though I did not buy anything astro-related for a few months.
Finally, last Friday I got a break. PLANETS
Started around 17:30, gotta love the PST time! My wife came out and we spent about half an hour observing planets. The seeing was not good. Still, 7” Mak has delivered fairly sharp albeit smallish view of Jupiter at 84x. There was a dark oval storm transiting in the North Equatorial Belt, which was a nice surprise.
My wife has asked to see Mars, but it is out of view for the next few months, so she left, and I proceeded with my observing.
Astronomical darkness was around 18:00 this evening but even after that the sky still had the dusk feel with grayish-blue color and only brightest stars visible. I was puzzled but then realized that it is the light pollution. Since we moved to our house three years ago the sky went from
18:10. CEPHEUS DOUBLES
STTA 253 (7.6, 8.0, 8.9, ab101.2”, ac187.8”) – wide but attractive triple with golden main and white companions (84x).
STF 3051 (7.7, 9.5, 16.8”) – yellow, dark orange, nice colors! (84x).
STF 3052 (8.6, 9.3, 34.6”) – orange, yellow (84x).
STF 3059 (10.6, 11.2, 2”) – poor seeing made splitting this double difficult. I have spent a few minutes switching powers to gain confidence in what I saw. Snowman split, grayish color (208x, 300x, 540x).
STF 2 (6.7, 6.9, 0.9”) – FAIL. It should be within resolving power of 7” Mak, but the seeing did not cooperate this evening.
STTA 1 (7.4, 7.8, 73.4”) – golden, yellow (84x).
STF 11 (8.5, 10.1, 8.2”) – golden, blue, nice colors! (148x).
STF 13 (7.0, 7.1, 0.9”) – white pair, split by hair at 300x.
HJ 1018 (8.6, 8.9, 1.8”) – yellow pair, clean tight split at 300x.
STF 26 AB,C (7.5, 9.9, 13.8”) – beautiful pair of pure white main and bright blue secondary (84x).
STF 34 (9.6, 9.7, 5.8”) – yellowish pair, clean tight split at 84x.
HJ 1986 (8.0, 8.5, 11.2, ab40.6”, ac55.7”) – yellow, white, silver (84x).
STF 69 (9.5, 10.6, 28.8”) – white pair (84x).
KNT 1 (6.9, 11.8, 12.2, ab13.9”, ac24.3”) – bright white main with two fain grayish companions resolved with AV at 208x.
STF 89 (9.7, 10, 16.9”) – pale orange, pale yellow (84x).
STF 127 (8.8, 10.0, 23.4”) – white, silver (84x).
STF 118 (9.2, 10.2, 15.5”) – pale yellow, white (84x).
19:50. JUPITER (second look)
Since the beginning of the session Jupiter climbed up and I have decided to revisit. What a difference couple of hours could make! The seeing was much better and I was able to push to higher power (208x). I have also used my favorite filter combo Baader Contrast Booster + Moon & Sky Glow to control the glare and improve the contrast. That was the best view of Jupiter I had in several years!
In the northern hemisphere the dark North Equatorial Belt, light North Tropical Zone, dark North Temperate Belt, light North Temperate Zone, and dark North Polar Region were visible. There was wide but narrow disturbance protruding from the center of the North Equatorial Belt down into the light Equatorial Zone.
In the southern hemisphere the Great Red Spot was transiting. It was smallish, of pink color, and was embedded in the eye-shaped Red Spot Hollow. The light beige Hollow contrasted nicely against the dark South Equatorial Belt. South Equatorial Belt was a single wide band to the east from
Below the South Equatorial Belt (and separated from it by the light South Tropical Zone) there was the dark South Temperate Belt. Only western half of the South Temperate Belt was visible. Continuing farther south there were the light South Temperate Zone, dark South South Temperate Belt, light South South Temperate Zone and dark South Polar Region.
Last leg of this session was devoted to catching a few new to me asteroids:
20:30. ASTEROIDS
(149) Medusa – 12.6 mag asteroid in Taurus (180x).
(154) Bertha – 12.9 mag asteroid in Aries (148x).
(159) Aemilia – 12.3 mag asteroid in Taurus (87x).
(210) Isabella – 12.4 mag asteroid in Auriga (87x).
(317) Roxane – 12.5 mag asteroid in Taurus (87x).
(358) Apollonia – 12.4 mag asteroid in Taurus (87x).
(363) Padua – 12.9 mag asteroid in Taurus (148x).
