I replaced the batteries in my Telrad, found my missing Astronomy accessories, and was ready to rock and roll. Also found my "Wide Field Kit", which simply consists of a 40mm PL and a 6.3 reducer. Tonight was a decent night as far as transparency goes, however Jupiter set before my scope could cool down, or seeing was that bad, don't know, it didn't effect my other observations.
Grabed my red flashlight, SkyChart 2000, and drew up a list of targets.
M76 - Very easy to find, but no individual stars
M57 - Looked like a diffuse star, not much on detail, since using my Wide Field kit.
M15 - Very bright central region. Could discern some outer structure, kind of like spiral arms, using 18mm SWA
M103 - Nice Open cluster, whole area in Cassiopeia is cool to scan with low power.
M24 - Also a nice OC
NGC 6830 and 6823 - Double Cluster - My favorite. Always a treat. This is why I bought the 6.3 reducer and 40mm in the first place. Nicely framed.
Uranus - Found and confirmed with the help of my new observing companion, Stellarium v10. With its bigger database, and ability to flip views to match eyepiece, I confirmed this object for the 3rd time in my lifetime. Bumping to 18mm certainly also confirms it sphere like appearance over a star. NICE
Vesta !!!!! - A first for me tonight! Again, using Stellarium v10 I was able to confirm my reference stars to my field of view. Found it relatively quickly. Bright, but still kind of starlike. Need to due further research on if the object moves faster than the backround stars or not, would be cool to see it move to other stars.
So I didn't get to visit my friend Jupiter much tonight, but finding Uranus was cake, and finding asteroid Vista for the first time ever was certainly the icing!
Grabed my red flashlight, SkyChart 2000, and drew up a list of targets.
M76 - Very easy to find, but no individual stars
M57 - Looked like a diffuse star, not much on detail, since using my Wide Field kit.
M15 - Very bright central region. Could discern some outer structure, kind of like spiral arms, using 18mm SWA
M103 - Nice Open cluster, whole area in Cassiopeia is cool to scan with low power.
M24 - Also a nice OC
NGC 6830 and 6823 - Double Cluster - My favorite. Always a treat. This is why I bought the 6.3 reducer and 40mm in the first place. Nicely framed.
Uranus - Found and confirmed with the help of my new observing companion, Stellarium v10. With its bigger database, and ability to flip views to match eyepiece, I confirmed this object for the 3rd time in my lifetime. Bumping to 18mm certainly also confirms it sphere like appearance over a star. NICE
Vesta !!!!! - A first for me tonight! Again, using Stellarium v10 I was able to confirm my reference stars to my field of view. Found it relatively quickly. Bright, but still kind of starlike. Need to due further research on if the object moves faster than the backround stars or not, would be cool to see it move to other stars.
So I didn't get to visit my friend Jupiter much tonight, but finding Uranus was cake, and finding asteroid Vista for the first time ever was certainly the icing!
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