Observations - Sunday 14th September 2003

Hi all,

Never got around to posting this, but thought I might as well, for the hell of it.

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1.30am -
Saturn spotted...it had a vague yellowish tinge, but was mostly whitish. Too small for any great details, aside from being able to see the rings.
A 10mm Plossl and a 2x barlow don't work that well. It looked better at 25mm with the 2x barlow. Without the barlow there wasn't much to see.

2.00am -
I am unsure if what I saw really was the Ring Nebula (M57) - it was blue-ish white, blurry and had an oval-donut shape. Had a good look at Vega though - lovely.

2.50 / 3am (perhaps a little later) -
I didn't see the meteorite enter the atmosphere, as I was looking just below that part of the sky, but once it started I knew what it was right away. It lasted about 5 seconds, had a blue-ish white tint, and the trail was slow to fade away - about 3 seconds, and it had a greenish look to it as it did. I didn't hear anything so I don't think it was large by any means. It seemed to come from the direction of the Plaeides.

3.10am - 3.40am -
The highlight of the night was the Great Orion Nebula - my first time observing it, and a good way to remind myself why the hell I was outside in the very small hours of Sunday morning! One of those "woweee, holy shit" moments, I think I recall seeing M42 and M43 there, and I'd say I was also looking at NGC 1973, NGC 1975 and NGC 1977, although I didn't see them - but they're in the same location, if I recall. Betelgeuse and Rigel also looked impressive.
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Anyway, that's it. Not bad for a rookie with a messed up Helios 6", I guess!
I actually took a look at the scope during the day and managed to at least get the viewfinder steady enough to be of some use, although it's still not perfect.

Looks like you had a very succesfull night!

Bart.

Hi Bart,

Yeah, I was chuffed, not to mention tired, by the time I'd finished

Hi Bart,

Yeah, I was chuffed, not to mention tired, by the time I'd finished

I really miss the long nights I used to spend outside with my 6.25" Dobson under the dark Cavan skies. Where I live in Maynooth now there are far too many street lights to look at anything other than the moon, the planets and the occasional very bright deepsky object. I really wish I had a car so I could get myself and my scope away from those damd street lights!

The only consolation I have is that during term time I get to play with the Physics Departments 11" Shmid-Cassegrain on the roof of the Physics building. The roof is above the street lights so it is a good deal darker up there than at ground level. On a moonless night we can even glimps the milkyway which is not bad for being in the middle of Maynooth!

Bart.

I'm lucky Bart - right across the road from my house there's a large park.
There are houses on three sides facing right onto it so there is a fair amount of light pollution from them, but after 2am or so when people go to bed this goes away. You can see the Milky Way if you look really hard.
While I'd prefer a darker site, there is at least the knowledge that I don't have to pack my scope up at all, I can carry it in and out - heavy, but not a huge walk.

Once I get a smaller refractor I'll probably go looking for a dark site...

By the way, I went to college in Cavan Town (the CCFS on Main St) - I think dark skies are the only decent thing about that part of the country

By the way, I went to college in Cavan Town (the CCFS on Main St) - I think dark skies are the only decent thing about that part of the country

Cool! ... yea ... mind you the Drumlins can be really annoying, We have one to the West and east of us so that Mars does not actually rise from my home place a all at the moment

To the south we loose about 20 Degrees of the sky but to the West we loose over 30! The only good point is that I have a really good western horizon which is handy when looking for planets near the sun (in the evening sky).

You might be interested to know that work on a new Campus for the CCFS started a while ago so they will be gone from the main street in the next few years.

Bart.