I developed these online observation logs to share one amateur astronomer's adventures with the heavens, both ups and downs. By putting this out in the "public", I hope to provide useful descriptions of what I've observed in the hope that I can encourage others to observe many of the objects I've observed here.
I currently own an Orion Little Giant 16x80 binoculars and used to own an Orion 8" Dob telescope until I had to sell it when I moved out of town (back to Northern Virginia, ironically). I'm planning to get another Orion 8" Dob in the near future and use it until I can save up enough money to get a proper telescope, like a open truss 12" Dob.
Until Sept 1999, I lived in northern Virginia where I was (and am still) a member of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club . Hence, most of my observations up to that point were made at the club's premier observation site, Savage Farm, on the Blue Ridge Mountains. I also did a few observations from Mickey Gordon park near Manassas, VA and one or two from the club's public observation site, Crockett Lake.
When I moved to Austin, TX in Sept 1999, I became member of the Austin Astronomical Society and have done many observations from their Canyon of the Eagles observing site as well as from my driveway at home.
In January 2004, I moved back home to Northern Virginia (hence the sale of my Orion 8" Dob telescope). I haven't had a chance to get back into regular observing yet because of work pressure and other things. :-( But hopefully soon I'll get back to observing, probably just binocular observations until I can get a real telescope! :)
I have put down below descriptions of my observation sessions. I hope you will enjoy this general log, as well as the detailed logs which you can read more about the objects I've observed.
By the way, here are some links to various astronomical societies/clubs which I am member of, as well as other useful links. In addition, there are a few Clear Sky links for the sites where I observes.
Another very warm evening (87 degrees!), with high thin clouds, so it wasn't very transparent tonight. Unfortunately as I was setting up, one of my neighbor across the courtyard from where I was turned on her light. Grrr... So at this point, I can only make out Vega and Arcturus with my eyes alone, although I did manage to check out β Sco before I gave up.
Tonight was a rather warm night at home, around 85 degrees, high humidity and poor transparency. However the seeing seems steady. I spent most of tonight checking out double stars, since they're the best type of objects to observe in this kind of evening. Specifically, I checked out ε Lyr, β Cyg, ζ Lyr, β Lyr, Struve 525, 61 Cyg and 31 Cyg.
This was a pretty long but productive session! I was out here until about 3:30 am or so, and I wasn't the last to leave--at least 3 to 4 scopes were still pointing upward when I left. So, tonight was a nice clear night, with a bit of haze and pretty warm at 91 degrees. I started out with Jupiter and played around with the filters on Jupiter. For instance I tried out filter 80a and at the lowest power (48x), Jupiter was too small to see much of anything. At 96x and 133x, the view wasn't too bad, but 266x wasn't any good. After that, when it got dark enough, I checked out M83 with my giant binoculars and then start checking out various Messiers with my Dob, such as M4, M80, M19 & NGC 6293, M12, M10, M28, M22, M8, M21 and M20.
It seems like a nice evening, temperature around 85 degrees and clear with a touch of haze. So I hauled out the binoculars and did some Moon observing. It was nearly full moon (10 days old) and with direct vision, I could kind of see the "Cow Jumping Over Moon " feature. I also saw Mare Frigoris, and with binoculars saw Lunar Ray, Sinus Iridum, Sinus Medii, Palus Somnii, Mare Vaporum, Palus Epidemiarum and Crater Gassendi. I had planned to do some observing with my Dob, but the bugs won the battle and I retreated with a few bites...
I thought I'd do some observations tonight since it was a pleasant evening despite the 85 degree temperature. I just concentrated on the Moon tonight and checked out some of the Moon's interesting features with various instruments from eyes through the Dob. I saw Mare Tranquillitatis, Mare Serenitatis, Mare Crisium, Mare Fecunditatis, Mare Nectaris, Rima Hyginus, Promontorium Agarum, Crater Mitchell, Crater Cassini A, Crater Manilius, and Crater Gemma Frisius.
Tonight was a very pleasant evening, breezy with a bit of haze. Temperature was in the high 70's. When the sky got dark enough, I started checking out some Messiers with my Dob. However due to approaching thunderstorms, I was not able to get as much observations done as I'd have liked. But I did check out a few objects such as M108, M97, M109 and M80.
I came out to the Canyon of the Eagles observatory site, well equiped for a nice evening of observations. Unfortunately we were clouded out by clouds that rolled in at sunset. Nonthless it was fun getting to know a few of fellow AAS members, as well as getting some observatory training. Not a wasted evening, this one.
I arrived at CoE around 18:50, followed by David Tasch with his 15 " Dob. It was quite clear with a bit of haze. It was also pretty windy. I didn't catch the temperature though, but it must have been around in the 70s or so. Tonight was binocular night and I started off with NGC 1807 and NGC 1817. I followed them up with NGC 1647, NGC 1746, NGC 1893, NGC 1907, NGC 2169, NGC 2244, NGC 2251, NGC 2264 and finally NGC 2281 to wrap up the evening.
Tonight was a lovely evening (clear, transparent, temperature 75 to 70 over the evening), so I decided to haul out my telescope and check out Luna. The moon was about 10 days old and thus nearly full, which meant most of the features didn't have shadows. But I still had fun. I saw the following features: Mare Serenitatis, Mare Imbrium, and Mare Nubium with my eyes. With my Dob, I observed Palus Putredinis, Sinus Aestuum, Promontorium Laplace, Promontorium Heraclides, Montes Alpes, Mones Apenninus, Mons Hadley, Mons Piton, Mons Pico, Crater Davy, and Cater Pitatus.
After spending the last 2 evenings at Canyon of the Eagles, I didn't feel like going out there one more time. So I elected to do some observations from home with my dob. After checking out M41, I went over to Jupiter and played with the filters on it. Then I moved the scope a wee bit over to M44 (Beehive Cluster), as Jupiter was practically next to it. Finally I finished up with a nice peek at M81 and M82.
This was one of the best night I've had in a long time. Nearly perfect sky and was able to enjoy the numerous objects I saw tonight. I'd have observed longer, but unfortunately one of my binocular's eyepiece dewed up. Oh well, I had fun anyway. I observed these objects: M40, Tr 2, Stock 2, Mark 6, Tr 3, Stock 23 (Pazmino's Cluster), Mel 20, Kemble 1, NGC 1528, M104 and M68.
This evening promised to be a lovely evening--and it was for a couple of hours until clouds rolled in. Despite that, I popped over to CoE to get some observations in with my binoculars. I caught several Messier objects such as M95, M96, M105, M65 and M66.
This was my first time at Canyon of the Eagles in about 1 1/2 years. This was also to honor the Columbia Sevens, who died this morning when Columbia broke up while reentrying back home. So with my binoculars, I was able to check out several objects such as NGC 1981, NGC 2232, NGC 2343, and NGC 2360.
A nice clear and warm evening, around 50 degrees. It wasn't a long session, only saw 4 objects, the Hyades, NGC 1674, NGC 1817 and NGC 1807 with my Dob.
Tonight was quite a short session as I only observed 2 objects, Cr 399 and Stock 1 using my Dob telescope.
I brought out my Orion Dob to do some observations on this breezy night, with temperature around 80 degrees, low humidity and patchy clouds. So partly for that reason and because I was also a bit rusty, I didn't observe too many objects tonight. But I did manage to observe two objects which were M57 and NGC 6910.
Tonight was rather warm (90 degrees), but clear sky and breezy. This time I hauled out the binoculars and observed various craters on Moon such as Crater Plato, Archimedes, Aristillus, Autolycus, Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel, Walter, Maginus, Tycho, Clavius, Longomontenus, Eratosthenes, Copernicus and Bulliadus.
The evening was a pleasant and clear evening, with high being 70 degrees, and a bit breezy. Tonight, I was using my dob and observed the following objects on the Moon: Lactus Mortis, Promontorium Agarum, Rupes Altai and Crater Plinius.
The evening was a nice warm evening, about 80 degrees, with good transparency and a bit of unsettled seeing. I managed to observed the following items with my binoculars: Craters Hercules, Atlas, Posidonius, Cleomedes, Macrobius, Langrenus, Vendelinus, Petavius, Theophilus, Cyrilius, Catharina, Fracastorius and Piccolomini.
This was just a short session, to see what the sky was like from home, with some light pollution, especially with a BRIGHT street lamp only about 40-50 feet away from my observation, but hidden by another building. The weather was clear, a bit windy, around 55 degrees. I only observed two objects, M42 and NGC 1981 and had a good time. I even introduced the night sky to my neighbor.
This was my first time at AAS's Canyon of the Eagles observation site and it was a great place, except for those burr seeds that kept getting stuck to my clothes. This was also my first time overnighting at observation site and it went pretty well. Anyway, I managed to observed quite a bit tonight. With my 16x80 binoculars I saw M99, M100, M85, M64, M63, M94 and M40. Also I saw M51 and M101 with my Dob.
This is my first "official" observation in Texas since I moved here from Virginia. Lakeway Airport is a private day-only airport close to Travis Lake and surrounded by private homes with attached hanges. :-) Anyway, it was very clear and about 60 degrees and I was out there with a few of my co-workers who were also into astronomy. Anyway, in this session, I observed the following objects, M42, M44, & M67 with my Orion binoculars.
Again since I was months behind in recording here my observation for this evening, I'm just going to list what I wrote in my log when I observed. :-) So tonight was apparently a very nice evening, about 70 to 75 degrees, a bit breezy. I observed M81, M82, NGC 7235, and M4.
Since I was months behind in updating this, I don't remember much about this evening, so I'll just have to list what I saw that evening, according to my notes. At least the notes tell me it was very nice evening with steady seeing and transparancy of about 6.1 or so. Anyhow, I observed M107, M10, "M102" (which is also NGC 5866), Cr 463, NGC 7160, NGC 7243 and NGC 7209. Looks like I had a productive evening.
A nice evening for observing, not too muggy. :-) Limiting magnitude was about 5.5 to 5.7. I was able to a few objects such as M3, M107 and NGC 6910.
Not very productive session since I didn't feel too well and left early. It was rather muggy evening, with poor transparency (something like 4.5 to 5.0 mag) and I tried to observe only a few objects such as M49.
Arrived at Savage before sunset for once and found Tom Dietz and Alan F. chilling out. :-) As it turned out, it was a bit chilly later on in the evening. Anyhow, I set up my stuff and awaited darkness. I was able to observe a number of the Messier galaxies in the Virgo galaxy cluster (M60, M59, M58, M90, M89, M87, M86, M84, & M88). I also observed few other Messiers such as M61 in Vir, M109, M108, & M97 (Owl Nebula) in UMa & M106 in CVn. I also checked out Mel 111, a beautiful cluster of bright blue stars.
Another not-so-productive session, aborted after a hour of observation because the eyepieces of my binoculars started dewing up. I've got to get some dew zappers, but I've been too busy and too lazy to do so. :-) Anyhow, I was able to observe serveral beautiful Messier objects (M41, M79, M93, M47, M46, M48 & M50) and a couple of other objects such as NGC 2423 & Mel 25.
I arrived at the park around 2315 or so (Dec 26) to find Tom with his light block tarp up and Pete hanging out and helping searching for supernovae. Set things up and after some trouble with the flashlight, which Tom & Pete were kind enough to help out, I tried to do some observing in Perseus but the setting moon washed things out just too much. So, I tried to observe several Messiers such as M1, M42 & M78 before the eyepieces of my binoculars dewed up, ending the observation session just as I was getting warmed up (and getting colder physically!).
Not a very productive session, but at least I was able to determine that I was able to dress warm enough for a winter observation session (although it helps that there were no wind). I just need to add another layer of sock and I'd have last longer. :-)
Another beautiful night, and not as windy as last night! :-) A good crowd was already there when I arrived at Savage, including Bill Bryson, Tom Dietz, Alan Flaggat and Barry Wolfe. I had a good time checking out the following objects such as NGC 752, Stock 2, Mel 15, M35, M36, M37 & M38.
It was a beautiful, very transparent, very clear, and WINDY!! I spent easily 2/3 of the time just trying to hold down my stuff and reading the map. But I still managed to check out NGC 6934. That's it. I've got to get some real field edition of sky charts so that they'd be easier to manage. And some real paperweight too... Maybe I'll ask for those for Christmas. :-)
On a spur of the moment I went out to check out the nearly 1st quarter Moon and caught some nice maria, sinua (sp?) and craters. Excuse me for my Latina screw-ups. :-)
After admiring clear sky all day long, I arrived at Savage to find Tom Dietz frustrated with the clouded out sky. But after about half hour or so, the sky cleared up and we got going with the observations. Since I had seen most of the Messiers in the sky up then, I decided to check out some of the other deep sky objects on the list from AL's Binoculars Deep Sky club. I saw about 10 from the list plus one that wasn't on the list. They were NGC 6520, 6633, IC 4756, NGC 6709, 6716, the Coathanger "Cluster" (Cr 399), NGC 6823, 129, 457, 663 and 654.
While not as clear or transparent as Aug 19-20, the sky was promising in terms of seeing. I arrived at Savage around 22:30 EDT to find a bunch of folks already there. It was partly cloudy and quite warm, which means that the humidity is still high, so we have steady seeing, but not very transparent. After setting up my binoculars, I checked out Jupiter and I believe I could see its Jupiter with my 16x80 binoculars--is this possible? There appears to be 2 of them, both reddish.
Because of clouds that kept drifting over the site, I was unable to get much observing done until little bit after midnight. After midnight, I got going with the observations as the sky cleared up. I saw several non-Messier objects such as IC 4665, NGC 7789 and the Double Cluster in Perseus.
I also saw several Messier objects such as M52, M34, M56, M27, and M71. I thought I saw M74 but I wasn't sure. As of tonight, I've observed about 52 Messiers objects and 50 of them were on the list from Messier Object Bincoulars club. I'm not sure why they didn't count M21 among the observable Messier objects because it was easy to observe (July 1-2, 1998), being of magnitude 5.9 or so. Anyway, I'm about halfway through the official list of Messier objects to observe for the Binocular Messier club membership. (the list has about 102 Messiers.)
Arrived at 2200 EDT to find Jonathan Bien and his family and other folks I couldn't identify in the darkness already there and observing. After setting up and admiring the clarity of the skies, I checked out Jupiter and could see all four Galilean moons. During the evening, I observed 5 Messier objects ( 51, 101, 14, 72 and 73) and would have observed more if I didn't have to work tommorow. :-( Hence, I only stayed until about 0030 EDT or so.
In my haste to get to Savage, I realized I forgot the L-bracket for my binoculars. At the time I discovered this, I was at the gate of Savage, and I deliberate whether just to turn and head home. But the sky beckon... Luckily, I was able to borrow a L-bracket from Tom Dietz (thanks Tom!) and thus a beautiful night, with excellent transparency wasn't wasted for a lack of a L-bracket. :-)
After setting up and checking out the setting Moon between the trees branches at midnight, I start hunting down some more Messiers (see the list of Messiers for the details). Along the way, I was able to find Uranus pretty easily by comparing the chart with the view. It was an extra star in a field which includes 2 pairs of stars and a line of stars--thus I was able to see that there should have been only 1 pairs, a single star and the line of stars. Another confirmation was the color of the extra 'star'--it was greenish as expected. :-) After about 3 and half hours (at 3:30 am or so), I decided that I had better get going if I wanted to get home before falling asleep, so I left. I think I was the second to leave, which is a testimony to the excellent seeing we had tonight. I'm going to have to go buy a tent and a sleeping bag so I can make the most of Savage. :-) Any recommendations?
I got to the park about 2210 EDT to find a bunch of NOVACers already there. After setting up the equipment, I started out with M10, under fairly dark sky (at that time the Moon was on the horizon and not bright). I found M10 to be mostly circular, but with a hint of flatness in the northeastern part of it. Next, I navigated to the near-by M12 and found it to be somewhat triangular and pointing south.
After that, I tried to see M14, but even through I'm sure I'm at the right place, I couldn't see anything at all where it should have been. After staring at it for a while, I gave up and went to M29 in Cyg. It was a nice and small/tight cluster and I could count directly about 5 or 6 stars. There was an interesting small line of stars running from M29 north-ward. Next I went to M39 in the same constellation and found it a study of constrast compared to M29--it was a loose cluster with no real apparent center of the cluster. I could count more stars too, about 12 of them. After admiring M39, I hopped over to Cas to check out M103 which was just rising above the trees as I observed it. It was a pretty elongated cluster, almost like a thick line. Finally, before shutting down for the night, I tried to find M101 and as expected, I can't make it out, because of the Moon. I didn't really expected to see it anyway, but thought I'd give it a shot. :-)
After packing it in, I hung around and discussed the Moon with Marc DeFrancis and admiring his creative home-made 3" reflector that was made with 3 coffee cans! Finally, I left around midnight, well satisfied with the evening, even through the Moon didn't allow me to observe very long.
I arrived around 2135 EDT to find Tom Dietz & Ron Cook already there and set up. After admiring and cursing the Moon (at the same time), I set up my binoculars and went for M53 & M64. But they were too high for my comfort (that is, I'd have to bent my neck nearly 90 degrees to see them through the binoculars!). So, I instead went over to M5 and found it without much trouble. It was of good size, and seems kinda elongated to me. Upon reviewing a book about Messier objects later on, I was right about it being elongated--it's described as oval.
Later on, when it was lower, I tried to check out M53 again and found it. It's quite faint, especially with the rising Moon (only a day after its Fullness). I noticed a faint star southeast of M53 and I'm wondering if that's NGC 5053, but I'm not sure. It seems too close to M53 to be it. Next, I tried to find M64, but it was very very faint (remember that Moon is up and rising, making the whole sky brighter), and I'm not sure I saw it or not. I'll have to try again some other time. I finished up by looking for M10, and it was quite washed out by the Moon, I didn't bother to really observe it. After that, I gave up and after chatting little bit with Tom (Ron had gone home by then), I headed home around 2330 EDT.
I got there about 2245 EDT and set up my binoculars. Jonathan Bein arrived with his family about 2310. The 1st quarter Moon was still up in the sky, so I decided to check it out. I saw Mare Serenitatis, Mare Tranquillitatis, Mare Crisium, Mare Fecunditatis & Mare Nectaris. I also observed Crater Aristoteles & Crater Eudoxus north of Mare Serenitatis. In addition I could see the white splot called Rheita. After the Moon has gone down somewhat, I started observing some Messier objects, mostly in the constellations of Sco, Sgr, & Oph. These objects I observed are: M80 (?), M9, M62, M6, M7, M21, M23, M24, M18, M17, M16, M28, M54, M70, M69 & M55. Details of those observations can be found in the table of Messier objects I've observed.
After some searching, I found the park and arrived around 2345 (980630) EDT to find Pete Johnson and Jonathan Bein were already there. Jonathan was working on setting up his scope. After checking out the scenery (wow, I've kind of forgotten what the Milky Way looked like!) and admiring the transparent seeing (limiting magnitude was around 6 or so), I set up my binoculars and start observing. :-)
I observed the following Messier objects (more details can be found in my table of Messier objects I've observed): M80 (?), M4, M19, M8, M20, M22 & M25. About 0105, I headed home because I had to work the next day.
Tonight was kinda muggy with seeing somewhat steady, but transparency wasn't too good. I got there in plenty of time to catch the sunset. At the time I left my office for the park, radar maps were showing a line of thunderstorms going through Pennsylvania and it was a toss up as to whether the line would pass through DC area. As expected, there were some high clouds to the north and west, so that pretty much ruled out these horizons. I've got to find out how to determine the limiting magnitudes so I can report that here.
I checked out the Moon while waiting for sunset and skies to get dark enough. The new binoculars gave a very nice view of the crescent moon (4 days old) and I made several little drawings showing some of the bigger craters I saw. I'm going to have to buy a lunar atlas and find out what I saw. :-)
Next, around 2130 EDT, I went hunting for M44, which is the Beehive Cluster and had nearly no problem finding it. It certainly helps that it's only a couple of degrees from Gamma Cnc. Beehive Cluster, at least to me, seems to be little bit loose cluster, but clearly a cluster. I can count about 10 stars, give or take a couple. There is supposedly a range of star colors in the cluster, but I don't recall seeing any different color, other than blue-white. I'll have to take another look in darker skies. I made a little drawing of the stars in the cluster and compared that to a picture of M44 in the book, The Messier Album (by John H. Mallas & Evered Kreimer) and it confirms I saw M44. :-) Next I navigated over to where M67 should be (in Cnc) and tried to find it with averted vision and jiggling the binoculars. No luck and at magnitude 6.9 with the Moon about 9 degrees in a muggy sky, I suppose it would have been very hard to see it tonight.
This is the first observation session with my new Orion 16x80 binoculars, as well as being my first observation session in over a year. So the fact that I was little bit rusty (with constellations and their orientations with respect to horizon) plus the clouds that moved in as soon as I tried to search for Messier objects made this a not so good session. Of course, it didn't help that the clouds apparently cleared out only about 15 mins after I left Crockett!! Grr... Seems everytime I start looking for an object in some clear portion, clouds would roll in, apparently forcing me to pay the usual penance for buying my binoculars. :-) Further evidence is the apparent clearing of the skies right after I leave. Maybe it'll be kinder to me next time around.
But it was good to see the stars again. :-) I caught a double star, probably Epsilon 1 Lyrae, just off Alpha Lyrae (at least they were in the same field of view in my 16x80 binoculars).
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