| Observer: | Tom Campbell |
| Location: | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95 30' W Lat: 37 55' N) |
| Equipment: | 8" Discovery DHQ dob |
| Eyepieces: | 1.25" Plössls - 25mm (49x), 15mm (81x), 10mm (122x), 6.5mm (188x), 4mm (305x), 2" 51.5mm (24x) Modified Plössl |
| Time: | 9:00pm - 11:15pm CDT |
| Transparency: | Clear (8/10) |
| Seeing: | Somewhat Stable (6/10) |
| Weather: | Temperature in the upper 30s. There was little to no breeze. |
The last couple of nights have been clear, but I've been too busy or tired to take advantage of them. Today began with rain and the temperatures were substantially cooler, but the sky had cleared off by sunset. To make the offer even more tempting, both of my neighbor's porch lights were off tonight, and I could see M31 and the Double Cluster naked eye with direct vision. That clinched my decision -- I grabbed my telescope and headed to the back yard.
| M 33 | Triangulum | Spiral Galaxy | 10:05pm CDT |
| NGC 598 | RA: 01 33.9 | Dec: +30 39 | Mag: 5.7 |
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From my back yard, this is the first time I've been able to view this galaxy. It appears large, but faint and indistinct. No structure was visible, except for the sharp brightening of the core. The spiral arms were barely distinguishable from the background sky. |
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| NGC 6934 | Delphinus | Globular Cluster | 10:25pm CDT |
| RA: 20 34.2 | Dec: +07 24 | Mag: 8.9 | |
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This is a fairly bright, but small globular cluster. It makes a nice companion to a nearby star which is brighter than the cluster itself. The globular is small. The best view was at 122x, where it appeared as a fuzzy patch of light with a bright, mottled center. Using averted vision, I sometimes thought I could make out a few individual stars around the outer periphery, but I wouldn't swear to it. |
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| NGC 129 | Cassiopeia | Open Cluster | 10:30pm CDT |
| RA: 00 29.9 | Dec: +60 13 | Mag: 6.5 | |
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This is a fairly large open cluster. There is a bright star nearby that outshines any star in the cluster. This open cluster is in a somewhat rich region of the Milky Way, and appears as a slightly more concentrated grouping of stars. The shape of the cluster is pretty irregular, consisting of several chains of stars branching out in several directions. None of the stars are very bright, and it is difficult to tell exactly where the cluster begins and ends. The best view is at 81x, which allows viewing of the entire cluster, but keeps the bright stellar neighbors out of the field of view. |
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| M 77 | Cetus | Spiral Galaxy | 11:00pm CDT |
| NGC 1068 | RA: 02 42.7 | Dec: -00 01 | Mag: 8.8 |
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This is a small galaxy, and the core actually looks more like a slightly elliptical globular. 121x offers the best view, which isn't that great tonight. There is a faint star nearby which is perhaps slightly dimmer than the core of the galaxy. The arms weren't detectable to me tonight. |
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| M 74 | Pisces | Spiral Galaxy | 11:05pm CDT |
| NGC 628 | RA: 01 36.7 | Dec: +15 47 | Mag: 9.2 |
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From my backyard tonight, this galaxy is extremely faint. In fact, I had to jiggle the telescope to even be sure that something was there in the field. Because of its faintness, no real shape could be discerned, except for a faint patch of haze, resembling a nebula. 81x was as high as I could get before it became indistinguishable from the background. |
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With no specific observing targets planned, I felt like this was a fairly unproductive session. I was able to cross a few more items off my observing lists, but with a plan I could have done several more. Tonight I spent as much time sitting in the cold deciding on my next target as I did actually looking at them. In the summertime, this wasn't much of a problem, but I can see that my winter observing will need to be a bit more formalized.