| Observer: | Tom Campbell |
| Location: | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95°24'W Lat: 37°55'N) |
| Equipment: | Discovery DHQ 8" dobsonian |
| Eyepieces: | 1.25" Plössls - 25mm (49x), 15mm (81x), 10mm (122x), 6mm (203x), 4mm (305x) |
| Time: | 10:30pm - 1:00am CDT (03:30-06:00 UT) |
| Transparency: | Clear (8/10) |
| Seeing: | Mostly Stable (7/10) |
| Weather: | Temperatures in the 80s. There was no breeze. |
My original plan for tonight was to do some binocular observing of some open clusters. However, the sky conditions wouldn't quite allow me to see the objects on my intended list. Not deterred, I decided to go ahead and view them with my dob. Although I had already seen most of them before, it's always nice to go back occasionally and revisit old friends.
| NGC 6709 | Aquila | Open Cluster | 10:30pm CDT |
| CR 392 | RA: 18h 51m 30s | Dec: +10° 20' | Mag: 6.7 |
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This open cluster shows up nicely at 49x, but the best view was at 81x. The cluster is kite-shaped, with four bright stars making a parallelogram, and an arc of three or four stars making a tail off one corner. Along one of the side corners was a bright blue/yellow pair of stars. Closer examination revealed that several of the stars displayed either blue or yellow colors. |
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| NGC 6819 | Cygnus | Open Cluster | 11:05pm CDT |
| CR 403 | RA: 19h 41m 18s | Dec: +40° 11' | Mag: 7.3 |
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While this open cluster showed up at 49x as a small patch of stars, it was compact enough to increase the magnification to 203x. The brightest members of the cluster were arranged in two arcs, resembling butterfly wings, or )(. At one end of one of these arcs was a tight little knot of several bright stars. A couple of other knots of dimmer stars were also seen. |
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| NGC 6910 | Cygnus | Open Cluster | 11:10pm CDT |
| CR 420 | RA: 20h 23m 06s | Dec: +40° 47' | Mag: 7.4 |
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This open cluster was easy to see at 49x, as a wavy-looking Y shape. Increasing the magnification to 203x, a few more dim members were detected. In all, perhaps 15 stars were visible. There were two really bright stars in the cluster (or perhaps they were foreground stars). One was right at the tip of one of the upper branches of the Y, and the other was near the base of the Y. |
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| Mars | Aquarius | Planet | 12:45pm CDT |
| RA: 22h 49m 36s | Dec: -13° 04' | Mag: -1.8 | |
The Red Planet was just above the trees, and I practically had to sit on the ground to look through my dob's eyepiece. Although the seeing was pretty decent near zenith, it was still only a few hours after sunset, and houses and trees were still dissipating a lot of heat. Mars was a gibbous, shimmering, orange ball. Even at 49x, the heat waves could be seen distorting the planet's edges. 203x offered the best view tonight (such as it was). The southern polar cap was large and easily seen. Mare Sirenum was visible, but its shape wasn't sharply defined due to my sky conditions. |
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