Observer: | Tom Campbell |
Location: | College Station, Texas (Long: 101°56'W Lat: 33°47'N) |
Telescope: | Zhumell 12" f/5 Dobsonian |
Eyepieces: | Zhumell 30mm Erfle (50x), ES 82° 18mm (83x), ES 82° 11mm (136x) |
Today was a warm, clear day and the evening also promised to be warm, but with clouds rolling in after sunset and sticking around a few days. Knowing this might be my last chance to observe this lunar cycle, I wasted no time in getting my gear set up after work.
Stock 2 | Muscleman Cluster | Cassiopeia | Open Cluster | 6:50pm CDT |
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Using my 30mm eyepiece (50x), it still more than fills the view. This is a large, widely scattered open cluster, containing stars that are fairly faint. Scrolling around a bit, I could spot several dozen members. It is impressive and would make a great binocular target. |
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NGC 869/884 | Double Cluster | Perseus | Planetary Nebula | 7:00pm CDT |
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Using my 18mm eyepiece (83x), the clusters look gorgeous tonight. Between the clusters is a nice bright orange star. Dozens of stars are visible in both clusters. NGC 869 has two of its brightest stars near the center, with a big octopus-shaped knot of fainter stars surrounding one of them. NGC 884 contains two sets of 3 stars near the center. One of the triangles is nearly equilateral and the other is a bit flattened. The flattened triangle points to a gorgeous deep orange star within the cluster. |
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Melotte 15 | Heart Nebula Cluster | Cassiopeia | Open Cluster | 7:05pm CDT |
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NEW! - I couldn't detect any signs of the nebula, even with an O-III filter, but the cluster was easily seen. In the center was a loosely heart-shaped ring of stars consisting of a dozen stars, with several other stars scattered around the edges. |
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Collinder 34 | Soul Nebula Cluster | Cassiopeia | Open Cluster | 7:10pm CDT |
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NEW! - Again, no signs of the nebula, but the cluster inside was obvious. This is a very loose cluster, with the brightest members near the center. It has perhaps 20-30 members visible. |
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At this point, a breeze had developed and some high-level clouds were blocking portions of Andromeda, Cassiopeia and Perseus... right where I wanted to observe! I tried to wait it out, but after 20 minutes, the breeze had intensified, the cloud cover deepened, and I gave up for the night. At least I caught a couple of new clusters.