💾 Archived View for koyu.space › mrael2_obsv › sessions › 2015 › 2015-05-07.gmi captured on 2022-06-03 at 23:24:52. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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Date: 2015-05-07
Time: 9:00 PM MDT to 10:45 PM MDT
Seeing: I
Transparency: 7
Telescope: 254 mm f/4.92 Newtonian reflector
Object: Mercury
Tonight Mercury was at greatest eastern elongation. With the naked eye, it appeared bright (but not as bright as a few days ago) and high in the sky.
At 42x, 84x, 138x and 277x, I could not detect any semblance of a phase in the planet's appearance. A more accurate collimation of my scope primary mirror may be to blame, but I'm not sure I'll be seeing a phase any time soon.
Objects: M81 and M82
42x
These were as lovely as ever with more detail in M81 than I had seen at any time previously.
Object: M3
My first globular cluster was quite pleasing. The central portion was bright with the outer halo fuzzy but not dim. No stars were resolved at 48x nor 84x.
Object: Jupiter
Views were best at 42x and 84x with greater magnifications hard to track and much more blurry.
Object: M44
42x
The Beehive Cluster is always lovely at 42x, but I would love to see this at lower power, perhaps in a refractor, to see everything in the field of view.
Object: M51
This was the highlight of the evening as I was able to see hints of spiral arm structure in this galaxy!
The sky was dark with no moon during my session. Around 10:00 or so I noticed dark lanes and a distinct curvature in the halo surrounding the bright center. No detail was lost in moving from 42x to 84x.
The spiral structure was visible only with averted vision, but it was apparent despite being dim and diaphanous.
I look forward to improving my observations of M51 in the future.
Object: Omega Centauri
42x and 84x
I was so very pleased to be able to see Omega Centauri at my latitude (about 37.07 N). This globular cluster was large, taking up most of the fiel of view at 84x. Stars were not resolved at 84x, and the cluster had more of an appearance of a nebula than a cluster. The color was a bright, uniform gray throughout.
The color and texture remained the same at 42x.
My telescope was nearly horizontal, and the cluster was just a bit above the horizon.
Object: Saturn
I couldn't see the Cassini division; again, perhaps collimation is to blame. The rings were clear at 84x, but other magnifications had sub-optimal views.
With opposition coming up in a couple of weeks, I suspect my views tonight are representative of the best views I could possible get.
I am finding much more pleasure in deep-sky objects than in planetary viewing.
All in all, this was a great night.