💾 Archived View for koyu.space › mrael2_obsv › sessions › 2015 › 2015-03-20.gmi captured on 2022-06-03 at 23:24:31. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Date: 2015-03-20
Tonight I observed for the first time with my 254 mm Newtonian reflector. I started observing about 8:30 PM MDT by observing Venus at 42x. I switched to 139x to see its phase of between ~65% to ~75%. At both magnifications, Venus was very, very bright.
I then started looking for Comet Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2 in Cassiopeia. The comet recently passed Delta Cas, but I had a hard time finding Delta Cas in my finder scope. I think I will need a Telrad in the future as my right-angle finder scope isn't as easy to use as I thought it might be. I searched for Delta Cas for a half hour with no luck.
So I diverted my attention to M31, the Andromeda galaxy. I found it quickly and saw M110 nearby. I did not notice M32.
I then returned to the search for Comet Lovejoy and finally found it. I thought I detected green in the coma. The coma was a fuzzy ellipse with a discernibly brighter nucleus. I could not detect a tail. At one point I was very much surprised and taken aback by a jet aircraft that flashed into view briefly with its red and green lights making me think that something had exploded.
The accompanying sketch of the comet is done with a 0.5 mm B lead pencil.
My last target of the night was Jupiter. At 139x, the detail was surprisingly sharp with belts and zones visible. All four Galilean moons were visible in the eyepiece at this magnification. By 10:00 PM MDT, Jupiter was high, near the zenith.
Seeing was exceptional tonight at I (Antoniadi) with transparency 7 (AAAA).
Dew formation by 10:00 was significant. Temperatures were not yet below freezing.
I very much enjoyed my first observing session with the new 10" scope.