💾 Archived View for koyu.space › mrael2_obsv › sessions › 2015 › 2015-03-22.gmi captured on 2023-04-26 at 13:34:15. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2022-06-03)
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Date: 2015-03-22
Time: 8:45 PM MDT
Seeing: I (Antoniadi) changing to II by 9:00 PM
Transparency: 6 (AAAA)
Telescope: 254 mm Newtonian f/4.92
Eyepiece: 30mm (41.66x)
Object: Messier 42 & 43
Description: This was my first observation of the Orion Nebula. M42 took up most of the field of view with a very prominent "fish's mouth" pointing to M43. Four sharp, pinpoint stars were near M42's "fish's mouth," but these were not the four stars of the Trapezium. I saw the Trapezium as only one star; maybe more magnification will allow me to resolve the four stars of the Trapezium. The other three stars (of the four) that I saw were lined up in a straight line. I'll need a star chart to identify these properly.
The nebula itself had the appearance of a dense cloud. Part of this cloud "sharpened" into a tail of sorts to one side of the "fish's mouth." The nebula had an almost wing-like shape when examined overall.
M43 appeared only as a circular fuzzy cloud across the dust lane (dark dust lane) between the mouth and M43. I could not detect a comma or apostrophe shape to M43 as I've seen in photos. I could, however, detect brightness at the center of M43.
Object: Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2)
Notes: Again I observed this comet in Cassiopeia to confirm its movement against the background stars. Indeed, the surrounding stars were quite different compared to two nights ago.
Location: east of Antonito, CO