Schudel Family - Astronomy Log

Info

• Who: Daniel
• Session Moderator: Dr. Steve Danford of UNCG
• Time: 20:30 EDT
• Location: TCO
• Equipment: TCO - 32 inch f/13.5 reflector
• Sky View: Cluster PDF / Galaxy PDF (created with XEphem)

Would Like To See

• Leo Triplet - M65, M66, NGC3628
• Owl Nebula M97, and M108
• Barred spiral galaxy M109
• Planetary nebula NGC3242
• Edge-on galaxy NGC3628
• Eskimo Nebula NGC2392
• NGC4565
• M81 and M82
• M51

Visual Observing

• Castor - Visual binary star system.  Castor is actually a quadruple star system.
• Mars - Very difficult to make out any detail of the disk.
• NGC2392 - Clown Face/Eskimo Nebula - I could see the structure of the concentric layers of this nebula.
• Saturn - Very beautiful - with faint spears of rings on either side.  The shadow of the rings was noticeable.
• M82 - I was able to see and discern the dust lanes.
• M81 - I was unable to make out any spiral structure - but did recognize the component of the galaxy outside of the galaxy core.
• Two satellites - at 22:36 localtime, two satellites passed overhead, one following the other and slightly offset.  The dimmest was "Cosmos 2360 Rocket".  The other was very bright at first, then dropped sharply in magnitude.  At its brightest - it rivaled Venus.  This second object remains unidentified.
• M3 - Absolutely stunning.  The cluster occupied about 75% of the eyepiece FOV.  Hundreds of individual stars were discernible.  What was also amazing was seeing the "ripple" and "wave" motion of the atmosphere and how it affected the view of this cluster.
• Vesta - Actually viewed through the Astroscan.  Vesta has dropped off in magnitude noticeably since I started tracking it.

CCD Work

• Gamma Leonis - The binary star system was used to adjust the focus of the telescope.
• Saturn - Dr. Danford snapped hundreds of images of Saturn in an attempt to capture one at a point with cooperative atmosphere.  The photos were for a student that was studying the motions of Saturn's moons.

Notes

• I arrived at 20:20 for the 20:30 observing session.  The observatory was already packed full, with about 12 people still after me.  Early arrival is not necessary because everyone does get a chance to view every object.
• The strategy I used that worked well was to be the last person to view an object - then go outside and view through my scope.  I then reenter when the remaining line is short for the next object.