Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Observing log: April 14, 2009

Scope: Odyssey 8 (I am now thinking of buying one of the early blue-tube Odyssey 13.1's—do any of my readers have one?). Darkness rating: Yellow. Weather conditions: Flitting light filmy clouds. Seeing: Decent (could see gap between Saturn's rings and Saturn, which I've never seen before).

Observed: Saturn, M 5, M 13, M 49, M 51, M 58, M 59, M 60, M 61, M 68, M 83, M 92, M 99, M 100, M 101, M 102, NGC 3242, NGC 4526, NGC 4535, NGC 4638, NGC 4567, NGC 4568, NGC 5139 (very low on horizon, did not resolve—just a slightly grainy ball, but it was still cool to see Omega Centauri), NGC 5907.

I've now seen 83% of the Messier catalog (I've done all the galaxies and nebulae, and most of the open clusters), 12% of the Herschel 400, and about 20% of the Best of the NGC. Lots of fuzzies to go.

2 comments:

Tim Lacy said...

Alex,

Sounds like fun. I have had a blast stargazing during my prior trips to TX: hiking in Guadalupe, driving stops, and even during stays in Dallas.

In Chicago you can only see the brightest of stars from my neighborhood (Andersonville).

- Tim

Alexander R Pruss said...

In Waco, it's not as bad as Chicago, but it's still not great. But a twenty minute drive outside town, and it's quite nice.