Date: 2014-10-24 UT
Time: 01:15 +0000 (very approximate)
Location: Museum of Arts and Sciences observatory, Macon, GA
Telescopes: C14, C10
C14 Magnification: 97x, 217x?
C10 Magnification:  70x
Objects:  Moon, Albireo Beta Cyg, M57 Ring, M31 Andromeda
Seeing:  3 (1=worst, 4=best)
Atmosphere:  Gibbous moon, maybe a slight layer of some fog/smoke but not sure

Alton Basilico, Hal Collier and I visited the planetarium where Paul Fisher and two assistants ran the programs.

At about 1:15 UT one or two of the visitors, one of the assistants and I saw a very bright meteor which I think would qualify as a bolide.  It was easily mag -4 and maybe brighters   It descended toward the horizon probably in the vicinity of Perseus and Aries.   It was a yellow orange, very bright at the end and there was a brief trail but not a persistent train.

We also observed the above objects.   There was moon light or fog and haze so the objects didn't pop but seemed a bit difficult star-wise.  The moon was probably mostly responsible, though.

Moon, Mars and Saturn on the Fourth of July

Date: 2014-07-06 UT
Time: 01:10 +0000 (time started)
Location: Peachtree City, GA
Telescopes:Date: 2014-07-06 UT Time: 01:10 +0000 (time started)
Location: Peachtree City, GA
Telescopes: Dob 10.1-in f/4.5 and stopped down to 3.5-in f/13
Telescopes: Celestron C8 f/11
Dob Magnification: 44x and 114x
C8 Magnification:  89x
Objects:  Moon, Mars, Saturn
Seeing:  2  (1=worst, 4=best)
Atmosphere:  Hazy with bright Moon by Spica


I set up both telescopes for the first time.  I was amazed to discover that Mars was so close to the Moon.   I'd known about this conjunction but had forgotten.

The Moon was amazing.  The seeing was actually apparently better on the moon but most observing of it was at the 44x and 89x mags.   The seeing looked like 4 or so.  I clearly saw the Straight Wall between those two "sharp" craters.  The Appenines Mountains were very prominent.  The terminator relief was amazing.

Mars was a jumbled blur of images.   As the 8-in started to settled down I caught glimpses of the ice cap.  I think other detail was there but the image never settled down and my observing technique seems to be less than what it used to be.   However, I didn't study Mars for a long, many-minutes' time which I'm sure would have revealed more detail.

Saturn's rings were very wide open.  At 114x I caught a glimpse of Titan.  I should have removed the 3-in mask but forgot about that for "moon" watching.  I didn't looking for deeper details.

All the time I was showing objects to my nieces and nephews and brothers- and sisters- and mother-in-law.

$20 Emerson Telescope

Date: 2011-11-27  (UT)
Time: 05:15 +0000 roughly
Location:  Culloden, GA
Telescope:  45mm Emerson refractor at ~f/13
Magnification: 50x and 100x
Objects:  Sirius Alpha CMa, Jupiter, M42 Orion Nebula, Sirius, M31 Andromeda Galaxy, M45 Pleides
Seeing: 3 (1=worst, 5=best)
Atmosphere: Faint moving clouds, breezy

Today, at Walgreens, I found a cheap $20 telescope with the above specifications.  I thought it would be interesting to see just what one could do with such an inexpensive telescope.

The views were pretty horrible by normal standards.  There's an extreme pink/red hazy glow around a star, say Sirius, while the central disk was blue green.

M42 was appropriately hazy and viewable.   In a second observation (after spending some time looking at other objects) it had improved some.

For Jupiter two satellites were visible.

With a 28-mm aperture stop cut from an index card the image was noticeably sharper and the halo smaller though the extreme chromatic abberation was still present.

With the aperture stop added, we could see a third satellite about one Jupiter diameter away in the preceeding direction.

It was also possible to see the NEB and SEB occasionally as seeing varied.

We also tried the 6mm eyepiece for 100x and Jupiter was just as viewable without much increased abberation.

Only a portion of the Pleides was visible at a given time.

Putting the telescope on a real camera tripod instead of the super-flimsy tripod gave much better images and was the only way to point the telescope at objects above an estimated 75 deg altitude above the horizon.

I'm curious how to see the moon would look.

Lunar Eclipse

Date: 2010-12-21 UT
Time: 6:59--7:40 UT
Location: Snellville, GA
Observing: Naked eye, binoculars
Telescope: 7x50 binoculars
Magnification: 7x
Object: Moon
Seeing: - (not evaluated)
Atmosphere: Cold 33 F, heavy, broken clouds but somewhat translucent to moon, up to totality.

I went out several times and looked at the moon naked eye and with the binoculars. Here are the tweets.

Tue 2010-12-21 06:59:30 +0000

Well there's a partial eclipse shadow there. It's not quite half way across the disc of the moon. #lunareclipse

The sky was pretty cloudy, mostly covered, say 90% or 95% with broken clouds, but you could still see the moon through them and then it was clear when a gap passed over it.

Tue 2010-12-21 07:23:16 +0000

Partly cloudy 33 deg F. More than halfway. Yellowish orange along southern limb (when between clouds). #lunareclipse

When a gap passed over, the orange-yellow color near the southwestern region (I believe) was brighter and more yellow than orange to my eye.  This was through the binoculars.

Tue 2010-12-21 07:40:33 +0000

Nearly total. Thin white sliver. SW quite bright orange. Mostly cldy but translucent. #lunareclipse

At this stage it was almost like there were three distinct zones, the bright white uneclipsed region, a very gray shadowed region, and the orange and yellow region.  Toward the limb it was still unexpectedly bright.

Of course, as it progressed, the stars became noticeably more visible.  At some point, I think the clouds had decreased quite a bit, maybe it was my second or third observation above, because I distinctly remember being able to see stars, though it was still cloudy.

I went out one more time during totality but never tweeted an entry.  At this time the clouds were very heavy with only occasional cracks.   The moon was so dark by now, of course, that I was unable to find it or see it. I waited for a crack in the clouds to pass by where I thought it was but still couldn't see it.

These notes were entered on Tue 2010-12-21 17:21:18 +0000

Satellite Flyby?

Date: 2010-01-01
Time: 23:34:40 UT
Location: Snellville, GA
Observing: Naked eye
Object: Possible satellite
Seeing: 3 (but very unsure).
Atmosphere:  Very clear and very cold.

While watching the stars come out a satellite passed left to right just under Per and above Aur.  On the sky it was actually travelling nearly due south.    I saw it fade into view.  It was moving nearly parallel to the horizon, i.e., at a constant altitude.

Here's the tweet.

Satellit passing left to right through Per. Est about mag 3. 2010-01-01 23:34:40 +0000

(I mistyped Satellite).

Consulting star charts and the nearby stars, it seems it was more like mag=4.

Also, a few minutes before this I saw a brief flash in the same area. This was a quick moving flash, that was at least as bright as mag=1 and probably more like zero or brighter. It probably lasted a little less than a second and was moving. It probably moved, I'd guess, maybe a degree or two during that time. But that's a very rough estimate. It was difficult to see since it was among bare, winter tree limbs. I assumed it was a meteor or a satellite flare. It was actually in the same vicinity as the other sighting, between Per and Aur.

Notes entered 2010-01-02 17:06 UT.

Thanksgiving Observing

Date: 2009-11-27 UT
Time: ~1:00--5:00 UT
Location: Russellville, GA
Telescope: Dob 10.1-in f/4.5 and stopped down to 3.5-in f/13
Magnification: 44x and 114x
Objects: Moon, Jupiter,  h and χ Per, Pleides, M42, M36 Aur
Seeing: 2 (1=worst--4=best)
Atmosphere: Clear, cold, windy.

(Since I didn't have internet access from the phone there, I couldn't tweet log notes from the telescope).

With the family we observed the moon and Jupiter around 1:00--2:30 UT.    The moon was a waxing gibbous at about 80% illumination.  Piton was distinct with it's shadow.  Several craters along the limb had bright illuminated rims.

All four Galilean satellites were visible around Jupiter.  Io actually disappeared behind Jupiter at 1:54 UT, but we didn't actually see the eclipse.

Later, after 2:30 UT I observed the deep sky objects.

I could definitely see the reflection nebulosity around the brighter Pleides stars.  They had that sort-of embedded-in-fog look.

Orion was rising and I observed M42 several times as it got higher in the sky.   As it got higher the details became visibly more distinct.  The sharp edge of the nebula's southern wing was easy to see.  There's also a lone star in that nebulosity that I could see.  Features like the Fish's Mouth and the Trapezium were trivially easy of course.

Later I observed the Double Cluster h and χ Per, and M36 in Aur.

These notes were added around  2009-11-27 23:53 UT and updated on 2009-11-30 10:24 UT.

Jupiter Occultation of 45 Cap

Date: 2009-08-04
Time: 3:24 UT
Location: Snellville, GA
Telescope: Dob 10-in f/4.5 and also stopped down to 3.5-in f/13
Magnification: 114x
Objects: Jupiter, Europa and 45 Cap
Seeing: 4 (1--4)
Atmosphere: Humid, slight clouds. Clear around Jupiter during observing.

45 Cap and Europa had already emerged when I began observing. Europa was barely separated from the limb. Here are some (badly typed) posts from Twitter.

with Dob 10 f/4.5 Europa is just off the limb 2009-08-04 03:24:59 UT

Now four obj following. Closest is maybe 1/6 Jup diameter from Jup and right on the equator. 2009-08-04 03:47:41 UT

Europa was clearly separated and visible. The occulatation was actually over when Jupiter rose since the emergence time of 45 Cap was really 1:00 UT. I was confused by the S&T article and thought it emerged at 2:39 but that was the Io emergence time.

Here's a “sketch” made with MS Paint at 2009-08-04 12:48 UT, some hours later.

Seeing = 4 (1--4). Excellent belt detail. 2009-08-04 04:02:00 UT

Seeing was quite good after the telescope settled down. I observed with and without the aperture mask. I was going to try out the Pickering scale on a star, something I think I used to do many, many years ago, but forgot to do that as I was putting the telescope up.

there is a daek feature in the NEB that extends to the following side. 2009-08-04 04:03:03 UT

(More bad typing. daek = dark). Near the central meridian (CM) was a dark spot in the North Equatorial Belt and it looked like it was part of a dark feature that extended from the CM to the eastern side. I've represented it roughly in the above sketch.

I'm using a hand truck to move the telescope around. The problem is the telescope ground board and box are long enough that the whole thing wants to tip forward when trying to rock it back on the hand truck. My current solution is a piece of very strong string/cord looped from one brass handle, around the hand truck, to the other brass handle, and then wrapped a few times around the top of the handle where my hand is. That's enough to keep the telescope from tipping forward.