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Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.2, est. to be in Sagittarius)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: excellent
Time: Wed Jul 9 04:45:00 2008 UT Obs. no.: 1792
Very early this morning my weather station showed my temperature to be 74 degrees with the due point around 70 degrees and my skies were quite hazy. This kind of weather is perfect for planetary viewing. With this in mind I observed Jupiter with my 127mm MAK with a Teleview 12.5mm eyepiece. This was one of my five best views of Jupiter of all time. First the north equitorial belt was lumpy because festoons were traveling across it. The south equitorial belt was smoother and fainter but the SEB split in two halfway across the face of Jupiter. It looked like a railroad track. It was also easy to see both the north and south temperate belts. These belts were thinner and fainter than the two main belts of Jupiter. Jupiter's four moons all clearly resolved themselves as discs. Finally, back on Jupiter, the north polar hood seemed more pronounced than the south polar hood.
M8 (Lagoon Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: John (e-mail: mail@mail.com, web: http://www.cumparaostea.ro/)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: -, -, -
Light pollution: none Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Aug 8 00:00:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1693
M8's nebulosity was barely visible without the O-III filter. With the filter inplace nebulosity was clearly evident, the so-called Hourglass was very distinct,and the major dark lane was quite noticeable.
M8 (Lagoon Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 18-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Milford, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Sat Jun 16 02:00:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1667
This evening my friends Mike Dzubaty, his son Mike, Steve Borer and I joined other members of The Astronomical Society of New Haven for an evening of stargaing at Silver Sands State Park in Milford Ct. The first thing we observed was the slender one day old moon low in the western sky. The moon was pencil thin and we were able to see Saber's Beads on the moon's lower cusp. As the moon was setting my other friend, Joe Cseh, arrived with news that spaceweather.com was predicting noctillucent clouds may be in our western sky. As soon as we all looked towards the western horizon, we were able to see several blue noctillucent clouds as the sky darkened. These clouds lasted about a half an hour before they faded away. It was only the second time in my life that I saw them. Next we observed Venus, Saturn and Jupiter through through Greg's 18" Dob. Venus showed some subtle shading in its cloud bank while Saturn and Titan were great in the scope. On Jupiter it appears that a piece of the South Temperate Belt was starting to appear on Jupiter. It's been two or three years since I saw the STB. We then started to observe some deep space objects. We began with the globular clusters M13 and M92. Both globulars showed many individual stars in the 18" Dob. M57 was a perfect donut. We then turned our attention to two more globulars, M28 and M4. M28 was not to impressive but M4 showed the individual stars very clearly. We all agreed M4 looked more like an open cluster than a globular cluster and I predict that it will be reclassified as an open cluster by the astronomical community. We then visited M8, M20 and M21. M8 had nebulosity on one side and an open star cluster on the other side. M20's nebulosity was faint but the open cluster M21 was impressive. Speaking of impressive, M11 The Wild Duck Cluster was just that. Finally we observed the Spiral galaxy M51. M51 and its companion galaxy NGC 5195 cores both showed well. We were able to see the spiral effects of M51 and it was nice. Finally we saw the ISS brighten to better than -6th Magnitude when it was going by. We also saw about ten other satellites as well. Finally, the fireflies that were all around us only made it better.
M22 (Globular Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 18-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Milford, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sat Aug 19 01:30:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1558
This evening, a large group of us went to Eels Hill in Milford Ct. for an evening of observing. We started the evening by looking at Jupiter with the one member of the group's 18" dob. There was a huge white oval that was attached to the southern edge of the north equitorial belt. The storm was white with a dark circle going around it. The NEB also had good festooning on it. We toured around the southern skies to observe some Messier objects. In the 18" dob with bino viewers, M22 globular cluster was spectacular. It looked 3D with many individual stars showing. The globular clusters M10 and M12 also showed many individual stars. The Wild Duck Cluster, M11 was awesome. There was a veriable star in the middle which really stood out. I never noticed this star before because it was dim every time I looked at M11. The best nebula I viewed was the Swan Nebula. It clearly looked like a swan. The Dumbbell Nebula, M27 also was a great site in the 18" dob. We also observed M8, M20, M21 and M57. We also observed a beautiful garnet star. As for satellites, we observed an Iridium flare, Envisat and the ISS. Our final observation of the evening was of Neptune and its moon Tritan. Neptunes disk was a pale green color and Tritan was a grey dot. All in all, it was a graet evening of viewing.
Meteor (Meteor, est. mag 0.0, est. to be in Sagittarius)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: naked eye Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sat Jul 29 02:30:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1552
This evening, My friends Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer and I decided to observe the Delta Aquinid meteor shower. I was only able to count two meteors during the 1.5 hours we were watching them. One of the meteors was bright yellow and another one was pale blue. Both were slow moving and both did not travel far across the sky. In fact, they moved only about one degree across the sky. We were also able to observe the milky way with both its Scutum and Sagittarius star clouds showing prominently. The great rift of the milky way also showed very well. We also checked on the brightness of Delta Scorpii to see if it is still flaring. Its magnitude is about 2.2 which means it's still brighter than normal.
M8 (Lagoon Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Mel Dawson (e-mail: dawsonian2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.vega-sky-center.com)
Instrument: 10-inch equatorial reflector Location: Riverview, Florida, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sat Jul 15 02:15:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1550
This day marked another pinnacle in the history of the Vega Sky Center with the testing of the new SAO 10" Newtonian Equatorial Fork Mount reflector. Gary Barabino of the VAO travel from Waggamans, LA on vacation to the Sunshine State to witness first light of this grand instrument.I had just complete test assembling the 10" Newtonian fork mount and decided to go ahead with mounting the optics since Gary was in town. The scope was rolled out of the garage and the first object interest we spotted was Jupiter, looming in the constellation Libra. We had not fully aligned the optics in the scope, but they were setup sufficiently for the test.Upon targeting Jupiter using a 26mm 2" GSO eyepiece, we were graced with a splendid image. The jovian moons Calisto, and Ganymede were on one side while Io, and Europa held tight on the other. The Red Spot was not visible, but I could see the shadow of Io just grazing the limb of Jupiter. Though the optical combination only yeild 55x, this gave me verification of the integrety of the mirror.Next it was time to test the optics on a deep sky object. We chose M8, the Lagoon Nebula. Gary took the drivers seat and quickly landed the nebula in the field of view. He focused and gave out Vega's infamous yell of "Look at that!...". The intense center nebulosity glowed fairly bright, and the cluster just to side glistened. Not bad for a set of optics created back in 1986 and being used for the first time. We continued sweeping the area of the center of the Milky Way in and near Sagittarius and saw countless stars. Star cluster sparkled like hand fulls of diamonds!Unfortunately, the testing/ observing came to a rather sudden end when clouds begin to filter in from the east obscuring the sky completely in a matter of minutes. Nevertheless, we accomplished what we sat out to do, and that was to verify the optics were of good quality.We concluded the session with removing the OTA and taking out the mirrors to complete the finishing process of the scope. The check out the step-by-step construction process for this grand instrument, please go to http://www.vega-sky-center.com. We are updating the website on a regular basis. Also check out the drop-down boxes to reveal a list of our favorite sites.Clear Skies, Forever!Mel DawsonThe Vega Sky Center
M20 (Trifid Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com, web: http://home.mindspring.com/~jcaggiano/)
Instrument: 6-inch equatorial reflector Location: Glenside, Pa, USA
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sat Jun 17 05:45:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1544
After having some decent luck with the UHC filter, I moved further south along "nebula row". Closer to the star Kaus Borealis (the top star in the Tea Kettle) I spotted M20. It was located approx. 6.2 NW of the star. Using the filter made all the difference in the bright southern sky. The nebula appeared as a roundish cloud with multiple bright regions around the edges surrounding darker lanes in the center. It appeared about twice as large as M16 though not as bright. Stars dotted the perimeter of the cloud. It is listed as magnitude 6.3.
Venus (Planet, est. mag -4.3, est. to be in Sagittarius)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Feb 26 10:30:00 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1499
This morning, I arose to observe the newly discovered 5th Mag. Comet Pojmanski, which is located just to the left of Venus. I don't know why I couldn't spot this bright comet with my 127mm MAK or my 10X50 binoculars. I gave up and decided to observe Venus. Right now, Venus looks to be about 30% lit. I saw one darkish area in the southern hemishere along the terminator. If anyone else wants to try for this comet, go to www.spaceweather.com for a location of this comet.
M24 (Open Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Carl Drep (e-mail: carl@drept.com, web: http://www.geocities.com/night_sky_tome)
Instrument: equatorial reflector Location: No location given
Time: Mon Jan 23 23:22:22 2006 UT Obs. no.: 1540
Huge group of stars on the bright milky way of sagittarius appeared wonderful through my telescope.
M20 (Trifid Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Emil Neata (e-mail: forvert2000@yahoo.com, web: http://www.nightskyinfo.com)
Instrument: 4.5-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: No location given
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Mon Oct 10 23:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1352
M 20 is bright and very impressive. The nebula surrounds the triple star HN 40. Towards the edges of the nebula, some darker areas are visible, but I've didn't manage to see the three dark lanes that cross the nebula.
NGC6645 (Open Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Akarsh Simha (e-mail: akarsh_simha@fastmail.fm)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sat Sep 24 15:30:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1344
I'm only 90% sure I've seen this open cluster. I saw a large field of few bright stars. Located south of Gamma Scuti.
NGC6818 (Planetary Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Akarsh Simha (e-mail: akarsh_simha@fastmail.fm)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Sat Sep 24 14:45:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1342
This planetary is fairly difficult to locate but easy to see. It is about as bright as NGC 6210 in Hercules, but has almost no colour. Elliptical with a large eccentricity of about 1.2 or so. It is quite faint and requires averted vision even at 170x magnification. Comparatively large: About as large as NGC 3242.Identifiable comfortably only at 100x, where it is clearly different from a point object. This object neighbours two fairly bright stars. Even at 170x, field being about 15', I could still see one of the stars in the field.
M75 (Globular Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Akarsh Simha (e-mail: akarsh_simha@fastmail.fm)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: severe Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Fri Sep 16 17:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1323
Terrible sky as a result of 14th day waxing moon. A thin haze was also present. This was a real difficult one on such a day, but nevertheless, since SGR is rarely visible from our region (due to Monsoon) I ventured out (successfully) for M75. With a star chart to mag 10 or so that I copied down from SkyChart v2.7 + Tycho 2 Star Catalog, it was a difficult but interesting manuever from omega SGR (Flamsteed 58) to M75 (about 5 arc degrees movement). A very faint, very small, bright (relatively for today's expectations), out-of-focus star-like greenish object viewed best at 100x or so on a 8" f/8. I'm quite sure I've found it as the object I've seen is definitely not a star. It looks as though two faint stars closely neighbour this globular.
M8 (Lagoon Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Vedran Vrhovac (e-mail: vedran_vrhovac@yahoo.com)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Velika Gorica, Croatia
Light pollution: moderate Transparency: fair Seeing: good
Time: Mon Jul 25 22:30:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1269
Its belived that M8 is easy target for amateur astronomer, but not for me. In 3" scope I could only see open cluster without trace of nebulosity. In 8" dob i saw open cluster and small nebula in SE.
M28 (Globular Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 13-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light Transparency: fair Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Jul 25 02:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1267
This evening, My friends Mike Dzubaty, his son Mike, Steve Borer and I did some deep sky observing with Mike's 13" dob. One of the objects we examined, was M28 globular cluster. M28 is a small tightly packed globular cluster that seems like it is embedded in the milky way. It could not compare with the other two globular clusters we observed M13 & M22. We also observed four great open clusters, M6, M7, M21 and M24. M7 is much larger than M6 but both open clusters were fine viewing objects. M24 simply jumps out at you and fills your whole field of view at low power. Finally, we observed M8 which is a nebula with an open cluster along side it. The nebula can also be seen with binoculars. All in all a fine night of observing.
M22 (Globular Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: poor
Time: Mon Jul 11 21:30:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1262
This time, though there was a bad seeing, I could resolve the individual stars with averted vision.
M17 (Omega Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: poor
Time: Sun Jul 3 22:35:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1253
This nebula appeared great along with the nearby galactic cluster, M18. The fainter part of the nebula was visible with averted vision.
M22 (Globular Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in, web: http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=sriram_gubbi)
Instrument: 6-inch other Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: poor
Time: Sun Jul 3 22:30:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1252
Appeared a bit bigger than other globulars. But smaller than Omega Cen. A slight improvement in appearence with mottled edges through 6 inch. Maybe it will be resolved in a dark site.
NGC6818 (Planetary Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Andrew Cooper (e-mail: acooper@pobox.com, web: http://www.siowl.com/)
Instrument: 46-cm Dobsonian reflector Location: Vekol Road, Arizona, Unites States
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jun 5 10:49:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1281
Small blue disk, even and featureless, maybe a little darker at the center, about 30" in diameter, no central star visible
NGC6822 (Galaxy, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Andrew Cooper (e-mail: acooper@pobox.com, web: http://www.siowl.com/)
Instrument: 46-cm Dobsonian reflector Location: Vekol Road, Arizona, Unites States
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jun 5 10:42:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1280
Large, faint, easy in the 18", an oval patch of soft light, no core, no structure, extended 2:1 north-south, thick starfield
NGC6563 (Planetary Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Andrew Cooper (e-mail: acooper@pobox.com, web: http://www.siowl.com/)
Instrument: 46-cm Dobsonian reflector Location: Vekol Road, Arizona, Unites States
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jun 5 09:50:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1279
An almost circular patch about 1' in diameter, no structure noted at 262x and OIII filter
NGC6522 (Globular Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Andrew Cooper (e-mail: acooper@pobox.com, web: http://www.siowl.com/)
Instrument: 46-cm Dobsonian reflector Location: Vekol Road, Arizona, Unites States
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jun 5 06:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1278
Small, rich, condensed, 3' diameter, just resolved at 175x, very nice globular in a very rich Milky Way starfield, NGC6528 in the field just 15' east
NGC6565 (Planetary Nebula, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Andrew Cooper (e-mail: acooper@pobox.com, web: http://www.siowl.com/)
Instrument: 46-cm Dobsonian reflector Location: Vekol Road, Arizona, Unites States
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jun 5 06:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1277
Small!! A star that will not quite focus, slightly green, brighter at the center with a very small halo
NGC6540 (Globular Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Andrew Cooper (e-mail: acooper@pobox.com, web: http://www.siowl.com/)
Instrument: 46-cm Dobsonian reflector Location: Vekol Road, Arizona, Unites States
Light pollution: none Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Jun 5 05:00:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1276
Small, dim, unresolved patch in a very! thick Milky Way starfield, roughly oval in shape about 2' in size
M55 (Globular Cluster, in Sagittarius)
Observer: Akarsh Simha (e-mail: akarsh_simha@fastmail.fm)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: severe Transparency: good Seeing: good
Time: Tue May 17 22:25:00 2005 UT Obs. no.: 1313
The south sky where I live is flooded with light, as it is towards the north of Bangalore. So all I saw in this case was a terribly faint, but very large globular cluster, hardly visible as a faint circular diffuse object. No background stars could be seen.
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