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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
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