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Sun (Sun)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.elanus.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: naked eye Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Dec 1 21:06:00 2007 UT Obs. no.: 1739
Testing the posting of an observation, since I apparently broke that functionality when moving servers recently. Apologies, all.
Mars (Planet)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.elanus.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Aug 27 07:50:00 2003 UT Obs. no.: 872
Wow. I'd had my telescope packed away in the garage while our house undergoes its seemingly endless remodel, but I dug it out last week, knowing I'd never forgive myself if I didn't take the opportunity to look at Mars during this opposition. Then I couldn't find my eyepieces, which were packed away separately! But then I decided that an event like this really justified a new eyepiece, anyway, so I splurged $70 or so for a Meade Series 4000 Super Plossl 9.7mm (nothing spectacular, I realize, but better than the cheapy eyepieces that came with my Celestron Starhopper). And then it was either cloudy, or I was on a sailing trip to Santa Cruz Island (beautiful dark skies, but no room for the telecope), or, on the first night back from the sailing trip, I was too tired to wait up until Mars was high in the sky. But tonight it was clear, and I waited up, and whoa! I only looked for about 10 minutes, but I was dazzled by all the albedo features that were clearly and distinctly visible, along with the South Polar Cap, of course.
Jupiter (Planet)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Dec 30 08:45:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 756
I hadn't observed Jupiter through the telescope in a while, and after viewing Saturn through the 25mm eyepiece + 2x Barlow lens, I swung over to Jupiter, which looked gigantic! Three Jovian moons visible, all on one side of the planet. I was getting cold, so I didn't really spend the time to look for detail on the planet. Also, I definitely need to collimate my mirrors. I wonder how that might improve my views at high power.
Saturn (Planet)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Dec 30 08:30:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 755
I had assumed that seeing would be too poor for good views of Saturn, but seeing seemed to have steadied down since I started observing a few hours earlier (at least judging by twinkling of stars high in the sky), so I turned the telescope on Saturn, which was near the zenith, after finishing up with the nebulae and clusters I'd listed to look at tonight. It was glorious! The best views were given by using the 25mm eyepiece with the 2x Barlow. A dark belt and dark hood on the planet itself, the shadow of the rings on the front of the planet, and the Cassini Division were all fairly easy.
NGC2264 (Open Cluster, in Monoceros)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Dec 30 08:15:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 754
Observed the cluster easily, though was unable to detect the dark "Cone Nebula".
NGC2244 (Open Cluster, in Monoceros)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Mon Dec 30 08:05:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 753
The star cluster at the core of the Rosette Nebula was easy, though the nebula itself was not detected.
NGC2261 (Bright Nebula, in Monoceros)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 07:55:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 752
Hubble's Variable Nebula was easy at all powers, as a smallish, comet-shaped fuzzy patch.
NGC2022 (Planetary Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 07:40:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 751
After star hopping to its location at low power, and being unable to distinguish it from other field stars, I was able to see a faint disk at higher power.
NGC2023 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 07:30:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 750
Dark lane detected at low power by jiggling telescope. Fairly difficult.
NGC2024 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 07:25:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 749
Detected at low power. Fairly difficult.
M78 (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 07:15:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 748
A faint, small nebula, found by star hopping at low power. Fairly easy.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 07:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 747
I'll never get tired of looking at the Great Nebula in Orion.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 07:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 747
I'll never get tired of looking at the Great Nebula in Orion.
M42 (Orion Nebula) (Bright Nebula, in Orion)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 07:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 747
I'll never get tired of looking at the Great Nebula in Orion.
M37 (Open Cluster, in Auriga)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 06:45:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 744
Found with difficulty after getting lazy, and instead of star-hopping from M36 just generally sweeping "thataway." Star-hopping is almost always going to be faster, even for bright objects like prominent Messier clusters.
M36 (Open Cluster, in Auriga)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 06:35:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 743
Found by star-hopping at low power from M38.
NGC1907 (Open Cluster, in Auriga)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 06:25:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 742
Noticed in same low-power field with M38, as a small fuzzy patch slight S of the cluster. Was not obviously a star cluster (as opposed to, say, a small, bright nebula) until I increased power.
M38 (Open Cluster, in Auriga)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 06:20:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 741
M38 was easy to find by star hopping. Also noticed NGC 1907 in the same field, without having realized it was there beforehand.
M33 (Pinwheel Galaxy) (Galaxy, in Triangulum)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 06:10:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 740
M33 required careful star-hopping to find it, but was then obvious at low power.
M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) (Galaxy, in Andromeda)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: excellent Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Dec 10 06:00:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 739
The Andromeda Galaxy was fairly easily to the naked eye in the extremely clear skies following a winter storm. I observed it, and its companion, under a variety of powers in the 8-inch.
Comet (Comet)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 7x50-mm binoculars Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: good Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Jan 2 13:30:00 2002 UT Obs. no.: 757
Just before dawn, observed Comet Kudo-Fujikawa (C/2002 X5) by standing on my patio furniture to get a view of the northeast horizon over my backyard fence. I tried first just sweeping the northeast/east horizon, based on my vague memory of reading a Sky and Telescope article, but after failing to find anything fuzzy I went and read the article again (http://skyandtelescope.com/news/current/article_816_1.asp), then tried again and succeeded. In 7x50 binoculars was a small, slightly elongated fuzzy patch that required averted vision in order for me to convince myself that it really was non-stellar. Being cold and pre-breakfast I didn't really consider dragging my telecope out and trying to find a place where it could get a good view (standing on my lawn chair and hoisting the tube onto my shoulder, bazooka-style, didn't seem like a particularly good option), but the smallness of the fuzzy patch in my binoculars, and my just-barely-not-completely-convinced-I'd-got-the-right-object mental state made me want to.
Meteor (Meteor)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: naked eye Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: poor Seeing: poor
Time: Sun Nov 18 11:14:00 2001 UT Obs. no.: 597
After the party my wife Linda threw to celebrate the publication of my book, we'd talked about staying up to see the Leonid meteor shower's California peak, predicted to occur between 1 and 3 a.m. local time, but it was overcast at 11:00 p.m., so the guests just headed home. But at 3:00, when I woke up to take our puppy outside for his nighttime potty run, the cloud cover was patchy enough to let some of the brightest stars and planets poke through, so I sat in the backyard for a few minutes gazing upward, and saw 6 bright meteors in the course of just a few minutes, one of them bright enough to leave a visible trail for a few seconds. For those at dark/clear sites it must have been impressive.
Mars (Planet)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: severe Transparency: good Seeing: poor
Time: Wed Jun 6 05:30:00 2001 UT Obs. no.: 555
My first opportunity to view Mars during this apparition. I wasn't really sure how prominent it would be naked-eye (or where, exactly, it would be, I have to admit), and spent a few minutes examining (and rejecting) some stars near the full moon shortly after moonrise. Then I went out at 10:30 p.m. local time, and saw that amazingly bright (compared to my last memories of viewing Mars) object below and to the left of the moon. Through the telescope it was a nice, big disk, though too low, and with too-bad seeing, to reveal any features to me.
Moon (Moon)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: naked eye Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: poor Seeing: poor
Time: Tue Jan 9 05:00:01 2001 UT Obs. no.: 540
Observed the full moon, naked eye, after watching my Christmas present of the From the Earth to the Moon DVD.
Moon (Moon)
Observer: John Callender (e-mail: jbc@west.net, web: http://www.west.net/~jbc/)
Instrument: naked eye Location: Carpinteria, CA, USA
Light pollution: light Transparency: poor Seeing: poor
Time: Tue Jan 9 05:00:00 2001 UT Obs. no.: 540
Observed the full moon, naked-eye, after watching my Christmas-present DVD of From the Earth to the Moon.
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