[Chaos-l] Observing Report - Friday July 11th

[Robert Nielsen]

Well, it just goes to show you that sometimes you need to just drag the 
scope out and see what you can see ...

Last Friday, the moon was first quarter and lit up the southwest sky for 
a lot of the night, and the atmosphere was heavy (but the sky was 
clear), so I wasn't totally optimistic when I mentioned on the listserv 
that I needed a photon fix.   But Kumar and I met at Farrington Pt and 
setup our scopes and took a look.   Believe it or not, it was a pretty 
good night (in my opinion)!   First up ... we took at look at the moon, 
and since the terminator was right in the middle there was a lot to see 
with good contrast.   I particularly liked the Eratosthenes crater, 
which showed different layers on its edge, and a nice center mound.

Then I tried to see the Veil Nebula.  Yes, at Farrington Pt ... I tried 
to see the Veil.   Eventually I did, using the f/6.3 focal reducer on my 
scope, and definitely using the O-III filter.   It was faint, but both 
Kumar and I could see it.    Then I tried a couple of other objects ... 
M13, M27 ... all very visible, although better after the moon set around 
midnight.

Off and on during the night, Kumar and I viewed Jupiter in the south.   
Early on, it was too low in the sky so that it "wobbled" in the 
atmosphere ... although it was very bright and all four Galilean moons 
were very visible.  But later, after midnight, it rose high enough to be 
more stable and the Great Red Spot just happened to be positioned 
directly in the middle of one of the red bands (although the GRS is 
definitely not *red* any more ... kinda more *white*).   If I remember 
Alice correctly from the last meeting, Jupiter is close to being at 
opposition, so it is very large and bright in the sky.   And because it 
rotates so fast (completing a revolution in less than 10 hours) if you 
check it both at the beginning and end of an observing session, you 
might be able to see the Great Red Spot also.   Pretty cool!

Kumar and I had a good time trying each other's eyepieces, which is one 
of the things I enjoy at these club observing sessions.

We gave up around 2 AM ... but it was a good night.  One of the few we 
have in the summer around here.

Robert Nielsen