Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Astronomy night

It was a very clear night. Unfortunately there was some light-pollution from a music festival (we could hear everything very good, some nice background music). Because of the wind, astrophotograpy was not possible. After 22.00u there 2 members of Aeroclub Bladel came along so I was not completely on my own. One member brought along his binoculars, the other one his 127mm refractor telescope (!) with 8mm TV Radian eyepiece. The three of us observed many objects, there were much ohhh' s and ahh' s. Here is the observing list, incl. used the used amplification factors: M31 Andromedanebula (incl. M110) best at on 31x, clear centre with M110 with direct-vision. M27 Dumbbell nebula on 127x, beautiful structure of the nebula well visible. M57 ring nebula on 200x, clear ring structure well visible. M103 on 127x, open cluster in Cassiopeia, not really particular. NGC869/884 Double cluster in Perseus: really nice on 31x. M33 galax, just visible on 31x (stood in fact still too low). M45 Pleiades open cluster nice on 31x. M81 and M82 galaxies most beautiful on 31x. Both galaxies well visible in the same field of vision. Then there was time for the Auriga clusters: M38, M36, M37 and M35 on 127x. Further we looked at Albireo (double star) at 200x) Beta1 Cygni was "red" and Beta2 Cygni was " Blue". Also a very nice object in the 127mm refractor. Jupiter viewed with 5mm the ortho (200x): 2 bands on Jupiter visible. Also viewed with 8mm Radian in my 200mm newt: what says a clear and sharp eyepiece! Furthermore we looked at the milky way with our eyes: I could distinguish M31 with the naked eye (for the 1st time). Also were there still large number of meteors visible in several parts of the sky. Around 3.00u also 2e the member had gone home. Then I still sat around, enjoying the beautiful night. There were some rabbits that looked like: "What are you doing here?" Also a small owl flew over my head. Then I packed up and went home because the day afterwards I had be in a pub again for a 15.00u gig. I was a little bit sleepy when we started, but after the first couple (hard) notes I was awake again........

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