A rather nice session plagued with various gremlins. The first Go-To after boot up, sent the mount off to some random spot in the sky. A slew to a known star and a ‘Synchronise’ solved the problem and got Go-To’s landing within the 40mm . I have no idea why the mount does this from time to time – it’s nothing serious, but it does piss me off as it happens for no apparent reason. The…
Observing Session: 23, July
Managed to stay awake enough to open up and make some progress on my Caldwell Catalogue observations. With all the confusion of the existence/location of NGC 6882, I wanted to have another go at observing NGC6885 and satisfy myself as to what is the most obvious cluster with my observing setup. Session Data Date: 23/07/2014 Time: 22:39 – 00:51 UTSeeing: I Perfectly Stable,Transparency: Clear. Air Pressure: 1017mb, Temp: 16C, Humidity 98%, Wind Speed: 2mph Caldwell 37: NGC6885, Collinder417…
Observing Session: 24, June
Well the clear nights are coming thick and fast and although this was a weekday, I managed to stay awake by the time it started to get dark. However, I think I started to observe a little too early, as the first couple of objects were not seen. Another half an hour might have made all the difference. Session Data Date: 24/06/2014 Time: 22:28 – 00:35 UTSeeing: I Perfectly Stable, Transparency: Clear. Temp: 12C, Humidity 91%, Wind Speed:…
Observing Session: 20, June
The run of clear nights continues, but consecutive Midnight starts is just too much during the week. Fortunately, this evening was a Friday, so after a good night out at my local Astronomy club, it was still clear when I got back – so I opened up. I’ve had another bash at drawing. I got a pencil assortment which contains one each of 2B, B, HB, H and 2H grades. While these seem OK, I…
Observing Session: 31, May
Managed to get out tonight, but being rather pooped, it was a struggle to be bothered to open up. Having decided to start a new observing programme a few days before, I loaded up the ‘Caldwell Catalogue’ in Astroplanner and started at number 1 Session Data Date: 31/05/2014Time: 22:26 – 23:23 UT Seeing: I Perfectly Stable, Transparency: Somewhat Clear. Caldwell1 In the 40mm West is to the 10 O’Clock. There are about 7 bright stars in the FOV, but…
Observing Session: 27, May
Wow. Two observing sessions within a week of each other. I’m spoilt! Quite a bit of clear sky around this evening, but at 10:30 when I opened up, it was still bright enough that only the planets and a few principle bright stars were visible. There are some nights where you know it’s going to be clear all night and this was one of them, so I had a bit of time to plan…