M 1 | TOP |
Date: 15-16 October 2004 Location: Calstar, Lake San Antonio Seeing: 6 LM: 6? Scope: 100mm f/15 E.B.M. Refractor 53x The seeing went bad and the clouds went by when I found this near the horizon. Very faint, squarish patch of grey that seemed to shift 1/2 its own width once or twice per second because of the seeing - not swimming, more like the hula dance. About this time I started to notice a bad neck-ache from what Stacy calls refractor yoga, it made me tense up and I realized that the quality of the view has a lot to do with how relaxed one is. On the bright side - polar-fleece lined jeans and sheep-fleece lined boots seem to do the trick below the neck. --- | |
M 2 | TOP |
Date: 2005-7-1 1h53m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 5 LM: 4+ Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x A bit fatter and more dense than M 15, need to avert vision to resolve stars en masse pretty low in the muck from backyard dense core, less of a point than M 15 --- | |
M 3 | TOP |
Date: 2005-3-9 22h08m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: Montebello Seeing: 7-8 LM: 4.2- Wispy Cirrus clouds above and skyglow in the north. Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 38x first glob in a long time, inside a little triangle. Sweet fuzzy 1/2 way between cor caroli and arcturus RDF'd it smack on. Cant resolve any stars but is v. bright --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Big, sweet glob. Can resolve 30% of stars. Nice! --- | |
M 4 | TOP |
Date: 2 Aug, 2004 Location: East Park Reservoir in Colusa County, California. elev 1168 Seeing: 7 LM: very clear, slight light dome, some haze to 5-10 degrees, but great low horizons Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 10mm 48x - Just apparent as a GC w/ averted vision, about all you can say is 'not a comet' --- Date: 17 Sep, 2004 9:30 pm Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: Good ~5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x drew a speckled clump sketch could resolve about 5 stars clearly @ 48x, with averted vision --- Date: 6 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 68x Very sparkly and bright. | |
M 5 | TOP |
Date: 17 Sep, 2004 8:50 pm Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 6 LM: not bad for not dark yet, before moonset Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x fast easy find - tight center GC, @ 28x distinct, still tight center. --- Date: 2005-5-27 22h29m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 6 LM: ~4 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Very sparkly cluster, not packed like M 13, small pinpoints --- | |
M 6 | TOP |
Date: 2004-7-19 23h21m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: LM: Scope: 9x25 Binocs Impressive bright cluster, looking over back fence. I got a beautiful look at some of the things in Sagittarius with some dinky 9x25 binoculars, made it all worthwhile. That color between black and indigo, with a hint of yellow streetlight glow, and the few clusters I could make out like diamonds on velvet in a dark room... went to sleep with a smile on my face. --- Date: 2 Aug, 2004 Location: East Park Reservoir in Colusa County, California. elev 1168 Seeing: 7 LM: very clear, slight light dome, some haze to 5-10 degrees, but great low horizons Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 17mm 28x - irregular bunch of *s, maybe 50 resolved. --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Weird - I logged "Small crescent cluster, 6 bright stars, 20 with averted vision" - doesn't sound like M 6 does it? Too much power (too much happy hour?), who knows?? Sounds more like a naked eye report. Very odd. | |
M 7 | TOP |
Date: 2 Aug, 2004 Location: East Park Reservoir in Colusa County, California. elev 1168 Seeing: 7 LM: very clear, slight light dome, some haze to 5-10 degrees, but great low horizons Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 17mm 28x - Myriad of bright pinpoints --- Date: 13 Sep, 2004 Location: San Jose Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor Just logged. --- Date: 6 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 68x Fat bright cluster - resolves to core. Too high a power for this one. --- Date: 11 July 2005, 11:00 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: naked eye Brilliant loose cluster | |
M 8 | TOP |
Date: 2004-7-19 23h26m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: LM: Scope: 9x25 Binocs Just logged it, over back fence. --- Date: 2 Aug, 2004 Location: East Park Reservoir in Colusa County, California. elev 1168 Seeing: 7 LM: very clear, slight light dome, some haze to 5-10 degrees, but great low horizons Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x 17mm - nice bright glow from nebula and bright tacks around it especially 2 bright * at 10mm 53x softer glow with better shape --- Date: 27 July 2005 Location: Montebello Seeing: 4-6/10 LM: 5.0-5.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 58x plossl, 200x nagler First at 200x, dark lagoon contrast is great. Seeing not good enough to pick out much in the hourglass except turbulence, but it's obvious that something is there besides just a bright star. @ 58x, becomes obvious it is too big to fit in 1 degree FOV. 2 halves so dissimilar, the one with only 2 bright points in a broad neb., and the other with the big very bright cluster of = mag stars moving in on a slightly fainter neb. | |
M 9 | TOP |
Date: 27 July 2005 Location: Montebello Seeing: 4-6/10 LM: 5.0 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Puny fuzz ball, barely resolve half a dozen stars averted. Obviously dense, but not bright. SEDS says it is dimmed by nearby dark neb. Logged this way back last year at Coe, but lost the logs :( If I recall right, it was a smudge in the 80mm (everything was a smudge in the 80mm) | |
M 10 | TOP |
Date: 2005-5-31 23h33m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 5 LM: 3.5+ Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. A bit more interesting and regular than M 12 nearby. Somewhat faint from SJ. Skimming the tree tops. I think this was the first DSO I looked at after building the Dipper scope, or maybe M 5. I was hoping for eye-blinding spectacle, o well :) --- | |
M 11 | TOP |
Date: 2004-7-18 21h59m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: LM: Scope: 9x25 Binocs Only noted I spotted it, was just looking over back fence to see Sag --- Date: August 2004 Location: San Jose Seeing: OK LM: Awful Scope: 100mm E.B.M Refractor Star hopping win. From end of Aquila, followed stair step string of stars and there at the end, there was a thing! A patch or blob. I'll remember this accomplishment. No finder, just a CDC chart and the old Huygenian 85x EP with Bruno mounted on an ancient wooden tripod with a hacked up equally ancient fluid head contraption, not alt-az, more like shove-yank. --- Date: 17 Sep, 2004 10:30 PM Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor Only noted I saw it. --- Date: 8 July 2005, 11:00 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 40x panoptic 200x nagler Brilliant @ hi and low powers. @ 200x an almost squarish patch. When viewed directly it almost blends with field stars, but averted shows many bright components in a square shape. A favorite object. One really bright star just off center. Fills the fov @ 200x and maybe 5% at 40x, is just a dense brilliant patch. Next day Dan Wright showed me how to catch geosynchronous satellites passing thru here and I got one and watched it for a while. | |
M 12 | TOP |
Date: 2005-5-31 23h20m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 5 LM: 3.5+ Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Visit this and M 10 a lot the past week, as it's well placed from back yard. Somewhat irregular shape, not as sparkling as M 5, easy to find. Does resolve into stars. --- | |
M 13 | TOP |
Date: 2004-7-11 23h43m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: LM: Scope: 9x25 B&L Binocs lying on back in backyard looking straight up little smudge not resolving to a point also 3 satellites, 2 going Nnw, one going ssw This is my first ever logged observation. --- Date: 2 Aug, 2004 Location: East Park Reservoir in Colusa County, California. elev 1168 Seeing: 7 LM: very clear, slight light dome, some haze to 5-10 degrees, but great low horizons Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 10mm 48x - easy find, can't resolve into individual stars but very bright --- Date: 7 Aug 2004 Location: Coyote Park Seeing: 7 LM: ?? In a big 18" dob, huge billions of bright (but kinda square looking) stars, like tiny tiny glowing postage stamps. --- Date: 6 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Showed to the folks making coffee for us. Got a wow out of them :) Pretty great view, near zenith, almost overflows fov in 7mm nagler. Really impressive. --- | |
M 14 | TOP |
Date: 2005-7-24 23h47m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 6-7 LM: 3.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. at 25mm - very faint round fuzz patch 17mm larger, less well defined 7mm broad - 1/3 fov, almost with averted can resolve some but not quite --- | |
M 15 | TOP |
Date: 2005-7-1 1h38m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 6 LM: 4+ Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Pretty, resolves to hundreds of stars, bright core. --- | |
M 16 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 40x panoptic, 85x plossl Broad and grainy, nebula in cluster, faint nebula @ 40x More dark visible @ 85x --- Date: 27 July 2005 Location: Montebello Seeing: 4-6/10 LM: 5.0-5.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 58x plossl Nice cluster, but only faintest hint of nebula. I can imagine the pillars in there, but I can't see them. Found NGC 6645 OC while panning around. --- | |
M 17 | TOP |
Date: 13 Sep, 2004 Location: San Jose Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor Just logged "Nebula" no notes. --- Date: 8 July 2005, 11:00 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Can easily make out swan shape. Fills view of 7mm, very dark inside neck. Pretty exciting, got a wow from me, first time I could see the shape. 40x, fades somewhat, still shapely. Surprisingly well defined. --- Date: 27 July 2005 Location: Montebello Seeing: 4-6/10 LM: 5.0-5.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 58x plossl Very nice view, Again noted how very dark it is under the swans neck. --- | |
M 18 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 40x panoptic Little keyhole shaped cluster @ 40x --- | |
M 19 | TOP |
Date: 17 Sep, 2004, 9:46 pm Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x Smooth fading in GC in rich field of stars. Can't resolve stars in these GCs Bullseye finding it with chart and RDF. Finding that star hopping is easy with a chart that matches NELM. --- | |
M 20 | TOP |
Date: 2004-7-19 23h27m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: LM: Scope: 9x25 Binocs Just logged, looking over back fence. --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x I often skip logging it. Doesn't do much for me. --- Date: 27 July 2005 Location: Montebello Seeing: 4-6/10 LM: 5.0-5.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 58x plossl Spent some time on this and other poorly logged items. That was tonight's plan. Can make out 2 of the 3 dark lanes, third only a guess with averted vision. I always think of this as being more or less round, and fainter roundish shadowy bit next to the bright bit trips me up. It's views like this that end up costing folks money, as in aperture. --- | |
M 21 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Bright loose and blue - must be young. 10 * ring at center, very dark background. --- | |
M 22 | TOP |
Date: 2004-7-19 23h41m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: LM: Scope: 9x25 Binocs Just logged the observation. --- Date: 13 Sep, 2004 Location: San Jose Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor Just logged. --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Unremarkable glob, but always hard to find for me. --- Date: 27 July 2005 Location: Montebello Seeing: 4-6/10 LM: 5.0 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Looked at this a million times, but I never seemed to log it properly before. Largish open glob, many bright blue foreground members. Blue haze in background but not a point source type center. Small 5-6 star bunch in south next to a dark wedge. Oddly it seems to have few intermediate mag stars, just the bright ones and the haze, probably seeing impinging, pretty unsteady. --- | |
M 23 | TOP |
Date: 2004-7-19 23h41m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: LM: Scope: 9x25 Binocs Just logged. --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 40x panoptic Broad, rich and loose, equal mag. components. | |
M 24 | TOP |
Date: 2004-7-19 23h27m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: LM: Scope: 9x25 Binocs Just logged, over back fence. Not 100% sure - there's a lot of activity in the sky here despite the light pollution. --- Date: 4 Aug, 2004, around 10-12 pm Location: Lassen, devastated area parking lot Seeing: 9 LM: Spectacularly dark. Scope: naked eye the dark lanes were "brighter" than the rest of sky, more intense M 24 amazing glow in sag. like a streetlight --- Date: 13 Sep, 2004 Location: San Jose Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor Just logged. --- Date: 8 July 2005, 11:00 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 40x panoptic Just fills the field of view - dazzling. Read an article today about the galactic center, it looks better when you know you're looking through a window :) | |
M 25 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 40x panoptic Fat, loose with a dark tear in the center. --- | |
M 26 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 40x panoptic Loose, 30 star cluster --- | |
M 27 | TOP |
Date: 7 Aug 2004 Location: Coyote Park Seeing: 7 LM: ?? Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 17mm 28x dumbbell neb., like a bowtie, blurry same night in 100mm binocs, huge, but same features in amazing milky way field --- | |
M 28 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Small fuzz ball glob, can barely make out that it is stars. Transparency suffers toward horizon. --- Date: 27 July 2005 Location: Montebello Seeing: 4-6/10 LM: 5.0 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Another small glob, can resolve many stars with averted. Rich irregular sprinkle of foreground brighter members makes it look not round. Dense unresolvable core. --- | |
M 29 | TOP |
Date: 2005-6-30 23h14m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 6-7 LM: poor 4 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 55x harp shaped cluster, 8 bright members in a harp shape smudge effect in finder --- | |
>>> M 30 | TOP |
M 31 | TOP |
Date: 2004-7-15 23h56m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: LM: Scope: 9x25 Binocs diffuse oval smudge in downtown light pollution amazed I could see it at all --- Date: 4 Aug, 2004, around 10-12 pm Location: Lassen, devastated area parking lot Seeing: 9 LM: Spectacularly dark. Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 10mm % 17mm Huge! Bright glow expands way outside FOV - showed it to a passer by naked eye and helped him get it in little binocs, really amazing --- Date: 7 Aug 2004 Location: Coyote Park Seeing: 7 LM: ?? Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 17mm 28x really nice, on horizon @ 17 mm but noticeably cropped could make out the 2 companion G's but didn't log them showed to ranger passing by --- Date: 7 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 55x 25mm plossl 40x 35panoptic Huge - 5 FOVs wide, southern dust lanes/arms Opaque core, only hint of northern arms. Companions huge objects in their own right. | |
M 32 | TOP |
Date: 7 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 55x 25mm plossl, 200x 7mm nagler Very bright mini core in the glow of M 31. --- | |
M 33 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 7:00 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 6 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 19x, 28x Early evening - large and faint, no discernible center or shape apart from a slight oval. --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 58x plossl Fills FOV (1 degree), lopsided oval core, very dim. Later while writing this up I realize that when I see these diffuse ovals with a lopsided core, I am seeing a bar. Couldn't make out spiral arms on this, but next time I'll know better how to look for them. --- | |
M 34 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 7:20 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 6 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 19x, 28x OC in very rich star field, 4 double stars or pairs in center star field so rich as to make cluster almost missable --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Loose cluster, 20 stars similar mag. Looks like a group of many pairs. --- | |
M 35 | TOP |
Date: 15-16 October 2004 Location: Calstar, Lake San Antonio Seeing: 6 LM: 6? Scope: 100mm f/15 E.B.M. Refractor 58x, 70x Sweet! Really sparkly cluster in a wide band rich with stars running north-south, like the buckle on a belt. Tried to count them and stopped at 100 as the longer I looked, the more stars were there. --- | |
M 36 | TOP |
Date: 15-16 October 2004 Location: Calstar, Lake San Antonio Seeing: 6 LM: 6? Scope: 100mm f/15 E.B.M. Refractor 58x, 70x Loose cluster with about 30 stars in what looked to me like the shape of a spider - fits well with the LSA tarantula stories I heard next morning. --- | |
M 37 | TOP |
Date: 15-16 October 2004 Location: Calstar, Lake San Antonio Seeing: 6 LM: 6? Scope: 100mm f/15 E.B.M. Refractor 58x, 70x Very rich OC with a multitude of stars in the background not resolving to points, blueish color overall. About a dozen very bright points in the foreground, many more with averted vision. Spent a good deal of time on this one, waiting for cloud bands to pass by, worth the wait. --- | |
M 38 | TOP |
Date: 15-16 October 2004 Location: Calstar, Lake San Antonio Seeing: 6 LM: 6? Scope: 100mm f/15 E.B.M. Refractor 58x, 70x A medium density open cluster with a sort of aluminum color to it. Many stars not resolving to points but many more very crisp. --- | |
M 39 | TOP |
Date: 3 Aug, 2004, around 10-11 pm Location: Lassen, south summit lake campground - zenith through the trees Seeing: 9 LM: No idea, but it was DARK Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x loose open cluster - very bright blue and white also noted sibling to M 39 - prolly NGC7082 --- Date: 4 Aug, 2004, around 10-12 pm Location: Lassen, devastated area parking lot Seeing: 9 LM: Spectacularly dark. Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 10mm % 17mm broad OC - 20 blue stars | |
M 40 | TOP |
Date: 2005-3-9 22h25m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: Montebello Seeing: 7-8 LM: 4.2- Wispy Cirrus clouds above and skyglow in the north. Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 38x pair of dim similar mag stars - can possibly see why messier logged it, it's the right size and shape if you defocus, or if you cant totally resolve it --- | |
M 41 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 11:00 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 19x 50 star OC with patch in the middle looks like a GC in middle --- | |
M 42 | TOP |
Date: 15-16 October 2004 Location: Calstar, Lake San Antonio Seeing: 6 LM: 6? Scope: 100mm f/15 E.B.M. Refractor 53x With M 43 - first look in a scope Ok, I must have seen 50 or 100 photos of this, but I had never seen it in a scope before, and when the clouds were not completely blocking it from view it was amazing! Half of the field of view just glowed right to the edge and beyond, amazingly bright and full of swirls and rivers, the other half of the view jet black with just a few tiny points of stars here and there. the semi-circle of bright stars at the center almost looked like ball bearings, they seemed so perfect and round, perhaps the surrounding nebulosity helped conceal some lack of contrast. This was a stunner, I'll be back. --- | |
M 43 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 8:00 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 6 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 100x 4.8mm Nagler Spent some time concentrating on this - hard to resolve contrast with M 42, some glow around bright central star. With vision averted (looking at trapezium) is distinctly nebulous. --- | |
M 44 | TOP |
Date: 2004-12-9 23h56m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 5 LM: <4 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 3 triples in the center, third triple-third star very faint, maybe hallucination, whole fits in 25mm (2.5°) very well, cluster is perhaps 1.5°x1.8°, about 60 stars resolved down in the muck from city lights though tried to find M67 but too faint, transparency bad down there --- | |
M 45 | TOP |
Date: 15-16 October 2004 Location: Calstar, Lake San Antonio Seeing: 6 LM: 6? Scope: 100mm f/15 E.B.M. Refractor Really bright and blue - again wouldn't fit in FOV. Wished I had my f/6 scope. --- Date: 2004-12-10 0h23m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 6 LM: 4 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor Pleiades cluster only, no nebula w/ 25mm plössl layer of bright stars over layer of tacks snakelike asterism in back layer close to zenith with transparency failing to 45° above horizon, last object of a short but lucky night first good night since Calstar --- Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 7:20 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 6 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 19x Some bluish glow around Pleiades - maybe? | |
M 46 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 11:30 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 19x Windy Salt (46) and pepper (47) in same 2.5 degree field of view 40 resolvable stars in 47 oval, 200 in 46 round another small OC adjacent to 47 --- | |
M 47 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 11:30 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 19x Windy Salt (46) and pepper (47) in same 2.5 degree field of view 40 resolvable stars in 47 oval, 200 in 46 round another small OC adjacent to 47 --- | |
M 48 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 11:45 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 19x, 28x Windy 1/2 degree loose wide OC 40 stars resolve, 8 star snakelike asterism in center --- | |
M 49 | TOP |
M 50 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 10:45 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x, 48x About 20 brighter stars in a rich field with glow behind (assume unresolvable stars, but looks like a nebula) cluster stars not much more dense than surrounding field best view in 10mm with averted vision --- | |
M 51 | TOP |
Date: 30 July, 2004, 10:00 pm Location: San Jose Seeing: fair LM: full moon Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 9mm - 53x no luck finding this - had some trouble with reflex sight (Orion) at steep angle --- Date: 4 Aug, 2004, around 10-12 pm Location: Lassen, devastated area parking lot Seeing: 9 LM: Spectacularly dark. Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 10mm % 17mm Finally, yes! central point visible @ 10mm, as well as sibling, can almost make out spiral structure with averted vision. --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Both galaxies visible with spiral structure well defined, can't quite make out the bridge arm between the two. Supernova visible with direct vision as well as 2 other bright overlay stars. | |
M 52 | TOP |
Date: 4 Aug, 2004, around 10-12 pm Location: Lassen, devastated area parking lot Seeing: 9 LM: Spectacularly dark. Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 10mm % 17mm Faint OC surrounded by inky ring --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 40x panoptic Very rich and very wide OC in Milky Way star field. --- | |
M 53 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Smeared glob. resolve 25 stars with averted vision. --- | |
M 54 | TOP |
Date: 17 Sep, 2004 Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x Greenish, like M 69 only in darkness - no stars nearby --- | |
M 55 | TOP |
Date: 17 Sep, 2004 10:30 PM Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x very large GC, 1/8 of 10mm FOV, can't resolve into stars --- | |
M 56 | TOP |
Date: 2005-6-30 23h54m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 6-7 LM: poor 4 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 55x, 200x Somewhat core-less glob non round patch in 25mm barely globular in 7mm, resolve outer half dozen stars --- | |
M 57 | TOP |
Date: 30 July, 2004, 9:30 pm Location: San Jose Seeing: fair LM: full moon Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 9mm - 53x Easy find! Well, considering I had to crawl on the Deck, it was right at zenith. Pretty exciting, for some reason the shape of this is so not what one expects in the sky. Like a smoke ring or donut, surprisingly easy to see, thought it would be much fainter. Dark in center. Could imagine there was a star in there. --- Date: 27 July 2005 Location: Montebello Seeing: 4-6/10 LM: 5.0 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Another object I look at often but don't log. Takes magnification really well, wish I had more but 200x is the max I can do. Well, 300x with the 4.8 nagler but that EP just bites 99% of the time. Had a good long look tonight. Can make out slight thickening of ring along one axis. I bet from the side this would look like the dumbbell. Tried to see central star for a while using all angles of averted vision, no luck there. For just a moment thought I could see a star embedded in ring. Fleeting, couldn't confirm. --- | |
M 58 | TOP |
M 59 | TOP |
M 60 | TOP |
M 61 | TOP |
M 62 | TOP |
Date: 2 Aug, 2004 Location: East Park Reservoir in Colusa County, California. elev 1168 Seeing: 7 LM: very clear, slight light dome, some haze to 5-10 degrees, but great low horizons Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 10mm 48x - faint fuzzy GC grey-bluish uniformly fading out, about 5% of FOV @ 10mm, just fuzz @ 17mm 53x --- Date: 17 Sep, 2004 Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x sharp fade out, like an LED shape, like a pimple _/-\_ smaller than M 19 but an even richer field, another bullseye with rdf --- | |
M 63 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Oval, semi stellar core. --- | |
M 64 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Oval, dark comma near core. Thought as I logged it well, I am imagining things. Later see that this is the black eye galaxy. I see more than I think I see. Need to come up with a list of questions to ask myself when observing an object. --- | |
M 65 | TOP |
Date: 2005-3-9 22h55m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: Montebello Seeing: 6-7 LM: 4.2- Wispy Cirrus clouds above and skyglow in the north. Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 38x Thought I was using 10mm but it was 12.5, too bad as that one is dimmer with M 66, both dim mottled oval smudges, 66 slightly larger neither has a core I could make out, both look more like clouds than objects due to mottling. also in fov NGC 3628,only imagine it, nothing certain --- | |
M 66 | TOP |
Date: 2005-3-9 22h55m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: Montebello Seeing: 6-7 LM: 4.2- Wispy Cirrus clouds above and skyglow in the north. Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 38x Thought I was using 10mm but it was 12.5, too bad as that one is dimmer with M 66, both dim mottled oval smudges, 66 slightly larger neither has a core I could make out, both look more like clouds than objects due to mottling. also in fov NGC 3628,only imagine it, nothing certain --- | |
M 67 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 10:30 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x, 48x, 100x Some bright scatter on a fainter layer of speckles about 25 stars resolved direct vision many more apparent with averted vision best view with 10mm, about 1/10th field of view (7 arcmin) low toward horizon. --- | |
M 68 | TOP |
M 69 | TOP |
Date: 17 Sep, 2004 Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x a baby GC, triangle wave form, _/\_ with a bright star about one object width away --- | |
M 70 | TOP |
Date: 17 Sep, 2004 Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x Tiny GC, 4 bright stars in a line asterism about 10 mins south --- | |
M 71 | TOP |
Date: 7 Aug 2004 Location: Coyote Park Seeing: 7 LM: ?? Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 17mm 28x by accident while looking for M 27 in Sagitta, little GC faint grey --- Date: 2005-6-30 23h58m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 5 LM: 4 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Unremarkable. Kept rechecking as it was too boring to count :) Not round. Only a hint of resolvable stars. There's another open cluster just south. | |
M 72 | TOP |
Date: 17 Sep, 2004 Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor Lost my logs :( --- Date: 15-16 October 2004 Location: Calstar, Lake San Antonio Seeing: 6 LM: 6? Scope: 100mm f/15 E.B.M. Refractor With M 73 - constantly going back to these to confirm earlier observations. This time the tables were turned on me, M73 was easy but faint, M72 was a bear to find and entirely unremarkable when I finally did find it, barely discernable as a globular, large but faint. It's usually the other way round. | |
M 73 | TOP |
Date: 17 Sep, 2004 Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor Lost my logs :( --- Date: 15-16 October 2004 Location: Calstar, Lake San Antonio Seeing: 6 LM: 6? Scope: 100mm f/15 E.B.M. Refractor With M 72 - constantly going back to these to confirm earlier observations. This time the tables were turned on me, M73 was easy but faint, M72 was a bear to find and entirely unremarkable when I finally did find it, barely discernable as a globular, large but faint. It's usually the other way round. | |
M 74 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 7:45 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 6 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 19x, 28x If not for the lack of bright stars in field, would be impossible in this scope. Vague oval shape, gray but not patchy (neighbours 10" reflector with 20mm nagler - much better defined oval shape and gradient from center to edge) --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 58x plossl, 200x nagler Just a faint fuzzy @ 58x Elliptical smudge with averted vision @ 200x. Contrast not enough to make out if it was just core, but probably. | |
>>> M 75 | TOP |
>>> M 76 | TOP |
M 77 | TOP |
Date: 2004-12-16 20h20m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 6 LM: 3.5-4 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 48x, 100x eyes not dark adapted at first found by hopping 1/2 field north from delta ceti with 25mm ep switched to 10mm ep and could just make out a very tiny smudge with a bright core with averted vision with 4.8mm and a long spell of patience, could make out an elongated bright core with an adjacent faint maybe mag 11 star close by inside elongation, about 10% of time with averted vision a wider (maybe 10') slightly mottled circular patch showed around core --- | |
M 78 | TOP |
Date: 2004-12-16 20h44m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 6 LM: 3.5-4 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 48x, 100x Only the faintest sensation of 'something there in the dark' fan shaped mustard grey patch fanning out from faint star with averted vision. Interesting sensation of darkness in this area, perhaps from the quantity of dust and whatnot, gave the view a 3d effect despite the fact that very little at all was visible. --- | |
M 79 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 9:45 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 6 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x, 48x, 100x Found while using 100x ep - good chart :) definite globular, a 10mm just a patch, @17mm much more definite glob., very low on horizon --- | |
M 80 | TOP |
Date: 6 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 68x 7mm nagler Fuzz ball, bright core fading evenly away, couldn't resolve stars --- Date: 27 July 2005 Location: Montebello Seeing: 4-6/10 - pretty crappy at times LM: 5.0 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Kept getting pulled off to look at double * in Rho Oph. Small glob - hard to resolve stars directly, and only some averted. --- | |
M 81 | TOP |
Date: 7 Aug 2004 Location: Coyote Park Seeing: 7 LM: ?? Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 10mm 48x 2 galaxies at once! both v. faint, one 4x larger than the other shape of smaller one distinctly flattened --- Date: 8 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Bright round core, oval glow, no visible arms. | |
M 82 | TOP |
Date: 7 Aug 2004 Location: Coyote Park Seeing: 7 LM: ?? Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 10mm 48x 2 galaxies at once! both v. faint, one 4x larger than the other shape of smaller one distinctly flattened --- Date: 8 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x Classic cigar shape, fascinating dark cut on one side of middle. | |
M 83 | TOP |
M 84 | TOP |
M 85 | TOP |
M 86 | TOP |
M 87 | TOP |
M 88 | TOP |
M 89 | TOP |
M 92 | TOP |
Date: 3 Aug, 2004, around 10-11 pm Location: Lassen, south summit lake campground - zenith through the trees Seeing: 9 LM: No idea, but it was DARK Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x & 48x Faint - couldn't find with 17mm while scanning, but popped out with 10mm a lot like M 13 GC --- Date: 2005-6-11 23h15m ( TU + -7h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 5-6 LM: 3.8-4 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x baby hercules cluster, near dobsons hole tonight compact, dense core --- | |
M 93 | TOP |
Date: 2004-12-18 23h13m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: San Jose Seeing: 6 LM: 3.5-4 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 48x Sparkling triangle or half circle shaped cluster, not bright, with 3 star in line asterism away from main cluster. 2 brightest stars in main cluster seemed gold/ruby color maybe 10 * resolvable with direct vision --- | |
M 94 | TOP |
Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Round, bluish smudgy core. Dark lane to north. --- | |
M 95 | TOP |
M 96 | TOP |
M 97 | TOP |
M 98 | TOP |
M 99 | TOP |
M 100 | TOP |
M 101 | TOP |
Date: 17 Sep, 2004 Location: Henry Coe Seeing: 7-8 LM: ~5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x Met Mike from SLAC about this time Faintest object ever - what is it?? --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Broad and diffuse, bright star near core. Hint of spiral structure. | |
>>> M 102 | TOP |
M 103 | TOP |
Date: 11 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 11:55 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 5.5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 19x Windy Seen as 5-6 star asterism, should have used a higher power some confusion between what I thought at first was just asterism and another OC nearby, but careful look at chart located it. Transparency poor to north. --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler 30 stars in an arrowhead shape. --- | |
M 104 | TOP |
M 105 | TOP |
M 106 | TOP |
Date: 2005-3-9 22h44m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: Montebello Seeing: 7-8 LM: 4.2- Wispy Cirrus clouds above and skyglow in the north. Scope: George's 10" f/5 150x Very long cigar, v. bright oval core, starlike but oval and somewhat tilted off cigar axis some mottling in extended bits --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Very wide north-south oval, east face flattened by dark, Smeared core. | |
>>> M 107 | TOP |
M 108 | TOP |
Date: 12 Dec 2004 - Potluck, 12:10 Location: Henry Coe State Park Seeing: 7 LM: 4-5 Scope: 80mm f/6 Nighthawk Refractor 28x Extremely faint, round fuzz. transparency poor so contrast not good possible this was actually owl nebula, M 97 given that it appeared round and not oval, and that it had no bright core --- | |
M 109 | TOP |
Date: 2005-3-9 22h44m ( TU + -8h00m ) Location: Montebello Seeing: 7-8 LM: 4.2- Wispy Cirrus clouds above and skyglow in the north. Scope: George's 10" f/5 200x Oval fuzz just next to a 3 star belt buckle --- Date: 11 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 5-6 LM: 6.5-7 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 200x nagler Faint oval with embedded star. | |
M 110 | TOP |
Date: 7 July 2005 Location: Shingletown Seeing: 6 LM: 6.5 Scope: 254mm f/5.5 Dob. 55x 25mm plossl, 200x 7mm nagler Totally separate oval or triangular galaxy, somewhat smeared looking, all alone in nagler FOV. Hints of M 31 in gradient background. --- | |
Notes and Misc. | TOP |