Astronomy

Observing Log for

Session Details


Observatory Field, Durham

54.7679, -1.58724

100m

Notes

Excellent winter viewing conditions. -4oC with very little cloud cover until later on. Milky Way visible when we first got to the field. No attempt was made to find Comet Machholz due to the light pollution in that direction - need to wait until mid-December before its brightness increases enough to allow us to find it 5 meteors observed - mostly corresponding to Taurids and Geminids 25mm Kellner wide angle eyepiece found in the Shed and used on the NexStar - excellent for the Double Cluster

Equipment

Tags

Observations

Moon

Only a short period of exposure before it disappeared behind the shed - eyepiece 1 with widest FOV gave perfect image of the full disk with details of the craters along the terminator and at the poles.

M45 - Pleaides

Excellent views with both EP1 and EP2 showing many stars

Cygnus 31 and Cygnus 30

Cygnus 31 (mag 3.79) and Cygnus 30 (mag 4.83) optical double clearly seen in EP1 and EP2 with EP2 giving better colour definition

Saturn

Faint at first due to light pollution in north - as evening progressed the views got better and better until using EP2 the Cassini Division and two moons were visible. Subsequent identification using Cartes de Ciel showed that the moons were Titan (due for investigation by the Huygens probe) and Rhea mag 8.2 and 9.5 respectively.

M42 - The Great Nebula in Orion

Along with M43 its companion - superb view using EP1 with better definition and colour than in the NexStar

Orion

Betelgeuse and Rigel were examined - vivid red for former and strange purple tinge for Rigel - possibly due to chromatic abberations.

Images