Introduction
Right from the very beginning in October 2009,
when I brought the LX10 home and set it up for the first time in
my backyard, I have kept a hand written journal about all my
astronomy activities. Observations, OAOG meeting notes, hand
calculations and observations from my telescope building projects,
basically everthing that I've done has been written down. I
was originally going to post all that material here, but quickly
found it was simply too much. Instead I've decided to post
simply my observation sketchs, which for the most part sums up the
outcome of my observation sessions. If you have any questions
about my sketchs, please feel free to contact me. |
November 18, 2009
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 4/5 transparency, 3/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on fork mount + wedge, backyard in Ottawa, ON
- My first real observation session with the new (used) LX10
|
|
|
M42: 40mm Meade 5k Plossl + no filters |
M42: 26mm Meade 5k Plossl + Astronomik OIII |
M42: 10mm Televue Radian + Astronomik OIII |
|
April 24, 2010
Astroday!
- CDS forecast: 80% clear, 3/5 transparency, 1/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on fork mount + wedge, backyard in Ottawa, ON
- Astroday was a disappointment due to seeing conditions
(cloud), but it cleared up once I was home so I setup in
backyard
- I was unhappy with quality of view in LX10 so I made my
first attempt at star collimation, which turned out great!
- First time viewing Saturn through a telescope...yeah!
|
|
|
Saturn: 4mm Televue Radian + no filters |
|
|
|
April 29, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 4/5 transparency, 2/5-3/5
seeing
- 8" LX10 on fork mount + wege, backyard in Ottawa, ON
- Finally getting the knack of polar aligning my LX10 + wedge
setup
- Tried different colour filters on Mars: 23a, 25a, 21 (no
better); 47h (a little better); Baader Moon & Sky (whoah, much
better, see polar cap & bluish clouds); 82b, 80a (brought out
contrast between light and dark regions
- Also tried colour filters on Saturn: 82b, 80a, 47h,
M&S, 23a, 25a, 21 (no noticeable improvement)
|
|
|
Mars: 6.7mm Meade UWA + Baader M&S |
Mars: 6.7mm Meade UWA + #80a |
Saturn: 6.7mm Meade UWA + no filter |
|
May 3, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 3/5 transparency, 2/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on fork mount + wedge, backyard in Ottawa, ON
- Tried a number of filters more systematically on planets:
Orion Mars, CC20M, CC40M, 81A, 81B, 85, variable polarizer
- On Venus 81B & polarizer best, on Mars CC20M best followed
by 81B, on Saturn 85 best
|
|
|
Venus: 6.7mm Meade UWA + variable polarizer |
Mars: 6.7mm Meade UWA + CC20M |
Saturn: 6.7mm Meade UWA + no filter |
|
May 24, 2010
- CDS forecast (guess): 100% clear, 4/5 transparency,
3/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on fork mount + wedge, backyard in Ottawa, ON
- Long session tonight, 10pm to 5am (slept between 12am &
3am), wife shakes her head
- While aligning scope, decl. adjust failed and scope went
crash! Gah! Nothing damaged luckily.
- Tried a number of filters on Jupiter: 47h, 82b, 11h,
8, 23a, M&S, 82a, 86, 81b, cc20m, cc30m, cc40m; M&S best,
followed by cc20m, 47h, 86
|
|
|
M57: 6.7mm Meade UWA + Astronomik UHC |
Jupiter: 10mm Televue Radian + M&S |
|
|
July 1, 2010
Summer Vacation!
- CDS forecast (guess): 100% clear, 4/5 transparency,
3/5 seeing
- ED80 APO on M1 alt-az mount, beach near Sheenboro, PQ
- First full night of observing from beach at cottage - wow,
dark skies!
- Very very happy with what I was able to see with only a 80mm
scope & alt-az mount
|
|
|
M7: 6.7mm Meade UWA + no filter |
M62: 6.7mm Meade UWA & 26mm Meade 5k Plossl+ no filter |
M8: 6.7mm Meade UWA + no filter |
|
|
|
M8: 10mm Televue Radian + Astronomik OIII |
|
|
|
July 4, 2010
Summer Vacation!
- CDS forecast (guess): 100% clear, 3/5 transparency,
4/5 seeing
- ED80 APO on M1 alt-az mount, beach near Sheenboro, PQ
- An even more productive night of observing from beach at cottage -
9pm to 4am non-stop!
- Bugs very bad, but okay when stayed close to Thermacell
- Around 3:30am heard something big rustling in bushes,
instinct told me it was a bear, nearly wet pants, sang loudly
for remainder of evening!...in the end was probably a skunk
|
|
|
Venus: 6.7mm Meade UWA + variable polarizer |
Veil Neb: 40mm Meade 5k Plossl + Astronomik UHC |
N.Amer + Pelican Neb: 40mm Meade 5k Plossl +
Astronomik UHC |
|
|
|
M17: 6.7mm Meade UWA + Astronomic UHC |
Jupiter: 2-4mm Televue Nagler Zoom + M&S |
Moon: 6.7mm Meade UWA + no filter |
|
July 26, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 4/5 transparency,
3/5 to 4/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on fork mount + wedge, backyard in Ottawa, ON
- Looked for objects I viewed at cottage, view not as good
with 8" in town (eg. M8)
- Caught Rock Malin broadcast on NSN for first
time...Mallincam a fascinating device! Rock was viewing
M27 so I went out and viewed it myself for comparison
|
|
|
M27: 6.7mm Meade UWA + Astronomik OIII |
unknown near 9 Vulpecula: 26mm Meade 5k Plossl +
Astronomik OIII |
Jupiter: 6.7mm Meade UWA + #85 |
|
July 30, 2010
- CDS forecast (guess): 100% clear, 2/5 transparency,
2/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on fork mount + wedge, beach near Sheenboro, PQ
- Plan to revisit all the objects I viewed with ED80 while on
vacation in early July
- Corrector plate fogged up before getting to galaxies + moon
up
|
|
|
M8: 40mm Meade 5k Plossl + Astronomik OIII |
M17: 26mm Meade 5k Plossl + Astronomik OIII |
|
|
July 31, 2010
- CDS forecast (guess): 100 to 80% clear, 4/5 to 2/5 transparency,
3/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on fork mount + wedge, beach near Sheenboro, PQ
- Warmer than last night (no fogging) + a bit more time before
moon up
- Again didn't get great galaxy views as moon starting to come
up + sky conditions deteriorated
|
|
|
M20: 26mm Meade 5k Plossl + Astronomik OIII |
M16: 40mm Meade 5k Plossl + Astronomik OIII |
W. Veil Neb: 40mm Meade 5k Plossl + Astronomik
OIII |
|
August 7, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 4/5 transparency, 3/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on fork mount + wedge, backyard in Ottawa, ON
- Nice sunny Saturday, so set up to look at sun (Baader
AstroSolar Safety Film)
- Tried a number of filter combinations: H-beta, #29,
Baader UHC-S + #29, Astronomik OIII, LPS-P2 + #29; H-beta & OIII
actually quite nice image, UHC-S + #29 gave nice edge detail on
sun spots
|
|
|
Sun: 26mm Meade 5k Plossl & 10mm Televue Radian + UHC-S
+ #29 |
|
|
|
September 17, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 3/5 to 4/5 transparency, 4/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on Orion Atlas EQ-G (PC control), backyard in
Ottawa, ON
- Best sky conditions in months! Plan for long night
session
- Drunk neighbour came over around 1:30am, he was very
impressed by view of Jupiter & its moons
- Recorded many Moon & Jupiter netcam images as-well-as lots
of visual observing
|
|
|
Jupiter: 6.7mm Meade UWA + no filter |
|
|
|
September 22, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 4/5 transparency (by
midnight was 1/5), 2/5 seeing
- Naked eye, neigbour's backyard in
Ottawa, ON
- Nice night, started out very clear but gradually a thin
layer of high altitude cloud rolled in
- ~9:30pm saw a nice lunar halo and lunar dogs (never seen
this before!)
- ~12:00am saw a very bright lunar corona
- had planned to image moon later in evening, but gradually
thickening clouds made it impossible
|
|
|
Lunar halo & dogs: naked eye |
|
|
|
October 12, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 3/5 transparency, 4/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on Orion Atlas EQ-G (hand paddle), backyard in
Ottawa, ON
- Plan was to view Jupiter (very nice), Comet Hartley (never
found), and a shopping list of clusters (found most)
- Very happy with Atlas mount GOTO, but notice that good polar
alignment goes a long way to improving GOTO accuracy even with a
3-star calibration
|
|
|
Jupiter: 6.7mm Meade UWA + no filter |
M42: 32mm Meade 5k Plossl & 10mm
Televue Radian + Astronomik OIII |
|
|
October 18, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 4/5 transparency, 3/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 on Orion Atlas EQ-G (hand paddle), backyard in
Ottawa, ON
- Plan for Moon closeup imaging, Comet Hartley (again never
found), and Jupiter
- Jupiter was not as good as on Oct. 12th, had to back off to
longer f.l. eyepiece to get a sharp image (consistent with
forecasted seeing)
|
|
|
Jupiter: 32mm Meade 5k Plossl + 2x Barlow + no filter |
|
|
|
November 2, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 4/5 transparency, 4/5 seeing
- 8" LX10 & ED80 on Orion Atlas EQ-G (hand paddle), backyard in
Ottawa, ON
- Excellent conditions, had left setup outside from previous
night due to forecast
- Began evening viewing Jupiter, then to bed, then up at
4:30am to image Moon, and view objects around Orion & Canis
Major
- Found lots of open clusters, M106 (galaxy), and the view of
M42 was amazing! I had trouble sketching it due to the
amount of detail that was visible
- Packed up around 7am, wife and kids already up for school
bus! heh heh (nervous laughter)
|
|
|
Jupiter: 10mm Televue Radian + Baader M&S |
M42: 6.7mm Meade UWA + Astronomik OIII |
|
|
November 29, 2010
- CDS forecast: 100% clear, 2/5 transparency, 2/5 seeing
- Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binoculars on camera tripod, backyard in
Ottawa, ON
- Objective is to find comet Hartley before it is gone
- Sky conditions clear but poor transparency, limiting VM ~
3.0 (can be 4.0 to 4.5 on a good night)
- It took me a while, comparing to various maps, but I think I
found it! Not very impressive though, a faint fuzzy dot.
|
|
|
comet Hartley (?): 15x70 binoculars |
|
|
|